Oscar Piastri did everything he needed to in the Qatar Sprint as he held off George Russell and Lando Norris to charge to a dominant victory, giving him the momentum to fight to stay at the top for the rest of the weekend.
After securing Sprint pole position by just 0.032s on his final attempt, Piastri executed a great launch at lights out and kept the lead ahead of the Mercedes driver, who immediately had to defend from Norris.
The top three remained as they were for the rest of the 19-lap Sprint, even with an early challenge from Max Verstappen on the second McLaren. With only one DRS zone, it was difficult to overtake and much of the focus was on managing tyres ahead of what will be a crucial Qualifying hour.
Nevertheless, Piastri added eight points to his tally to remain in contention for the 2025 Drivers’ Championship, and will be targeting a similar performance in the remaining sessions.
Speaking after the Sprint, he said: “Nice start to the day, definitely. Obviously it’s been a little while since I’ve had a smooth run like that so I’m very happy with it so far. There’s still a long way to go this weekend but it’s all pointing in the right direction. It’s been going well so far. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
The Australian returned to the podium for the first time since the Italian Grand Prix, preferring the characteristics of the Lusail International Circuit to the lower grip tracks the paddock has visited in recent rounds.
“It’s obviously a very different circuit to where we have been,” Piastri told F1TV. “Much higher speed, much higher grip. I think the last couple of weekends there’s just been things going wrong rather than a lack of pace so to speak.
“I think here, everything has gone smoothly so far and the pace has been strong. It’s a track I’ve enjoyed in the past so I’m enjoying it again clearly.
“I think everyone slowly finds a little bit more through Sprint weekends. You’ve got to try and get every bit out of the car that you can but we’ll try our best to do that. I think our base performance seems very strong around here so it’s more just tuning rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.”
His team mate Norris was more eager to make adjustments ahead of Qualifying, and with overtaking being more difficult at this track, pole position would be ideal if he wants to secure the title this weekend.
He came close to passing Russell at the first corner on the opening lap, but the Mercedes’ defence was too strong and Norris was forced to settle for P3, crossing the line over five seconds behind Piastri.
Asked what changes he hopes to make before Qualifying gets underway at 2100 local time, he said: “I’m not sure yet. I need to go and speak to the team. There are certainly some things I want to be improved. We’ll see if we can improve them though, that’s the question.
“It was a pretty straightforward Sprint, you just can’t really do a lot. It’s pretty impossible to follow around this kind of track. Not much happened – it was more just trying different things, trying to get a bit more of a picture of how to drive the car.
“I struggled quite a bit yesterday with the confidence and knowledge of how to keep this car on the limit compared to the last few weekends. I tried to figure some of those things out and we’ll see if that can help me later.”
