Marking The Spot

Max Verstappen has lost pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix after being penalised for driving unnecessarily slowly in the final phase of qualifying. The stewards issued the Red Bull driver with a one-place grid penalty. He will therefore start from second place behind George Russell. Race control announced before the end of today’s qualifying session the Red Bull driver was under investigation for his driving prior to his final flying lap.

Max Verstappen took his first grand prix pole position for six months by beating George Russell by five hundredths of a second in Qatar. The world champion completed a remarkable turnaround for Red Bull from Saturday’s earlier sprint race, denying Russell to secure his first pole since June. However he is under investigation for failing to obey the maximum delta time.