Formula 1 News: Piastri tops Norris in practice for 2025 Qatar GP

Driving the superior McLaren driver Oscar Piastri (pictured) turned a lap of 1m20.924s  to top the only practice session for the 2025 Qatar GP Formula 1 race at the Lusail International Circuit, which is only four tenths slower than last year’s pole position.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The session ran incident-free around the desert circuit.

After not looking too quick on the hards, Piastri and Norris both impressed on the softs.  Piastri beat his McLaren teammate Lando Norris by 0.058s as the two McLaren drivers beat their main rival for the 2025 F1 Driving Championship, Max Verstappen who was down in 6th 0.580s behind Piastri. However, we do not think we saw the full speed from Verstappen yet.

Fernando Alonso was third fastest for Aston Martin, 0.386s behind Piastri.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was 4th for Williams, 0.480s behind Piastri.

Isack Hadjar rounded out the top-5 for Racing Bulls, 0.579s behind Piastri

It is so hard to tell from just the one session, which was mostly run with higher fuel loads on the hard tire.

Alonso impressed certainly, as he often does in practice. Williams too had both cars in the top 10, with James Vowles sounding a little surprised by how well they were going.

Mercedes was fast on the hards, Russell making a mistake on his soft shod run.

Hadjar is another who impressed – but Ferrari were off the pace on the hards and the softs.

Sprint qualifying is up next. Medium tires must be used in SQ1 and SQ2, and that compound has yet to grace any car so that will be something of a voyage of discovery later on

2025 Qatar GP Practice 1 Results