Sergio Perez and Franco Colapinto will start from the pit lane during the sprint race after both made changes to their cars under parc ferme conditions.

Both drivers faced difficulties during Friday's sprint qualifying, as they were both eliminated in SQ1. Colapinto, who is using older-spec suspension this weekend following his major crash in Las Vegas, ended up being the slowest overall.

Speaking to ESPN, Colapinto expressed confusion about his performance on his first visit to Qatar, saying: "I still have things to work on, of course, since I don’t know the track, but I’m still far off the pace, and I don’t really understand why. We need to keep working. The old suspension and parts on the car aren’t helping, but I’m struggling with understeer, especially in the slow and medium-speed corners. When I push the front tires more, they start to slip, and I end up spinning."

Perez also had a tough time in SQ1 after his team worked to fix an issue with one of his anti-roll bars ahead of the session. While he eventually got out on track, his chances were hindered when he got involved in an on-track battle with Charles Leclerc. As a result, Perez missed out on SQ2, finishing 16th.

Reflecting on his qualifying performance, Perez said: "Unfortunately, we left it a bit too late. We had an issue with one of the anti-roll bars. To get my final lap in, we were all trying to create gaps, and then Charles came up, and we were fighting into turn one and so on. We lost a couple of tenths there, just enough to miss out. It’s a shame because I felt we made good progress with the car from P1 to qualifying, and there was more potential. It’s unfortunate that we ended up in this position."

On Saturday morning, Perez was handed his first reprimand of the season for exceeding the time limit between safety car lines. However, as he had been focused on not obstructing other drivers rather than gaining an advantage, no further penalty was applied.