The Qatari Grand Prix program continued with the sprint qualifying, where there wasn't much new under the sun: a relaxed Lando Norris took pole in the sprint qualifying!
After the first laps of SQ1, Lando Norris and George Russell, followed by Scuderia Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc, took turns at the top. After the final fast laps of the stage, Norris maintained his lead, thus closing in on the top, while the eliminations - in the case of the first name, we can safely say that it was no surprise - included Sergio Perez, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, Guanyu Zhou and Franco Colapinto.
After the first attempts of SQ2, the trend remained the same, meaning McLaren was heavily outpaced. With the difference that Oscar Piastri was now in the lead, just a hair ahead of Leclerc and Norris. In the end, this dominant role remained, only George Russell was able to interfere, thus forming the Norris, Russell, Piastri trio. However, there was no continuation for Liam Lawson, Fernando Alonso, Alexander Albon, Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll, who were able to start preparing for the main program on Saturday early.
There were not many unanswered questions left in SQ3: Lando Norris and McLaren quickly completed this part of the weekend, easily taking pole position ahead of George Russell and Oscar Piastri.
