Oscar Piastri knew going into the weekend of the Qatar Grand Prix he would have to be at his best to keep his world championship ambitions alive and, with a battling performance, he did exactly that, by claiming victory in the sprint race and then pole position for the grand prix at the Lusail circuit.
Both were significant but pole was crucial in the tense title fight with his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who lines up alongside him on the front row of the grid, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who starts from third, with the three contenders set to go head to head into turn one on Sunday.
Piastri has been under the cosh, reeling as his strong lead in the championship was whittled down and then surpassed by Norris and under enormous pressure simply to keep the fight alive to the final round in Abu Dhabi next week. The Australian responded well in Qatar and delivered an impressive run to take the top spot with his final lap, one that had to be inch-perfect after Norris had laid down a strong marker in a tightly fought qualifying contest.
It was as good a day behind the wheel as Piastri has enjoyed since he last won, at the Dutch GP in August, which was also the last time he claimed pole. Piastri won the sprint race with a dominant drive and with Norris only third it was a vital boost to the Australian’s title ambitions, while Verstappen took fourth place dropping a point to the championship leading Briton.
“Let’s go, baby!” Piastri declared over the radio after winning the sprint.
With victory in the 19-lap dash, Piastri narrowed the gap to Norris by two points to 22, while Verstappen fell one point further behind, to 25 in arrears.
Norris still holds the cards and can seal the championship on Sunday. He must be 26 points ahead of Piastri and Verstappen. If either of his rivals are closer than that margin then the title will be decided 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 could be vital in taking the title to Abu Dhabi. The high-speed Lusail circuit, with its sequences of fast corners, is notoriously hard for overtaking, as was demonstrated in the sprint race. Drivers finding it hard to close or to enjoy a sufficient speed advantage to make a pass through corners that are taken flat-out.
If Piastri can keep his nose in front after the long drag to the first corner, in what will be a mandated two-stop race making strategies likely to converge, he will have every shot at controlling the race to the flag and taking the title to the wire.
He knows he is fighting to stay in the game but finally was able to enjoy his performance after what has been a late-season slump. “Winning is a lot more fun than whatever the hell happened the last four or five races, that’s for sure,” he said. “You always try and enjoy it. When you look at the bigger picture, even in the last few weeks that have been tough I’m still driving probably the fastest car or one of the fastest cars there’s ever been in the world and I love all of that.”
Norris had looked on course to deny his teammate when, at the sharp end in Q3, he opened the running with a roaring lap, his best of the day, with a time of 1min 19.495sec. Piastri pushed hard but could not quite match it at just three-hundredths down.
Norris had the advantage entering the final laps and once more led the way but he went slightly wide at turn two, a small error but enough to make him abort his lap and it was costly.
“I just caught a bit of an understeer for some reason,” he said. “That was it. So I’m a bit frustrated because I certainly think I could have done a better job.”
Piastri followed, was quicker in the two opening sectors, and grabbed the top spot. The serious business is yet to come but he could do no more than finishing on top both times when push came to shove and ensuring Norris will have no easy ride to his first F1 title.
After the sprint race Norris also hit back at Verstappen’s comments, made earlier in the weekend, when the Dutchman stated 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.”
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.
