The pit lane waspacked with drivers rady to make the most of the sole practice session in Qatar. The McLaren cars were slow to get going, as after the fifteen minute mark Lando Norris still placed P17, with Oscar Piastri slotting in the top 5.

Max Verstappen was on the pace from the start. However he did faced some steering issues that saw him go off track. George Russell, then Fernando Alonso and the Dutchman all briefly took over at the top, with the Mercedes driver holding on to P1 for a time.

Nearing the halfway mark Norris was still to put a lap up on the board, with Piastri down in P12, which did not present the most positive outlook for McLaren ahead of the the Sprint Shootout.

Isack Hadjar took P3 ahead of Alonso, completing yet another impressive run in what's been a remarkable rookie season already.

For Ferrari the situation did not look much better than it did in Las Vegas, with Lewis Hamilton down in P11 and Charles Leclerc complaining his lack of feeling stemming from the power steering which saw him struggle with the balance of the car resulting in several high-speed off's.

Norris then took P4, with Piastri moving up to P10, but still behind Verstappen who'd completed his push laps in a much greener track than the McLaren pair, as Hamilton also visibly struggled with the SF-25.

The Dutchman did voice complaints with his RB21, claiming it bounced when easing off the throttle.

The drivers then bolted on the softs and rrokies Oliver Bearman and Hadjar shot stright to the top places, with the French Algerian leading, and the British driver in P4. Alonso, Albon and Sainz then rocked the time sheets taking the first three spots in that order.

McLaren flexed their muscles as Norris took P1 by over half a second, with Piastri closing the gap to his teammate down to 0.369s. Verstappen was demoted from P3 by Hadjar, as Piastri took over from Norris.

Review the session's full results here.

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