Max Verstappen made the best possible start with the fastest time in the practice at the Qatar Airways 2023 F1 Qatar Grand Prix, the seventeenth round of the largest and most famous global car racing championship.
Verstappen set a best time of 1:27.428, 0.334 quicker than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, in a session with desert sand blown onto the track by swirling and gusting winds as the sun set.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third fastest with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso fourth, after being top with four minutes to go, and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez fifth.
Perez is the only driver other than Verstappen mathematically in title contention but the Mexican is 177 points adrift with six rounds remaining and a maximum of 180 points to be won.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso’s time for fourth on Medium tyres caught the eye with Sergio Perez and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda trailing.
Nico Hulkenberg was the last of those on Softs in the top 10 for Haas, with George Russell Mediums and McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and La
ndo Norris Hards keeping an eye on the rest of the weekend.
Saturday is all about the sprint, with a separate ‘shoot out’ to decide the grid positions for that race.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, the winner when Qatar last hosted a race in 2021, was only 13th in practice this time with team mate George Russell eighth.
Source: Qatar News Agency