Practice 1 Report - Piastri heads Norris in sole Losail practice

Oscar Piastri
© McLaren

Oscar Piastri set the early benchmark for Formula 1’s Qatar Grand Prix weekend, leading McLaren team-mate Lando Norris by just 0.058s in the lone practice session at the floodlit Losail circuit.

With the 2025 season approaching its conclusion and Qatar hosting the final sprint event of the year, teams treated the single hour of practice as a condensed race-weekend warm-up, completing extensive hard-tyre running before switching to softs for late qualifying simulations.

Mercedes’ George Russell established the first representative time, a 1m22.165s, after 20 minutes on the hard compound — a lap that stood for more than half the session. Max Verstappen briefly chased that benchmark despite reporting that his Red Bull RB21 was “jumping a lot” over Losail’s high-speed compressions. Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, and Isack Hadjar also featured prominently as teams ran a mix of fuel loads while gathering data for a Sunday race already locked into a two-stop strategy courtesy of Pirelli’s mandated 25-lap stint limit.

The McLarens initially lagged on the hard tyres. Norris, at one stage 1.6s off Piastri, wondered over team radio where the lost time had gone, while Piastri logged steady long-run laps in the 1m22.3s range. Both came alive as soon as soft tyres appeared for the final runs. Norris delivered a 1m20.982s — the first dip below 1m21s — before abandoning his second flyer. Piastri struck moments later, producing the session-defining 1m20.924s to finish practice fastest.

Fernando Alonso secured third for Aston Martin with a 1m21.310s, four tenths away from Piastri, narrowly ahead of Sainz’s 1m21.404s for Williams. Hadjar impressed again with a 1m21.503s in fifth, just 0.001s quicker than Verstappen’s 1m21.504s. Albon followed with a 1m21.609s, while Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll logged near-identical laps of 1m21.668s and 1m21.669s respectively. Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed the top 10 for Mercedes with a 1m21.698s after a busy 32-lap programme.

Further back, Nico Hülkenberg’s 1m21.783s and Lewis Hamilton’s 1m21.794s placed the pair 11th and 12th. Yuki Tsunoda matched that group at 1m21.796s, with Russell sliding to 14th once soft-tyre runs tightened the field. Haas duo Oliver Bearman (1m21.926s) and Esteban Ocon (1m22.096s) split the Saubers of Gabriel Bortoleto (1m21.926s) and Hülkenberg. Alpine endured a more difficult hour, Pierre Gasly managing 1m22.424s while rookie Franco Colapinto ended 20th with a 1m23.529s on the hard tyre.

Sprint qualifying begins at 20:30 local time.