McLaren take control of Qatar sprint as Verstappen drops three places

Oscar Piastri attacked in the first sequence of corners and successfully overtook Russell. Norris created a gap of one second after just one lap. Perez dropped three places on the opening lap. Liam Lawson dropped seven places, and Sergio Perez was overtaken by Franco Colapinto.

Norris took a clean sweep of all the sprint qualifying sessions to dominate Friday evening in Qatar, taking P1 to start the sprint race on pole. Russell was able to find some extra pace on his final lap to steal P2 away from Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri, who rounded out the front three.

McLaren took the initiative, showing their strength in Qatar over Ferrari as they look to increase their lead before the season final in Abu Dhabi. The two Ferrari cars rounded out the top five on the grid. All of the front runners started on used mediums.

Follow the liveblog here for updates on the sprint.