By Alan Baldwin
DOHA (Reuters) -Oscar Piastri was perfectly placed to cut McLaren teammate Lando Norris’s 24-point Formula One championship lead after qualifying on pole position for the Qatar sprint race on Friday with the Briton third.
Red Bull’s four-times world champion Max Verstappen, the other title contender who is level with Piastri in the standings, will start Saturday’s race in sixth position with teammate Yuki Tsunoda in fifth.
The Japanese driver is sure to move aside, having said already that he will do all he can to help Verstappen, last year’s grand prix winner at Lusail.
“Nice to be back. Thanks everybody,” said a happy Piastri, returning to form after a steady decline, over the team radio.
There are 58 points remaining to be won, eight of them in the 100km sprint, from the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
MEAT IN MCLAREN SANDWICH
George Russell starts second for Mercedes, the “meat in the McLaren sandwich” as his race engineer informed him after the chequered flag, and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso qualified fourth.
Verstappen was fastest in the first phase, with Norris accusing him of impeding but stewards taking no further action after noting the possible infringement.
Norris was then top in phase two, ahead of Piastri who had gone fastest in the sole practice session.
PIASTRI SETS BEST TIME
Piastri — who has won the last two sprints in Qatar — then set a best time of one minute 20.055 seconds in the final part, 0.032 quicker than Russell who knocked Norris down to third.
“I’m pretty happy. It has been a while since I’ve been on P1,” said the Australian.
“It almost went horribly wrong at Turn Four. Turning left in a right-hand corner is never a good thing. I lost two tenths. At that point I thought that lap was over, but I kept pushing and was able to find some more time.”
Norris said he made a mistake in the final corner.
“I would be stupid not to try and win but it’s impossible to overtake so I think I will probably finish P3,” he added. “Getting past George Russell on the line is probably the best I can hope for.”
Verstappen complained his car was “bouncing like crazy”, an observation with echoes of the previous race in Las Vegas where both McLarens suffered the ‘porpoising’ phenomenon and were disqualified for excessive skid wear.
“Just really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer that would shift into oversteer at high-speed,” said the Dutch driver.
“We tried to change a few things on the wheel but it never really worked, so it made it quite tricky. With this balance, it will not be a lot of fun. It will be more about trying to survive I guess and make some changes going into qualifying.”
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton continued to suffer, the seven-times world champion qualifying only 18th after being last on the grid a week ago in Las Vegas.
Asked if there were any positives he could take from the weekend, the Briton told Sky Sports: “The weather’s nice.”
Alpine filled the back row of the grid with Pierre Gasly 19th and Franco Colapinto last.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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