Norris storms to final sprint quali pole in 2024 at Qatar GP
29th November 2024McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the final sprint qualifying session of the season with the sprint pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix.
Feature image credit: McLaren F1
For the final sprint qualifying session of the season, the action kicked off under the lights after the sun had crossed the horizon to cast Qatar into the night.
As per the regulations, all drivers were forced to compete SQ1 and SQ2 on the medium compound tyres, followed by a final eight-minute stint on the soft compounds for SQ3.
How Sprint Qualifying unfolded…
Norris topped the final sprint qualifying event of the season with pole as the Briton stormed ahead with a lap time of 1m 21.012s, just ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and, teammate, Oscar Piastri who completed the top three.
The two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top five.
The starting grid for the tomorrow’s Sprint in Qatar 🇶🇦#F1 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/bxQJDFFCRu
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 29, 2024
This left the former championship rivals; Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, to finish sixth and seventh ahead of the sprint race.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Visa Cash App RB’s Liam Lawson completed the top 10 in; eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.
At the end of SQ2, Aston Martin’s double world champion Fernando Alonso missed a top 10 position as the Spaniard finished 11th ahead of his teammate, Lance Stroll, who finished 14th.
This left Williams’ Alexander Albon and Kick Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas to complete the Aston Martin sandwich in 12th and 13th, respectively. At the same time, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen occupied P15 to round out the top 15 drivers.
Whilst Norris topped the timing boards at the end of SQ1, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was the first driver to be eliminated from qualifying – in terms of overall order – as the Mexican finished 16th ahead of VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda, in 17th.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon led the bottom three, in 18th, ahead of Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and Williams’ Franco Colapinto who rounded out the 20-car field in 19th and 20th.
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
