Piastri Perfection with Title Contenders altogether at the front…

By Mark Gero

Friday practice, Sprint victory, and on Saturday evening, his first pole since August. Oscar Piastri recovered to take pole for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix at the Lusail International Circuit by posting a last-minute time of 1:19:387 ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third.

 “We left the car pretty much the same, very very minor tweaks here and there but everything felt great all weekend, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” replied Piastri. “It was really good and the team did a great job.

I had a little bit of question mark on which tyres we wanted to use because I did a quick lap on a used set in Q2 and that through a little bit of a spanner in the works.

We didn’t expect it to be so good, but Q3 was really good on the new so very happy.”

Only the Mercedes of George Russell, who took fourth, was the only other driver who could have taken a quicker time but could not match both McLarens. In addition, Verstappen was another who had trouble, considering the changes the team made to stop the bouncing of his car was not good enough to improve.

Kimi Antonelli was fifth in the second Mercedes with Racing Bulls Isack Hadjar in sixth. As it was in the previous sprint race, both Spaniards of Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin, switched positions, taking seventh and eighth, respectively. Pierre Gasly continued his appearance in being in the final qualifying session, finishing in ninth, with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, could not control his car all evening, even spinning out moments before the end, ended up taking tenth.

Lewis Hamilton could not get out of the opening session for the second time in the Ferrari, continuing what has been a bad season for himself and his team. Carlos Sainz, with 5:27 left in the second session, had an unsafe release, and picked up a piece of plastic, which he dragged around the circuit for a few moments before it loosened and came off his car. The piece of debris forced a red flag for a few moments before a marshal retrieved the object so the session could continue.

For the race, Norris needs just to win to take his maiden championship. For both Piastri and Verstappen, they need to finish ahead of Norris to keep their hopes alive with one race remaining.