Max Verstappen has taken pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix, besting Geroge to the top spot by half a tenth of a second.
It marks Verstappen's first pole position in 12 rounds, since his run to the fastest lap in Austria earlier this year.
Heading into the final runs, it was clear the battle was solely between Verstappen and Russell as their rivals had no pace to respond with.
Russell failed to improve his final attempt while Verstappen found speed to lift his Red Bull to the top of the leaderboard.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are set to share the second row of the grid on Sunday in third and fourth respectively.
Lewis Hamilton split the two Ferrari drivers, with the Mercedes man slotting himself into sixth place.
Fifth went to Charles Leclerc while Carlos Sainz had to settle for seventh ahead of compatriot Fernando Alonso.
Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top 10, finishing narrowly behind Sergio Perez whose best lap time in Q3 was almost a second down on Verstappen's.
Result Qualification - Lusail
Perez narrowly scrapped through to the final segment of qualifying after ending Q2 in 10th place.
The Stake F1 team, who is still looking for its first points of the year, enjoyed a strong qualifying in Qatar.
Zhou Guanyu ended the Q2 session in 12th place, one spot ahead of Pierre Gasly who complained about traffic at the end of the outing.
Yuki Tsunoda was the leading RB car in 14th place, with the Japanese driver out-pacing the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
Down at the back of the field, the biggest shock early exit was Nico Hulkenberg for Haas, who scored points in the sprint race earlier in the day.
The German was informed the team did not get the ‘state of charge’ right with his car, leading him to end the session in 18th.
Ahead of the Haas driver in 16th and 17th respectively were Alex Albon and Liam Lawson, the latter also having a poor showing following a strong sprint qualifying on Friday.
Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon were the slowest qualifiers and are due to start the Qatar Grand Prix from the final row of the grid.
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