RM

Piastri on sprint pole with Russell second.

Norris 3rd, Alonso will be 4th - and shout out to Yuki Tsunoda who has qualified 5th ahead of Max Verstappen in 6th 👍

#F1 #QatarGP

Late drama in SQ2 - Antonelli squeaks through after Hadjar has a lap-time deleted for track limits, which puts him out 😮

Tsunoda is through, as has Alonso. Both Haas cars are out, as is Hulk.

#F1 #QatarGP

Aww, Lewis is out in SQ1 🥺

Stroll also out, along with Lawson and both Alpines.

And Stroll being out again highlights how good Alonso's lap was.

#F1 #QatarGP

As ever, the answer is money.

And that cars look pretty under the lights of a night race.

I'm more worried about driver health - that first time they raced there, Russell admitted he was passing out at times on the straights 😬

Alonso doing Alonso things again, P1 currently in SQ1 😎

Back from a spot of Middle Earth adventuring, nicely in time for F1 Sprint quali in Qatar.

I *really* need characters to stop gifting my Elf with furniture, as she's running out of space to store it all. Again 😂

I'm saving up so she can have a furniture carry-all.
#LOTRO #LOTROfamily

Note to race engineers:

Bottas is *not* on the track... yet 🤣🤣🤣

#F1 #QatarGP

First (and only) practice in Qatar and Alex Albon is reporting issues with his visor causing a strange kind of double-vision effect 😬

Not what you need at F1 speeds. Hopefully they can get that sorted with a helmet swap once he comes into the pits.

#F1 #QatarGP

Champions League matches are done for the evening, so I can get back to the French listening exercises.

To be fair, listening to football coverage including PSG probably counts as educational 😁

Which reminds me: I will have to give L'Equipe's football podcasts a listen at some point.

I did similar, cutting off contact with my sisters a few years ago, and it's been a big help for my mental health.

Eldest sister is a patronising bully, while the other is married to a racist, bigoted idiot and has sadly become the same.

It's much nicer not having to put up with their crap.

Given his technical record, it sounds good - although I worry that the many other duties of a team principal mean he'll have less time to devote to that aspect.

Plus he has to manage Lance's bratty behaviour. Good luck to him with that.

Exactly - especially with Lando able to win it this weekend.

Lewis has a contract for next year. He'll honour it.

We all know he can be downbeat at times - and given what he's been through recently with losing Roscoe, it's no surprise he's feeling disheartened.

So, Newey is to be Team Principal at Aston next year.

Decades of experience + legendary technical/design skills.

Sounds good to me.

And another example of how teams are gravitating towards technically-minded TPs these days, rather than business/PR people.

I'll stick up for Alonso - he still gets the best he can from a crap car.

But what gives *any* journalist/pundit any right to try and tell Lewis when he should retire?

We know he's not done with F1 yet. He wants that 8th title. We want him to get that 8th title and he's still good enough.

Presumably that person has forgotten about the existence of libraries for free access to books 😩

And can't compute that authors are human beings with bills, rent etc to pay like the rest of us.

Someone should remind them that most authors are *not* millionaires.

FIFA need to remove arse-kissing Infantino and appoint someone with the guts to stand up to Dump's racist attempts to spoil the tournament.

And make sure Iran and Haiti play in Mexico and/or Canada so that their fans can attend without fear.

Ugh.

That pretty much sums up United at the moment.

Just when you *think* we're getting a decent run together, we go and lose at home to an Everton team who played 75% of the match with 10 men 😩

Half-time now.

And Everton are *still* winning 1-0. At Old Trafford.

With 10 men because one was daft enough to slap his own team-mate during an argument.

Utterly bizarre. Even the BBC's live text commentator was like "What just happened?" 😮

Following the United v Everton match - and Everton were down to 10 men after just 13 minutes.

Idrissa Gueye has been sent off for hitting his own team-mate during an argument! 😮

And Everton have just scored as I type that 😮😮

Is this going to be another daft football evening? 🤣

I live on an estate seen as one of the worst parts of my town.

Yes, it is a deprived area, but most people are decent, trying to find work, pay bills, raise kids etc.

And the minority that are involved in crime often have other issues going on e.g. addiction, poverty etc that push them into it.

Finally time to catch up with what you lot made of the F1.

Listened to the race live this morning, then tried to have a post-race nap but had a nose-bleed instead 😩

By the time I'd sorted that out and eventually had the post-race nap, I woke up to hear about McLaren getting disqualified!

Aww no!

I hope you do get it back in time.

Just hitting midnight here. I've stayed up gaming, but am now going to get some sleep before the race.

Having watched the #F1 quali highlights on TV, that was a seriously dramatic session.

Full wets being needed in Las Vegas... 😮

Although it should be dry weather for the race.

And let's hope Lewis can make up some places from the back.

Fantasy team is set.

With the usual apologies if I have just utterly jinxed those particular drivers and teams for the remainder of the weekend 🤣

Now time to try and have a nap before quali.

#F1 #LasVegasGP

Although it's going to be a nightmare trying to predict who might get pole later 🤣

Also, don't forget to set your Fantasy #F1 team before the start of quali (4am UK time).

FP3 is fun... so much track evolution going on as the track has dried out.

#F1 #LasVegasGP

And now we have car parts flying off 😮

Part of Liam Lawson's floor decided it didn't want to play any more.

#F1 #LasVegasGP

Cold, damp track for FP3. This could be fun.

#F1 #LasVegasGP

Hopefully we shouldn't have any shenanigans from them this evening.

Must be a bit embarrassing for the organisers - the first year, you could say "Well, new circuit, teething problems".

Now people have invented drinking games around them 🤣

The boiler has decided now is a good time to break down 😩

Hot/warm water is currently via the kettle and I'm trying to see if we have a flask anywhere, to keep some water warm for washing through the day e.g. after going to the loo.