Qualifying Highlights | 2021 Qatar Grand Prix

Nicolas Latifi, first driver to take the chequered flag, and he's not going to be able to improve on that 15th position as Giovinazzi crosses the line 16th and out of qualifying. Leclerc is down in that bottom 5. Pierre Gasly goes 5th fastest with his final flying lap of this Q1 session. Sebastian Vettel jumps up to 6th place as the track begins to ramp up. His teammate Lance Stroll has got two personal bests so far. Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari. We're looking at Charles Leclerc at the moment, goes 4th fastest. Next to cross the line, Mick Schumacher, only 18th fastest for him. Lando Noya, Daniel Ricciardo goes 9th fastest overall. Leclerc goes 10th fastest with a very good final sector. George Russell gets himself out of the bottom 5 and a bit ahead of any relegation zone. Lance Stroll goes 8th fastest, pushes Esteban Ocon right down to be at risk. Yuki Tsunoda goes 6th fastest. Esteban Ocon crosses the line. He was 15th fastest, he goes 10th fastest, but that's certainly good enough for him. Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Schumacher and Mazepin are getting knocked out. Sainz now crosses the line, was 8th fastest, stays only 8th fastest. Lando Norris next to cross the line to try and get into the top 10, and he does. And he pushes Sainz down into 9th. Stroll's in the bottom 5, Vettel's in the bottom 5. They're trying to improve on their performance. Charles Leclerc crosses the line, he's out of qualifying. Didn't know where the pace was going to come. Big surprise there, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc knocked out in Q2. Couldn't find the pace. Lance Stroll did find a bit more pace, but he's the wrong side of the line and he's out as well. Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon sending personal bests. Can Ricciardo put himself into that top 10? Here comes the line for the Australian, only 13th fastest. The bottom 5 places have been decided. Sebastian Vettel reaches Q3 for the first time in 8 races. It's at the expense of his teammate, Lance Stroll, as Esteban Ocon can afford to back off if he wants. He doesn't. He goes 5th fastest overall. We look to see the Alfa Tauri. Sebastian Vettel, I should say, crosses the line, 8th fastest. He did go a little bit quicker on that lap. Fernando Alonso goes 3rd quickest in a very racy Alpine here this evening on the soft compound tyre. Oh, and here's Sergio Perez. Perez was still actually on a lap, trying to get out of that bottom 5. Hasn't done it. You think the Ferrari going out was one upset. They put soft tyres on Sergio Perez. That's an even bigger upset. Red Bull have a car knocked out in Q2. I have no idea what is going on. Really no idea. We're knocked out, mate. A tenth. We went in the worst possible window. So there's your five eliminated. Then George Russell, Daniel Ricciardo, Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez. Knocked out in Q2. Both Mercedes drivers within a couple of hundredths of a second of each other. Bottas marginally the quicker. It wasn't that first stage, but we did see Lewis just fighting the car a little bit. Well, he gets something extra back now in the second and third sectors of the lap. He's got one corner to go. Slow car ahead of him, but that should be cleared out of the way. 26.9 for Hamilton. For the middle sector, Bottas puts in a 27.1. Meanwhile, Verstappen has put in a 26.5 for the first sector. Hamilton with a 1.21.2. That is the benchmark for the rest to all chase. Verstappen's got a bit of a head start, as you can see on your screen. He's already a couple of tenths to the good. Valtteri Bottas, how has he fared then for the final sector? The line's coming his way. Can he beat his teammate? No, he can't. He's two tenths down on Lewis Hamilton. Ocon crosses the line ahead of Sebastian Vettel. We now wait for Max Verstappen, who's lost a couple of tenths to Lewis Hamilton. In the middle sector, it's even. Stevens going into the final bit. Absolutely is. So the final right-hander then. You don't need to run that wide through there. That's absolutely fine. And then the very, very long run. DRS open now to the finish line. And Verstappen crosses that line. And he is down on Lewis Hamilton. It's Hamilton from Verstappen. And there's not much in it. Tenth and a half. But Christian Horner looks at the timing screens. And for once, the man who's got the majority of poles this season is not sat on provisional pole now. Hamilton absolutely flying on this lap. 26.6 for Pierre Gasly. 26.8 for Yuki Tsunoda. Two tenths down. Gasly on Hamilton. It's a solid first sector from him, too, as we come to the end of the middle part of the lap. And he matches Lewis Hamilton, his previous best effort, from the flying lap before. So he's three tenths up, which means Verstappen's got to find nearly half a second on his final flying lap. Yeah, and Lewis was flat out through 12, 13 and 14. Bit of understeer on turn in here for the final corner, but it's absolutely fine. He'll stay left, hang left, all the way down to the finish line. Will it be in the 1.20s? It is a 1.20.8 for Lewis Hamilton. The target was a 1.21 for pole. He's gone better than that at Hamilton with 101 previous pole positions. He's on provisional pole now. They've cleared up whatever was going on in the final sector of the lap. That'll be good news for Bottas or for Verstappen, who are both on their flying laps and don't want to see too much getting in their way. Pierre Gasly has got a puncture. There it is. Pierre Gasly with a front right puncture as they start to cross the line now. Norris goes sixth fastest, but there'll be yellow flags waved down there. Drivers might just have to lift off a little bit. This is going to ruin the laps then of those behind Lewis Hamilton who got out early. And by getting out early, it made all the difference. Bottas crosses the line, doesn't improve on his time. Verstappen's not going to improve on his time either. This is going to be a Lewis Hamilton pole position. The first ever pole position here in Qatar. Hamilton has taken it and has taken it by quite some margin. This is the incidence. Is it a bit of debris at Turn 15? Some stones maybe? Oh, and it was just on the kerb. It was on that kerb and then basically the tyre has failed. The front wing broke the tyre. The front wing came off. That's how it looks to me. And tore a slice. Hamilton, for the second time this season, starts on the front row ahead of Max Verstappen. Not the first time they've started on the front row together, but it's Hamilton who's got the advantage.