F1: Piastri leads McLaren 1-2 in Sprint Race Qualifying

With Max Verstappen having his fastest lap deleted for track limits, rookie Oscar Piastri  won the pole for the Qatar GP Sprint Race.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Almost all the drivers had their lap times deleted because track limit infractions by Piastri kept it clean in his #81 McLaren to win pole with a lap of 1m24.454s.

Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris was 2nd fastest just 0.082s behind.

“Very, very happy,” said Piastri. “It was a pretty good lap – I saw Lando on the big screen made a mistake, I don’t know how his lap was looking. Great work from the team. [Verstappen] is starting third so he’s not a million miles away but we’ll try our best.”

After winning the pole on Friday for Sunday’s Qatar GP, Max Verstappen will start third, 0.192s behind.  He just has to finish third in the Sprint Race to seal his 3rd World driving title.

George Russell was 4th for Mercedes, 0.387s back, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton was not fast enough to make it out of Q2.

The Ferraris of Carlos Sainz jr and Charles Leclerc were 5th and 6th, although Fernando Alonso was originally 5th quick before being hit with a track limit infraction.

Can Piastri make it to the flag in front? Norris won’t like being shown up one bit, and he’ll be gunning for his teammate. But those two have Verstappen to contend with as well – and the Dutchman could be about to write his name in the history books. Not to be missed.

Qatar GP Sprint Race Qualifying Results