Formula 1 rookie Oscar Piastri stormed to a maiden pole position for the Qatar Sprint later this evening, outqualifying team-mate Lando Norris as McLaren claimed a first front-row lockout since the 2012 Italian Grand Prix.
Norris provisionally held the top spot before the drivers set about their final attempts. Piastri clocked a time of 1:24.454 to edge 0.082s clear of his team-mate who ran wide at the final corner, invalidating his final lap.
The result is a positive turnaround for the team after both drivers lost their fastest times in Friday’s qualifying session, costing Norris a front-row start on Sunday.
“Very, very happy with it. Of course, would’ve been even better if it was yesterday but I’ll certainly take it,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1 after the session.
“It was a decent lap, the first couple of parts of qualifying I was struggling a bit to be honest. Just getting the car in the right window and also trying to stay on the track…
“I didn’t do that yesterday so, then it came together for me a lot more in that third session, so, very happy.”
Norris held the advantage over Piastri throughout the session, but the Australian put his deficit largely down to running cautiously in the opening phases of the Shooutout.
“Today, I brought it back a notch, maybe eased into it a little bit too slowly in the first couple of parts.
“I think [I was] just taking a bit more margin. In the lap I got deleted yesterday, I made a decent mistake where Lando made his mistake as well. The high speed corners are not quite full throttle, so when you make a mistake, there’s a natural tendency to want to push it more so I just pushed too hard yesterday.”
After making a first front row appearance in Suzuka, the Australian showed caution over the amount of credit he deserved following the Shootout.
“In some ways it’s nice to relieve a bit of pressure of getting the first one. Even if it’s to stop other people thinking about it, it’s nice to get it out of the way.
“This for a Sprint Race, it doesn’t quite have the feeling as if it were the main race, but I’ll take it. For me, just more happy that I’ve managed to deliver.
“Whether we had a car capable of fifth or pole, I wanted to make sure that I went out there and delivered and felt happy with what I had done so pretty happy with pole.”
On the other side of the garage, there was clear frustration from Norris after he narrowly missed out on pole.
“I’m happy for the team, happy for Oscar but I did another bad job today,” the Briton told Sky Sports F1 after losing his final lap due to running wide at the final corner.
“I don’t know what I’m meant to say, I’m just not happy. I’m not doing a very good job. Should’ve been pole yesterday, should’ve been pole today.”
As for why he has been struggling to keep the MCL60 within the white lines, Norris blamed ‘different reasons’ compared to his excursion on Friday.
“I don’t know. Different things, different reasons. Just mistakes, not putting the lap together when I needed to.
“We were easily quick enough for pole, I just didn’t put it together at all. Oscar did a really goood job, Max has done a good job again.[It’s] frustrating.
“The car is quick enough, the team is doing an excellent job but I’m just not delivering on what I need to do so, of course I’m not going to be happy with myself.”
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