By Alan Baldwin
DOHA, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Oscar Piastri beat McLaren teammate and championship leader Lando Norris to pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday as Formula One’s title-chasing trio filled the top three grid places for a potentially decisive race.
Norris can be crowned champion on Sunday but a win for Piastri would take the battle down to a final showdown in Abu Dhabi next weekend.
While McLaren enjoyed the front row lockout, Red Bull’s four-times world champion Max Verstappen will be breathing down their necks from third place and hoping to keep his hopes alive with a third Qatar win in a row.
George Russell, last year’s pole-sitter and second in the sprint, completed the second row for Mercedes at the floodlit Lusail circuit where overtaking can be tough.
Piastri has had a perfect weekend so far, winning a processional sprint race from pole to cut Norris’s lead to 22 points and move three clear of Verstappen, and is back on form after a long slide.
The pole was the Australian’s first since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, with Zandvoort also the scene of his last full distance win, and ended a run of three successive poles by Norris.
IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT
Norris shattered the circuit record with a first flying lap of 1:19.495 in the final phase but Piastri moved it to another level with a 1:19.387 — 0.108 faster — and his teammate then made a mistake and had to abort his last effort.
“We left the car pretty much the same. Everything felt great all weekend. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Piastri of his performance.
Norris said he had understeer and was going off, so he abandoned the final attempt.
“Oscar did a good lap, drove very well and has been driving well all weekend. Nothing to complain about, just didn’t do the lap, and still P2 for tomorrow,” he said.
“The first couple of laps are always opportunities for everyone but after there I think it’s probably going to be pretty straightforward for everyone too.”
Verstappen continued to complain that his car was bouncing at speed and was 0.264 off Piastri’s pace.
“This qualifying was a little bit better even though we were still quite far off,” he said. “Still some limitations.”
Kimi Antonelli qualified fifth for Mercedes with Isack Hadjar sixth for Racing Bulls ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
Charles Leclerc completed the top 10 for Ferrari, with the Monegasque spinning dramatically in a final phase that was then red flagged to allow marshals to recover debris shed by Sainz’s car.
Sainz was released from the garage with floor stickers stuck to his rear tyres, an unsafe release that cost Williams a 5,000 euros ($5,797.50) fine..
“There’s mid-corner understeer, there’s oversteer on entry and exit. It’s been an unbelievably difficult race weekend just to drive and keep the car on track,” said Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton had another dismal session, failing to steer his Ferrari through the opening phase for the second weekend in a row and qualifying 18th, although he will move up a place due to Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto having a five-place penalty.
The seven-times world champion also qualified 18th for Saturday’s sprint.
Verstappen will not be able to count on teammate Yuki Tsunoda for assistance in Sunday’s race with the Japanese, looking likely to be replaced by Hadjar next year, set to start well behind in 15th.
($1 = 0.8624 euros)
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Nia Williams and Pritha Sarkar)
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