Oscar Piastri claimed pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix, a vital result in the tense world championship fight with his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, who was in second, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who finished third. The Australian took top spot with his final lap after Norris had laid down a strong marker in a tightly fought contest at the Lusail International Circuit.
Lewis Hamilton’s trying weekend in a poorly performing Ferrari continued as he went out in Q1 in 18th place, having managed only 17th in the sprint race.
Earlier in the day, Piastri had won the sprint race and with Norris, the championship leader, third it was a vital boost to the Australian’s title ambitions. The third championship contender, Verstappen, took fourth place dropping a point to Norris.
Mercedes’ George Russell was second with his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, fifth. With victory in the 19-lap dash, Piastri narrowed the gap to Norris by two points to 22, while Verstappen has fallen one point further behind to 25 in arrears.
Norris’s task remains the same if he is to seal the championship on Sunday. He must be 26 points ahead of Piastri and Verstappen if he does not win the race or 25 ahead if he does take victory. If either of his rivals are closer than that margin then the title will be decided at the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi. A win in the race would be enough for Norris regardless of any other results and he will also take the title if he outscores Piastri by four points and finishes ahead of Verstappen in any position.
Piastri’s pole, however, could be absolutely vital. The high-speed circuit, with its sequences of fast corners, is notoriously hard for overtaking, as was demonstrated in the sprint race. Drivers tend to manage their tyres, finding it hard to close in the dirty air or enjoy a sufficient speed advantage through corners that are taken flat out to make a pass.
The long drag to the first corner will be vital, but if Piastri can keep his nose in front through that then he will have every chance of controlling the race to the flag and taking the title to the final race.
At the sharp end in Q3, Norris opened the running with an absolutely roaring lap, his best of the day, with a time of 1minute 19.495seconds. Piastri pushed hard, but was three-hundredths down with Verstappen a full four-tenths back. Verstappen has struggled with his car bouncing all weekend and was knocked into fourth by Russell.
Charles Leclerc, who has been fighting his Ferrari all weekend, endured a high-speed spin on his lap as he finally lost the rear. He went on to complete another lap to finish in 10th place.
Norris had the advantage entering the final laps and once more led the way, but he went wide and had to abort his lap. Piastri followed and produced an immense lap to grab the top spot as Verstappen moved up to third with Russell fourth.
After the sprint, Norris hit back at Verstappen after the Dutchman said he would already have won the world championship if he had been driving a McLaren.
“He generally has a good clue about a lot of things, but there is also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about,” Norris said. “But it is also Red Bull’s way of going about things, an aggressive nature and just talking nonsense a lot of the time.
“It depends if you want to listen to it and talk about it, like he would love you to do, or do what we do as a team which is keeping our heads down and stay focused. Maybe he would have done [won the title easily], but he hasn’t done so far.”
Pirelli has limited the use of tyres for the GP to a 25-lap stint, making the 57-lap contest a mandatory two-stop. They have done so as a precaution against punctures on what is an enormously demanding circuit with high lateral loads on the rubber.
After Friday’s running Pirelli expressed concern that gravel drawn on to the track by cars running wide was causing some deep cuts in the tyres. They will be monitoring the situation, along with the FIA, because of fears of punctures at high speed and it may require the use of a safety car or red flags to clean the track of gravel debris.
