Max Verstappen has been stripped of his pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix to elevate George Russell to top spot on the grid for the penultimate round of the season.

Verstappen looked to have scored his first pole in five months after he edged out Mercedes’ Russell by just 0.055 seconds at the Lusail International Circuit.

However, at 1:06 local time (10:06pm GMT), more than three hours after qualifying ended, it was confirmed that Verstappen had been penalised one place for impeding Russell as both drivers geared up for their final laps.

The sanction promoted Russell, who took a lights-to-flag victory in Las Vegas a week ago, to the front of the grid for Sunday’s 57-lap race.

Explaining their decision, the stewards said Verstappen was “driving unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances” as he “attempted to cool his tyres” ahead of the lap in which he claimed pole.

Speaking before the stewards’ verdict, Russell said he believed Verstappen’s tactics cost him outright pole.

“I had a really scrappy out lap with the near collision with Max and I ended up going through the gravel two corners prior to opening my lap,” said the British driver. “It was not a good start to the lap, so that was probably the 55 milliseconds.

“I hope it didn’t damage the car, but maybe that’s the reason why we didn’t improve, I don’t know. It was a bit of a hairy one, two corners before we start the lap.”

Verstappen said: “There were two cars in front of me also making a gap, so I had to make a gap. And I knew that everyone was on a slow lap, not on a push lap.

“George got excited. He wanted to pass and get around. That’s fine. I mean everyone, of course, tries to get their position, you know, to have the best possible start to the lap.”

Verstappen has won in just one of his 12 previous appearances, and, after he started sixth and finished only eighth in the earlier sprint race, he would not have expected to be in the fight for pole.

“It is a crazy turnaround,” said the Red Bull driver before the stewards took their decision. “I didn’t expect that. Well done to the team for giving me a car that is more connected.

“We changed some bits on the car, but I never thought it would make such a swing in performance. That is encouraging and I hope it continues into the race.”