Oscar Piastri recognized that he needed a stellar performance heading into the Qatar Grand Prix weekend to keep his championship aspirations alive, and through sheer grit, he achieved just that by clinching victory in the Sprint race followed by securing pole position for the Grand Prix at the Lusail circuit.
Both accomplishments were significant, but pole position proved vital in the tight championship battle against his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who will line up alongside him on the front row, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, starting from third. The trio are set to fiercely contest the first corner on Sunday.
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Piastri had been under immense pressure, rattled as his once-commanding championship lead vanished and was subsequently overtaken by Norris, facing enormous scrutiny just to keep the title fight alive until the final round in Abu Dhabi next week. The Australian responded brilliantly in Qatar, delivering a stunning performance to snatch first place on the final flying lap, which needed to be flawless to the inch after Norris had established a solid gap in the tense qualifying session.
It marked one of the finest days behind the wheel Piastri had experienced since his previous win—the Dutch Grand Prix in August, where he also clinched pole. Piastri triumphed in the preceding Sprint race with a dominant drive, while Norris finished only third—a crucial momentum shift for the Australian’s title hopes, with Verstappen taking fourth, trailing the British championship leader by one point.
“Get in there, let’s go, baby!” Piastri exclaimed over the radio following his Sprint win.
By conquering the 19-lap race, Piastri narrowed the gap to Norris by two points, bringing it down to 22, while Verstappen fell another point further back, now 25 points adrift.
Norris still holds the ultimate say and can seal the championship on Sunday. He must enter the race with a lead of 26 points over both Piastri and Verstappen. Should either rival finish closer to that margin, the title will be decided in Abu Dhabi. A Grand Prix victory alone would suffice for Norris regardless of other outcomes, and he would also secure the title if he outscores Piastri by four points and finishes ahead of Verstappen in any position.
Piastri’s pole position could prove decisive in the fight for the Abu Dhabi win. The high-speed Lusail track, characterized by its sequence of rapid corners, is notoriously difficult for overtaking, a trait evident during the Sprint race. Drivers struggle to get close through the corners or build sufficient speed advantage to execute passes through the full-speed sections.
If Piastri can maintain the lead after surviving the inevitable confrontation at Turn 1, in a mandatory two-stop race where strategies are likely to converge, he will be excellently placed to control the race to the flag and carry the championship fight to the wire.
He acknowledges he’s fighting to remain in contention, but he was finally able to enjoy his racing after a late-season dip. “Winning is a lot more fun than what’s happened the last four or five races, that’s for sure,” he stated. “You always try to enjoy it. Looking at the bigger picture, even in the last few weeks which have been tough, I’m still driving what is arguably the fastest or one of the fastest cars in the world, and I really enjoy that.”
Norris appeared poised to deny his teammate when he laid down the gauntlet on the sharp end of Q3, posting a blistering lap—his personal best of the day—of 1 minute 19.495 seconds. Piastri pushed hard but couldn’t quite match the time, finishing just three-hundredths of a second shy.
Norris had been ahead in the final laps and was on course for provisional pole again when he slightly overshot Turn 2—a minor error, but enough to force him to abort the lap, which proved costly.
Lando Norris post-qualifying
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Lando Norris will start Sunday’s race from the second spot on the grid. Photo: Florent Guissot/DPPI/Shutterstock
“I got a bit of understeer for some reason,” he commented. “That’s life. So I’m a bit frustrated because I think I could have done better there.”
Piastri followed suit, being quicker across the first two sectors to take the top spot. Big things still lie ahead, but he could do nothing but claim first place both times it mattered most, ensuring Norris doesn’t receive an easy path to his maiden Formula 1 title.
Following the Sprint race, Norris also responded to comments Verstappen had made earlier in the weekend, where the Dutchman suggested he would have already secured the world championship had he been driving a McLaren.
“He’s usually quite knowledgeable about a lot of things, but there are plenty of things he’s also quite clueless about,” Norris remarked. “But that’s also the vibe of Red Bull—an aggressive persona and often talking rubbish.
“It depends on whether you want to listen and engage with it the way he might want you to, or do what we’re doing as a team—keeping our heads down and staying focused. Maybe he would have won the title easily, but he hasn’t done it yet.”
A difficult weekend for Lewis Hamilton in an underperforming Ferrari continued: he exited in Q1, recording only the 18th time, and finished the Sprint race in just 17th place.
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