Verstappen loses pole to Russell after one-place grid drop for qualifying incident

Max Verstappen as lost his pole position starting spot for the Qatar Grand Prix after being hit with a one-place grid penalty by the stewards following an incident with George Russell during the final part of qualifying in Qatar.

The Dutchman’s lap time was good enough to award him his first pole since the Austrian Grand Prix, but the stewards have opted to penalise him for driving unnecessarily slowly ahead of the Mercedes.

The Red Bull man was on a slow lap as he built up for his final attempt in Q3 with the Mercedes of Russell quickly catching up to him. In the end Russell was forced to take evasive action through the gravel, which he later theorised could have affected his lap.

The Mercedes driver said: “I ended up going through the gravel all over the floor, so it felt like the floor was scraping over that kerb and through the gravel so I hope it didn’t damage it.

“Maybe that’s the reason we didn’t improve – I don’t know, but it was a bit of a hairy one, two corners before we started the lap.”

Verstappen was summoned to the stewards shortly after qualifying alongside Russell, with Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner defending the slow driving to Sky Sports F1 by explaining that everyone was “jockeying and pushing for position” on their respective outlaps.