Lewis Hamilton was one of four drivers who triggered automatic pit lane starts for the Qatar Grand Prix Sprint race. Two more big names also had work done on their cars after qualifying for the short-form race, but neither Lando Norris nor Max Verstappen triggered a pit lane penalty as a result, because of a key difference in terms of the parts that were changed.

Championship leader Norris qualified third for the Sprint, having been beaten by team-mate and rival Oscar Piastri, who took pole, and George Russell. The other title contender, Verstappen, struggled to get to grips with his Red Bull and could only manage to go sixth quickest, beaten even by his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda for the first time all year.

As it turned out, both of them were hampered by some damage caused by trips through gravel at the side of the track. As a result, both the Red Bull and McLaren mechanical crews worked overnight to carry out repairs with changes made to the floor assembly of both cars, as well as various other pieces of technology underneath the floor.

Usually, work done on cars that are under parc ferme conditions results in an automatic pit lane start. The exception to that rule is when damaged materials are replaced with identical parts of the same specification which is permitted, and so no pit lane start was necessary for either Norris or Verstappen.

Hamilton, however, was forced to line up at the end of the pit lane rather than on the grid. After a dismal qualifying effort which saw him managed to go just 18th fastest, quicker only than the two Alpine cars, Ferrari took the decision to make changes on the seven-time world champion’s car including a new suspension set-up and a different spec rear wing.

The Brit was one of four drivers starting from the pit lane, the other three having also chosen to change the set-ups of their suspensions. Lance Stroll was the only one to lose track position as a result, dropping from 16th on the grid behind Liam Lawson who took his place on the grid as usual.

Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto had qualified 19th and 20th respectively and so were due to line up at the very back of the grid anyway. So they had nothing to lose and took the opportunity to make some set-up changes in the hope of unlocking some more performance, which could come in useful for Sunday’s main Grand Prix.