Oscar Piastri confirmed his return to form to keep alive his title bid by claiming pole position on Friday for Saturday’s sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix.
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The Australian, who is 24 points behind his McLaren teammate Lando Norris in the drivers’ championship, clocked a best time of one minute and 20.055 seconds to outpace George Russell of Mercedes by 0.032 seconds.
In a closely fought sprint qualifying session, series leader Norris was third fastest, two-tenths adrift, ahead of Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and the two Red Bulls led by Yuki Tsunoda in fifth.
Four-time champion Max Verstappen, who is level on points with Piastri in the three-way title race, was a grumbling sixth in his Red Bull ahead of Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, Williams’ Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and Alex Albon in the second Williams.
For Piastri, it was a significant success after two months in the doldrums and brought him a second Qatar sprint pole and a chance to add to his two previous sprint wins.
"A good day for a change!" said Piastri, who has not won a race since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.
"Things clicked from the start and qualifying went well and I had just enough in the end.
"I'm happy with that result but there are a few things to tidy up and it's nice to say that when you’re starting on pole."
Norris, who can take the title this weekend if he outscores Piastri and Verstappen by two points, was disappointed.
"I’m here to try and win, so we will see what we can do overnight. It’s very difficult to overtake here so I'll probably have to settle for P3," he said.
MORE MISERY FOR HAMILTON
The session began in cooler conditions with temperatures of 21 (air) and 26 (track) with Verstappen setting the pace in the opening SQ1 segment on the demanding high-speed high-downforce Lusail circuit in the desert north of Qatar.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton struggled again and was among the five early losers, eliminated in 18th along with Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin, Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and the Alpine pair Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto.
In a self-confessed "nightmare" season, this was another wretched outing for the seven-time champion who won in Qatar in 2021.
"The car couldn’t go any quicker," he reported.
Norris topped the times in SQ2 as Racing Bulls’ rookie Isack Hadjar had a late lap deleted for exceeding track limits and dropped to 11th, missing the shootout along with Oliver Bearman of Haas, the Sauber pair Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon in the second Haas.
The top 10 scrap began with Russell leading the way, after switching to softs, and Verstappen enraged by his car. "This car is bouncing like an idiot," he grumbled amid profanities as he ran off.
On their first runs, Piastri took a slender lead by clocking 1:20.241 to beat Norris by 0.044 seconds with Russell third and Verstappen down in 10th. The Dutchman improved to go fourth before the rest romped by with Piastri taking pole ahead of Russell.
Norris ran wide and off at the final corner and wound up third as Piastri enjoyed his return to form, saying "it’s nice to be back”.