F1 Grand Prix practice results: Bottas fastest in Qatar

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was fastest in FP1 but it was Bottas who set the quickest time of the day – under the floodlights in FP2 – at 1m23.148s.

Pierre Gasly was an impressive second fastest in both sessions for AlphaTauri.

Qatar Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from Gasly

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	22	1'23.723			231.334
2	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	28	1'24.160	0.437	0.437	230.133
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	24	1'24.194	0.471	0.034	230.040
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	21	1'24.509	0.786	0.315	229.182
5	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	27	1'24.648	0.925	0.139	228.806
6	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	26	1'24.713	0.990	0.065	228.630
7	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	27	1'24.790	1.067	0.077	228.423
8	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	22	1'24.915	1.192	0.125	228.086
9	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	23	1'24.972	1.249	0.057	227.933
10	Lando Norris	McLaren	19	1'25.215	1.492	0.243	227.283
11	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	24	1'25.291	1.568	0.076	227.081
12	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	19	1'25.328	1.605	0.037	226.982
13	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	24	1'25.688	1.965	0.360	226.029
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	23	1'25.757	2.034	0.069	225.847
15	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	25	1'25.828	2.105	0.071	225.660
16	George Russell	Williams	24	1'25.871	2.148	0.043	225.547
17	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	21	1'25.905	2.182	0.034	225.458
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	21	1'26.699	2.976	0.794	223.393
19	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	11	1'26.712	2.989	0.013	223.360
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	16	1'27.500	3.777	0.788	221.348
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 1?

First practice in Qatar took place in daytime, meaning it was not fully representative of either qualifying or the race, both of which will begin at dusk in cooler conditions.

Verstappen spent the early part of FP1 on the hard compound tyre, trading fastest times with McLaren's Lando Norris on mediums, but was able to enjoy a 0.3 second margin over the field once they had completed their initial runs.

While Bottas initially took P1 for Mercedes when making the switch to soft tyres – despite running beyond track limits on his fastest lap – Verstappen was able to strike back and post a best time of 1m23.723s.

It gave Verstappen top spot by four tenths by the end of the session as former teammate Gasly shot up to second place with a quick run using the soft tyres late on. Bottas remained third.

Verstappen's title rival, Lewis Hamilton, could only finish the session in fourth place, 0.786s off the Red Bull's lap. Throughout the session, Hamilton reported that his engine felt down on power, but was reassured by his race engineer that his straightline speed was not hugely down on that of his rivals.

Yuki Tsunoda was fifth for AlphaTauri, ahead of the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez – a winner here in GP2 Asia – was only eighth in this session.

Qatar Grand Prix FP2 results: Bottas fastest from Gasly

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	27	1'23.148			232.934
2	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	27	1'23.357	0.209	0.209	232.350
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	20	1'23.498	0.350	0.141	231.957
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	25	1'23.570	0.422	0.072	231.757
5	Lando Norris	McLaren	24	1'23.632	0.484	0.062	231.585
6	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	26	1'23.705	0.557	0.073	231.384
7	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	28	1'23.735	0.587	0.030	231.301
8	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	20	1'23.787	0.639	0.052	231.157
9	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	27	1'24.020	0.872	0.233	230.516
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	28	1'24.033	0.885	0.013	230.480
11	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	29	1'24.041	0.893	0.008	230.458
12	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	25	1'24.056	0.908	0.015	230.417
13	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	23	1'24.095	0.947	0.039	230.310
14	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	24	1'24.135	0.987	0.040	230.201
15	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	26	1'24.631	1.483	0.496	228.852
16	George Russell	Williams	27	1'24.954	1.806	0.323	227.982
17	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	23	1'25.072	1.924	0.118	227.665
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	28	1'25.209	2.061	0.137	227.299
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas	27	1'25.575	2.427	0.366	226.327
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	0
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 2?

In FP2, Verstappen set the early pace on medium tyres at 1m23.743s, which was quickly beaten by Hamilton on 1m23.604s and then Bottas on 1m23.324s.

Bottas was the first frontrunner to use soft tyres, producing 1m23.154s, with Hamilton’s opening soft run 0.416s down on that. Bottas’s time was then deleted for exceeding track limits but he then ran again, producing a 1m23.148s – the fastest time of the day.

Gasly had a big slide at the final corner and just kept his car out of the gravel but went P2 on a second attempt on the same soft rubber, two tenths down on Bottas.

Verstappen produced 1m23.579s on softs after running wide, just 0.009s off Hamilton in third, then Max improved to 1m23.498s after a quick pitstop.

Lando Norris was fifth fastest for McLaren, 0.422s off the pace, ahead of Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Tsunoda and Perez.

Nikita Mazepin – the only other driver in the field who’s raced here before – missed the session while his Haas chassis was switched as he damaged his car in FP1.