The weekend begins Qatar GP and off we go FP1, the first and only free practice session of this weekend. Later, in fact, there will already be qualifications for Sunday's race, while tomorrow the sprint shootout , sprint, which will already be able to decide the championship arithmetically.
The chronicle of the FP1 of the Qatar GP
The session is characterized by lots of wind and lots of sand on the track, which together with the setting sun make visibility difficult for pilots. The asphalt, Furthermore, it is very slippery and it's difficult to get the tires up to temperature. With half an hour left in the session, Fernando Alonso's best time (1:28.6) is over 5 seconds slower than the best FP1 time at the last Qatar GP in 2021, clocked by Max Verstappen in 1:23.7.
After the first 30 minutes, Alonso leads ahead of Leclerc (almost half a second behind), Verstappen, Russell and Norris. The top 10 set the best time with hard rubber, while the entire lower part of the ranking (with the exception of Piastri) is on medium tyres.
Twenty minutes from the end, Plates and Norris McLaren completed a 1-2 with two tenths of an advantage over Alonso, while Sainz moved up to third place (the only one in the top 10 on the medium compound). Meanwhile, Verstappen finds himself in sixth position, one second behind. It doesn't feel like Singapore déjà-vu, but it doesn't feel like Japan's perfect weekend either.
We begin to fit the softer compounds
With 15 minutes to go, Leclerc rises to command with medium tyres. So far, the Ferraris seem to be making this compound work well. Meanwhile, several drivers continue to go off track, as does the heat, wind and sand on the track.
In the last minutes, many riders take to the track with the soft rubber. Hulkenberg took advantage of this and moved up to second place, six hundredths of a second from Leclerc's best time (on medium tyre). Alonso continues on the yellow tire and takes the lead again, with almost two tenths of an advantage over Leclerc, but is beaten by Verstappen with red rubber.
The final standings
At the end of the session, Verstappen commands ahead of the two Ferraris Sainz e Leclerc. Excellent work by Alonso, fourth to nothing behind Leclerc with a compound disadvantage. They complete the top 10 Perez (almost six tenths behind his teammate), tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Russell, Piastres e Norris. Then followed by Sargeant, Albon, Hamilton, Stroll, Ocon, Gasly, Bottas, Zhou, Lawson and Magnussen.
Mercedes and McLaren chose to keep an extra set of soft tires for the two qualifying sessions, but did not try them in FP1. We will find out if the choice has paid off at 19pm, when the green light goes off for the qualifications.
