Qatar GP FP1: Piastri sets the pace, Norris chases, Verstappen not happy

It was a bit of a mixed session for McLaren as both Piastri and Norris both struggled at the start when they had the Hard tyres bolted on both their MCL39s as the seemed to lack stability, struggling while Georg Russell, in the Mercedes seemed to be the pacesetter early on.

Verstappen also seemed to be right behind Russell at the start but he was complaining about gear shifts, ride quality, power steering... you name it.

But towards the end, and when the teams started running the Soft tyres, the McLaren car became alive as Piastri topped the session with a lap time of 1:20.924, only 0.058s ahead of Norris in second as Fernando Alonso was third fastest, the double Formula 1 Champion almost four tenths off the pace.

Carlos Sainz was fourth fastest in the Williams, 0.480s behind Piastri and was followed by Isack Hadjar in fifth, the Frenchman 0.099s behind the Spaniard.

Then came Verstappen, 0.580s off the benchmark time as he seemed to be struggling with an under-steering RB21, a trait the Dutchman loathes in his cars.

And while he struggled, Verstappen managed only one lap on the Softs and did not go for another to try and improve so expect him to be a bit closer come Sprint Qualifying.

Alex Albon was seventh in the second Williams ahead of Charles Leclerc who was sixth in the Ferrari while Lewis Hamilton was down in 12th as the Red Cars seemed to be all over the place around the Lusail International Circuit.

Lance Stroll was ninth in the other Aston Martin as Kimi Antonelli was tenth while Russel, who was running at the top at the start of FP1, ended up in 14th as he failed to put in a decent lap on the Softs, stuck in traffic on his first and running wide on his second.

We head into the second race of the final triple header in the 2025 F1 season, the penultimate round of this Championship and the final weekend which runs under the Sprint Format.

And what a narrative we are being treated to in the final days of the season after a dramatic Las Vegas Grand Prix resulted with a McLaren double disqualification and a Verstappen win as he is now 24 points behind Norris and level on points with Piastri.

It is still Norris' Championship to lose but now he has to be very careful and Verstappen has nothing to lose and will be coming out of the blocks with guns blazing looking to seal a fifth consecutive F1 Drivers' Title.

Norris will have a chance to seal the deal this weekend, but Verstappen will do his best to deny him that.

With the weekend being a Sprint, it will be interesting to see how McLaren get on after their Vegas woes as they will have limited running with only one practice session there will be consequently be less data and we saw last time that was the case what happened to those Papaya cars.

As for the tyres, Pirelli has brought the hardest range of its tyres this weekend: C1 (Hard), C2 (Medium), and C3 (Soft).

The interesting part is that Pirelli have mandated a 25-lap-limit on each set of tyres used based on what we have seen from the tyre behavior from 2024 and 2023.

Analysis of tyres from last year showed that many of the sets were close to failure as the Lusail International Circuit is a track that punishes the tyres.

With 57 laps in the Grand Prix, that means the teams will have to go two stops to remain in line with Pirelli's directions.

In terms of car upgrades, naturally no teams brought any, but Racing Bulls revealed a slightly revised, track-related, front wing.

The session started as the sun was going down, in dry conditions and pleasant ambient temperature of 26 degrees Celsius while the track temperature was 33 degrees.

There was not driver waiting in the pits as the green light at the end of the pitlane was illuminated as everyone was eager to get out there and make the most out of the only practice session available.

The Hard tyre was the compound of choice as the initial running in Qatar started.

Albon soon complained about the visor on his helmet and asked if it could be changed while soon after, Leclerc ran wide in the final corner but kept going.

The Verstappen held a snap of oversteer in Turn 8 and then reported that his steering suddenly felt weird - 15 minutes into the session.

Then Leclerc reported that he was not getting any feeling with his power steering.

Verstappen then complained about Pierre Gasly, calling him a "blind idiot", as the Frenchman seemed to come in his way while on a hot lap.

After that, Norris ran wide in Turn 6. He then had a wobble in Turns 9 and 10 and ran wide.

Leclerc on the other hand delivered more complaints about his numb power steering; he said: "I cannot feel a thing. Really frustrating, I don't even know where the balance of the car with this power steering."

Valtteri Bottas then made another appearance on track as Yuki Tsunoda's engineer told him to move aside as "Bottas was opening a lap". The Japanese driver politely corrected his engineer's information - jetlag from the Vegas trip.

McLaren did not seem to be going well as midway into the session, Norris then radioed his engineer asking where he could find 1.6s. He got a response regarding the corners he can improve in.

Piastri then had a moment, and held a snap of oversteer.

Halfway into the session, Russell was top of the timing screens.

Soon after, it was Hamilton's turn to go for an off-track excursion, running wide at Turn 4, bumping over a gravel trap and then going on into the run-off area.

With 20 minutes remaining in the session, none of the teams had used any other compound aside from the Hards.

Then Verstappen was complaining about the damping on the car reporting that it was jumping every time he went on the throttle. He was second fastest at that moment.

The defending Champion was not happy with his gear shifts either. He radioed: "Shifts have gone to *****."

He followed that up with another message: "Clipping out of Turn 6 is a disaster. Just no pace out of the car."

In the meantime, Norris was back in the pits with mechanics doing some setup work on the rear suspension of his MCL39.

In the final 12 minutes of the session, the Soft tyres finally made an appearance with Ollie Bearman and Isack Hadjar heading out for some qualifying simulations.

Then Liam Lawson reported that he had no stability after his opening runs on Softs.

Franco Colapinto had a big moment in the gravel trap but ended up in the run-off and remained in one piece. Stroll also ran in the gravel while Leclerc flirted with it.

Then Gasly ran wide. Nico Hulkenberg rode the kerbs hard in Turn 16. Norris ran wide in the same place as the German. Russell then ran wide in Turn 14 as he was looking to improve. Hamilton went off at Turn 7.

The session was concluded with practice starts.