Russell promoted to Qatar pole by Verstappen grid penalty

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has been stripped of pole position for impeding Mercedes driver George Russell in qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix.

The judgement reverses the places on the front row, with Russell promoted to pole and Verstappen demoted to second place.

Verstappen, who had beaten Russell to pole by 0.055 seconds, was penalised for driving unnecessarily slowly and impeding his rival.

The two cars tangled at Turn 12, forcing Russell on to the gravel.

Verstappen was penalised for driving unnecessarily slowly and found to have been “well outside” the target time required of drivers when not on a flying lap.

The stewards said there were mitigating circumstances as neither driver was on a flying lap, but ruled that Verstappen had broken the rules.

They sided with Russell’s argument that Verstappen should not have been on the racing line if he was going slowly.

The ruling said: “The stewards regard this case as a complicated one in that clearly [Verstappen] did not comply with the race director’s event notes and clearly was driving, in our determination, unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances.

“It was obvious [Verstappen] was attempting to cool his tyres. He also could see [Russell] approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times while on the small straight between Turns 11 and 12.

“Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap.

“Had [Russell] been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual three-grid position penalty.

“However in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that [Russell] had clear visibility of [Verstappen].”

Russell had been on provisional pole after the first runs in the final session but was pipped by 0.055 seconds by Verstappen’s final lap.

Russell felt the Verstappen incident had prevented his tyres being in the right operating window for his final lap, on which he did not improve.

The Mercedes driver said: “I expected to improve on the second lap and had a scrappy out lap, nearly had the collision with Max and went into the gravel two corners before I started it.

“The time was in the car but as soon as I went into Turn One the car and tyres just didn’t feel right and I was in the gravel two corners before I started my lap.

“It was a shame it ended that way.”

McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took third and fourth, after the Australian led a one-two in the sprint race earlier in the day.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took fifth from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. (BBC)