Max Verstappen made the best possible start to what could be a championship-winning Qatar Grand Prix weekend with the fastest time in the sole practice session.
Times are largely unrepresentative as all 20 drivers attempted to acclimatise with the Lusail International Circuit given it is only the second time F1 has visited the venue and extensive resurfacing work has only recently been completed.
With this in mind, a mixture of Hard and Medium tyres was used for the opening three-quarters of the session, leaving plenty of intrigue for qualifying.
Verstappen set a benchmark time of a 1:27.428 - some seven seconds adrift of the pole time from two years ago.
Carlos Sainz led Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in second and third, both either side of four-tenths down.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso's time for fourth on Medium tyres caught the eye with Sergio Perez and AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda trailing.
Nico Hulkenberg was the last of those on Softs in the top 10 for Haas, with George Russell [Mediums] and McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris [Hards] keeping an eye on the rest of the weekend.
Check out the full results below!
Result Free practice 1 - Qatar
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Tyre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results are being loaded... | ||||
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F1 2023 Qatar Grand Prix RN365 News dossier
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