Oscar Piastri has grabbed a crucial pole for the sprint at the Qatar Grand Prix -- the race where he must thrive or give up any hope of winning the world title -- and declared: "Nice to be back!"
The Australian ace, who's had a wretched run over the last month-and-a-half, looked back in harmony with his McLaren as he celebrated "a day when things clicked" again.
While he enthused about his much-needed change of fortunes on Friday, his McLaren teammate and championship leader Lando Norris settled for third on the grid behind second-placed George Russell's Mercedes.
It sounded as if Norris was already resigned to his 24-point lead over Piastri shrinking after Saturday's shoot-out as he shrugged: "I'd be stupid not to try and win, but it's impossible to overtake so I will probably finish P3. Getting past George Russell on the line is probably the best I can hope for."
Even better news for Piastri was that Max Verstappen, lying joint-second with him in the standings, had a wretched time in his porpoising Red Bull as he finished only sixth fastest.
Verstappen gave up on his first run in Q3, moaning: "This f****** car, man, it's bouncing like an idiot."
For Piastri, who'd also been quickest in the sole practice session earlier on Friday, the return to the Lusail track he so obviously enjoys after six weekends of failing to make the podium served to re-energise him.
Russell had just taken provisional pole when Piastri pipped him by 0.032sec for a lap-record 1min 20.055sec.
Norris's chance disappeared when he set off in the dirty air behind Alex Albon's Williams and he also erred at the final corner when running into the gravel.
"It's been a good day, which is nice for a change," smiled Piastri, who's a long shot for the title now but has not given up belief, having quickly rejected McLaren's overtures about him helping Norris to the title.
"I'm pretty happy. It has been a while since I've been on P1," said Piastri, whose last sprint pole was at the Belgian Grand Prix in July and who was last on any pole in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort a month later.
"It almost went horribly wrong at turn four," he reflected. "Turning left in a right-hand corner is never a good thing. I lost two-tenths. I thought that lap was over, but I kept pushing and was able to find some more time.
"It is only the sprint, but I'll take what I can get. The pace was there all day, and hopefully we can keep that going."
Norris can lift the title this weekend in the penultimate race of the year if results go his way, but Piastri demonstrated he's not about to give up the fight quite yet as he beat his teammate by 0.230 seconds.
If he can win the sprint race -- which he did for his first ever F1 success on the same circuit in 2023 and repeated the dose last year -- Piastri could grab a maximum eight points and reduce the deficit to Norris before Saturday evening's qualifying for the main race.
Verstappen was moaning all day about his Red Bull, and the man who won brilliantly in Las Vegas at the weekend even finished behind fifth-placed teammate Yuki Tsunoda, while Aston Martin's evergreen Fernando Alonso was fourth.
Lewis Hamilton's miserable time at Ferrari continued as he was knocked out in Q1 in 18th. The unhappy seven-time champion complained his car "couldn't go any quicker" and, when asked if there were any positives he could take from the weekend, added: "The weather's nice."
Earlier in the day, Piastri had set out his stall with the fastest lap of 1:20.924 in practice, ahead of Norris by 0.058sec.
