F1 2024 Qatar Grand Prix LIVE: Sprint race start time, schedule and qualifying results as Lando Norris claims pole

“I never really try to read too much in FP1. The good news is that the car was feeling better. We went into quali still worried about our rivals and that’s what we saw. We didn’t maximise our package, it was a lap with a lot of understeer in the car. Couldn’t turn it for the whole lap.”

Lando Norris bounced back from his championship defeat to secure pole position for Saturday’s sprint race in Qatar.

The British driver, mocked by Max Verstappen for failing to win the title in a McLaren deemed superior to the rest of the field, saw off Mercedes’ George Russell by just 0.063 seconds.

Norris’ pole, combined with Piastri qualifying third, hands a timely boost to McLaren as they bid to land their first constructors’ championship since 1998.

“A big step, we were not very fast earlier. It was cool to do that, it’s a shame our lap was deleted. Happy with the step we made.

“There’s always more to extract, we did a brief long run earlier. We’ll try and move forward.”

“The racepace looked reasonable, starting sixth and it isn’t the easiest track to overtake that.

“We’ve definitely made steps in our understanding. It’s the medium-speed that we need to find a bit of performance. Well done to Lando, he’s done a good lap there.

On Vegas celebrations: “Winning a title in Vegas is a good and a bad thing! I half-expected Max to go missing like a certain movie! He rightly celebrated with some of the guys and girls with the team, the rest of us were on flights to Europe or here.”

“It was a shame, I thought we really progressed with the car, it’s a shame we ended up here.

“It’s going to be very difficult, we’ll focus on the rest of the weekend. In such a short race, there’s not a lot we can do.”

“No pace to be honest, just slow. I don’t have the balance to attack entry, the car is a bit off. It makes it very difficult around here. Difficult to push, P6 is more or less where we should be.

“The sprint will be tough to fight the cars around me. Let’s see if we can improve the situation a bit. It’s not been amazing.”

“Not good, when we are P4 and P5 it is not great, considering how important this weekend is for us. We are coming back to reality.”