As was the case for most of the season, McLaren again boasted an ominous pace in Qatar, which coupled with Red Bull's issues with the RB21's incesant bouncing, meant that Verstappen's task of finishing ahead of Norris wasn't only difficult, but near impossible.

The first tangible evidence of the MCL39's superiority came already on Friday evening as Oscar Piastri soared to sprint pole at the Lusail International Circuit. Norris finished third, Verstappen's teammate Yuki Tsunoda would finish P4 ahead of Fernando Alonso in P5 and Verstappen in P6.

During the sprint, things went slightly better for the Red Bull Racing driver, but the bouncing continued, intensifying tyre wear, taking steering responsiveness away, forcing Verstappen to watch how Norris eeked out a gap, lap by lap, despite the Dutchman's desire to go hunt his title rival down.

Throughout qualifying for the main race Verstappen's efforts were consistent, as they always have been, but even with the MCL39's development halted for several months now, and Red Bull's continued work on the RB21, the McLaren car proved to be the best when the team managed to nail the set-up.

Piastri and Norris were - as they have often showed across the campaign - the benchmark, with the Australian driver trying to make his way back into the title fight, emerging as the fastest on all the relevant sessions in Qatar thus far, clinching sprint pole and the win, and achieving pole position for the Grand Prix.

Verstappen will start third, crucially behind Norris whom he has to beat if he is to extend the title fight until Abu Dhabi. A tall order that the Dutchman is more than capable of completing, but one that his RB21's potential has not proven to be up for throughout the entire race weekend in Doha, Qatar.

From the title-winning vibes in February to what could potentially be Hamilton's worst race weekend in his 18-year long F1 career in November, the seven-time world champion's debut season for Ferrari has done nothing but gone downhill from the go.

Whereas since the Dutch Grand Prix - despite his crash - until Mexico Hamilton had showed an apparent upward trend, as of Brazil a painful reversal seems to have taken hold, with the British driver completing back-to-back sprint weekends with similar painful results, albeit if he did manage to score points in the short 100km race at Interlagos. 

In Qatar Hamilton wasn't happy with Ferrari's set-upchoices. After qualifying for the sprint, when asked what were the positives he could take away from Doha so far, he answered: "The weather."

After the Sprint race the next morning, Hamilton accused Ferrari of making the car worst with the set-up changes that forced him to start from the pit lane, describing driving the SF-25 as "a fight you couldn't believe."

In qualifying for the Grand Prix, Hamilton exited the session prematurely, again in Q1, mimicking the result from the day before: P18. After the session the seven-time world champion blasted the media for the negative psychological impact it's had on Ferrari's staff, highlighting the miserable nature of his first year in Ferrari read.

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