Verstappen leads practice 1 at Formula 1 Qatar Airways Qatar Grand Prix 2023

Picture by Abdul Waleed

Max Verstappen opened the Qatar Airways Formula 1 Grand Prix 2023 in dominant fashion, setting the fastest lap in practice at 1:27.428. The Red Bull driver was 0.334 seconds quicker than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in a session affected by desert sand swept across the track by strong evening winds.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished third, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso fourth after briefly topping the timesheets in the closing minutes. Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez rounded out the top five.

Pérez remains the only driver mathematically in the title hunt against Verstappen, though he trails his teammate by 177 points with only 180 still available across the final six rounds.

Alonso impressed by securing fourth on Medium tyres, ahead of Pérez and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg was the fastest among those on Softs, completing the top 10 alongside Mercedes’ George Russell on Mediums and McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris on Hards.

Attention now turns to Saturday’s sprint, with a separate ‘shootout’ session set to decide the grid order for that race.

Mercedes struggled in practice, with Lewis Hamilton—winner of Qatar’s last race in 2021—only managing 13th place, while teammate Russell finished eighth.