Qatar Grand Prix: Sprint Quali Recap

Both drivers successfully made the first knockout cut in SQ1 with only the top 15 advancing – Bearman progressing into SQ2 in P10 (1:21.526), while Ocon followed in P15 (1:21.773). Running the mandatory Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tire once again in SQ2, Bearman and Ocon had two flying runs, both VF-25s going faster but not finding enough pace to graduate into the top 10 and earn a place in SQ3. Bearman exited Sprint Qualifying P12 on the timesheets thanks to a best lap of 1:21.494. Ocon produced a fastest effort of 1:21.666 to hold P15 at the checkered.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri (1:20.055) landed the Sprint Pole ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell (1:20.087) in SQ3.

Ollie Bearman:

“I think tire wear is a little bit less of a factor than in previous years. As tracks age, they get rougher and this year with the tires we have, it’s a simpler warm up. Unfortunately, on my final lap, I was behind a driver who kept going off, so I had a lot of gravel on track, which is mainly an issue of the circuit. A lot of us have said that gravel being at that corner isn’t the best way to solve issues because we then have it everywhere, damaging tires and ruining laps. I also had traffic in sector three, so it was the perfect storm. I think it’s going to be very hard to overtake on this track as there’s only one DRS zone and a short one at that. The target will be to learn as much as possible before qualifying tomorrow. I feel we have a quicker car than what we showed just now, so I’m happy about that, I’m just a bit disappointed with this qualifying.”

Esteban Ocon:

“It was a difficult session, really. We just can’t get the car to go around the track properly, and it’s very difficult for us in high-speed parts, there’s instability, and we have understeer in the low-speed corners. It makes things tricky as we can’t add front wing at the moment, so we suffer in both types of corners, and that’s where the lap time is unfortunately. We made a lot of changes between the sessions today, which improved things, but overall there are still some things that we can do better.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“As ever, it’s all about tight margins. I think we did a good job improving the car between sessions, and both drivers are much happier with the balance, so that’s pleasing to see how much improvement we can make. In SQ1, operationally it was very good but in SQ2, not so much, it’s all about tiny margins but that’s what matters. We’ve learned quite a lot today, so for the Sprint we'll learn as much as possible so we can set the car up more competitively for the Sunday’s race.”