Piastri “very, very happy” after securing Sprint pole in Qatar

Oscar Piastri added yet another achievement to his already impressive list of rookie season accolades after securing his first-ever start from Pole position for the Sprint race in Qatar.

In a qualifying session plagued by track limit infringements and subsequent lap deletions, the young Australian kept his McLaren on rails to beat out some very heavy competition in the Sprint Shootout.

The opening two sessions of the Shootout were, according to Piastri, below par, however, with changes made to the track limits at Turns 12-13, it was felt across the board.

“[The revisions change] it a bit, I think. Also, you know, because it’s a painted curb, it’s impossible to know where it is. We can’t see it,” Piastri said.

“It makes things a bit more difficult, but obviously it’s the same for everyone.”

The McLaren rookie remained behind his teammate on the timing sheets by a margin of over five-tenths at the mid-point of SQ1, however, finding his way into the top three fastest times.

Ultimately he was bumped down by George Russell and Max Verstappen, however, it was a solid start to Piastri’s Sprint pole campaign.

After the first times had been set, Lando Norris was not only the leading McLaren, but the leading driver overall, crossing the line with a time of 1:42.947.

Piastri accompanied his flying teammate as he slotted into P3, now seven-tenths behind Norris before being demoted by Russell once again by a slim 26 milliseconds. 

At the end of the second session, Piastri had slipped further down the order into P8, despite the gap to his teammate shrinking to five-tenths.

“I think I struggled quite a bit in the first two parts of that qualifying, but then got my act together a bit more for the last one.”

“Once I put the softs on for SQ3 it was feeling pretty good again.”

SQ3 was different to the first two sessions for the #81, despite the McLarens continuing to make themselves known on the timing sheets.

In the closing stages, big names added their laps to the total of 31 laps deleted across the Shootout including Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, however, it was a mistake from Norris that truly decided the order.

Piastri was the first McLaren to take the chequered flag, improving to a time of 1:24.454 to cement his place on Sprint pole.

With Verstappen out of the mix following a scrappy final lap, it was up to Norris, who appeared to be the best of the rest thus far in Qatar, to spoil his teammate’s fun.

Looking like a real threat to do so, the young Briton ran wide at the final corner, kicking up sand which saw Norris forced to settle for P2, just 82 milliseconds back on Piastri. 

“It was a pretty good lap!”

“Very, very happy. I might just give the FIA five minutes first to make sure I’m actually on pole,” Piastri said, poking fun at confusion following yesterday’s Qualifying.

“I saw Lando on the big screen made a mistake at the last corner, so I don’t know what his lap was looking like, but I’m very, very happy.”

The Sprint race will be McLaren’s chance to capitalise on points ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix, with both drivers painfully demoted due to lap time deletions.

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