Oscar Piastri returned to form by scoring pole position for the Qatar sprint race.
McLaren driver Piastri has endured a miserable run of late since victory in the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, to leave himself 24 points adrift of team-mate Lando Norris going into this weekend.
But the Australian looked comfortable around the Lusail International Circuit, delivering a superb lap of 1:20.055s, finishing 0.032s ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, with Norris only third fastest, 0.230s adrift.
As for Max Verstappen, also 24 points behind Norris, the four-time F1 champion could only manage sixth on the grid, notably after making a mistake on his first push lap on the soft tyres in SQ3. Second time around, he finished 0.473s down.
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, suffered another qualifying horror show. A week on from finishing the slowest ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the seven-time F1 champion will start 18th in his Ferrari, with only the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto behind him.
Check out the full sprint qualifying results below!
