Oscar Piastri secures pole position in Qatar Grand Prix sprint race
Oscar Piastri has secured pole position for the Qatar sprint race with a track record-breaking performance that keeps his championship hopes alive against teammate Lando Norris.
Australia’s Oscar Piastri has reignited his stalling Formula One campaign with a blistering drive to snatch pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race ahead of his championship rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
Needing to finish ahead of his McLaren teammate Norris to keep his title hopes alive with just two rounds of the championship remaining, Piastri produced a stunning performance just when he needed it to book himself the front spot on the grid.
Norris qualified third, opening the door for Piastri to narrow the gap in the drivers’ title standings, while Verstappen was back in sixth after struggling in his Red Bull.
“It’s been a good day, which is nice for a change,” Piastri said.
“It’s been a day where things have clicked from the start and the sprint qualifying session went really well.
“I had a pretty big moment on my lap, but it was just enough in the end so thanks to the team, great car and we’ve looked really good this weekend so far, so I’m pretty happy with that.”
Although he had a frightening wobble as he exited the fourth turn on his final qualifying lap, Piastri recovered and went on to set a new track record of one minute 20.055 seconds at the ultra high-speed Lusail International Circuit.
It was Piastri’s first pole position in a sprint race since Belgium in July and his first pole in any format since he won the Dutch Grand Prix in August, and he had an ominous warning for his rivals, that he thinks he could have gone even quicker.
“I think if you hook it up, there’s a 1m 19s in there. We’ll see what we can do, but at the moment I’m just happy with the result,” he said.
“It has been a while since I’ve been on P1.
“It almost went horribly wrong at turn four! Turning left in a right-hand corner is never a good thing. I lost two tenths.
“At that point I thought that lap was over, but I kept pushing and was able to find some more time.”
Mercedes pilot George Russell will start alongside Piastri on the front row after pipping Norris for second spot with his final hot lap.
Norris will launch from the second row, directly behind Piastri in third spot. With overtaking hard on the Qatar circuit, the Englishman said he was not confident of winning so would just try to get as many points as possible to limit any damage.
“The pace was there. I just made a mistake in the last corner on my first lap and didn’t put it together,” Norris said.
“It would be stupid to not try and win. I’m here to try and win so I’ll see what I can find overnight and see what we can do.
“It’s impossible to overtake, so I think I’m going to finish P3, but if I can at least get George off the line or something then that’s probably the most I can hope for.”
The only other driver with a chance of beating the McLarens for the drivers’ championship, Verstappen was visibly frustrated after only managing sixth place, just behind his Japanese team mate Yuki Tsunoda. Even Fernando Alonso qualified fourth for Aston Martin ahead of the two Reds Bulls.
“Not good from the first lap. Just really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer that would shift into oversteer at high-speed,” Verstappen said.
“Just not what you want to go fast. We were locked in. We tried to change a few things on the wheel but it never really worked, so it made it quite tricky.
“We changed a few things but it wasn’t working well, so it’s something we need to understand.
“With this balance, it will not be a lot of fun. It will be more about trying to survive I guess and make some changes going into qualifying.”
Piastri and Verstappen are both currently 24 points behind Norris in the standings with a maximum of 58 left this season.
With just eight points on offer for a win in the final sprint race of 2025, seven for second and so on down to eighth place, Piastri won’t make up a lot of ground on Norris even if he wins, but it will boost his confidence.
The Australian has had a shocking run of bad luck since he led the championship by 34 points with his seventh Grand Prix win of 2025 in the Netherlands so desperately needs a change of fortune.
At the very least, Piastri has to be within 25 points of Norris after Qatar to have any chance of snatching the world title at next weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
One thing in his favour is that he does have a great record in the Arabian peninsula.
In his two previous appearances at Qatar, in 2023 and 2024, he won the 19-lap sprint race both times and finished on the podium, ahead of Norris, in the full-length Grand Prix.
“At the moment I’m just happy with the result,” Piastri said.
“There’s obviously a few things to try and tidy up but it’s nice to be able to say that when you’re starting on pole.
“Obviously it’s only a sprint pole and only for a few points but I’ll take whatever I can get.”
Originally published as Oscar Piastri secures pole position in Qatar Grand Prix sprint race
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