Oscar Piastri takes Qatar GP pole with the kind of lap that keeps a title fight alive and uncomfortable for everyone involved. The McLaren driver backed up his Sprint win with a 1:19.387 in Q3, edging Lando Norris by 0.108s and pushing Max Verstappen to third on a night where all three championship contenders ended up line astern at the front.
Norris still knows that victory on Sunday seals the title. Verstappen knows he has to finish ahead of him to keep his own hopes alive. Piastri, starting from pole, has put himself exactly where he needs to be to complicate both of their lives.
Narrow margins between the McLarens
Q3 was always going to be about the two papaya cars first and everyone else second. Norris landed the first punch with his opening effort, going 0.035s clear of Piastri and setting the early benchmark as the track reached peak grip.
Then the session reset. A loose floor sticker from Carlos Sainz’s Williams brought out a red flag, everyone cooled down, and the tension ratcheted up for one final run.
On the decisive laps, Norris went first and blinked. He ran wide at Turn 2, abandoned the lap and immediately handed the initiative to the other side of the garage. Piastri did not waste it. His 1:19.387 was tidy rather than wild, fast where it needed to be and safe where it counted. It was enough.
Norris stayed second, his banker lap strong enough to hold off Verstappen, but he will know the small error at Turn 2 removed the chance to control the race completely from the front.
Verstappen hangs on in third
For Verstappen and Red Bull, this was another session spent managing compromise. The Dutchman again complained about the car “jumping” and feeling unsettled, a repeat of the porpoising and balance issues that have followed him all weekend.
He bailed out of his first Q3 lap, regrouped, and on his final run salvaged third with a 1:19.651, just behind Norris and a fraction clear of George Russell. Given the starting point on Friday and the constant radio frustration, P3 is not a disaster, but it is not ideal either.
From that position Verstappen will have to attack both McLarens on track, protect his tyres within the 25 lap mileage cap and still finish ahead of Norris to keep the championship alive into Abu Dhabi. The lap time keeps him in the fight. The grid slot guarantees nothing.
Mercedes, Williams and the chasing pack
Behind the title trio, Mercedes once again established themselves as the most consistent threat. Russell will start fourth after topping both Q1 and Q2, his final Q3 lap just 0.011s slower than Verstappen. Kimi Antonelli continued his quietly impressive rookie campaign with fifth, less than half a second off pole.
Sainz put Williams sixth, right in the window to punish any mistakes from the front runners. Fernando Alonso lines up seventh for Aston Martin, ahead of Pierre Gasly in the Alpine and Charles Leclerc in tenth after a wild high speed spin earlier in the session.
The heartbreak figure was Nico Hulkenberg, who missed Q3 by 0.003s and will start eleventh for Kick Sauber. Liam Lawson, Ollie Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto and Alex Albon join him in the midfield cluster.
Further back, the pattern of the weekend continued at Ferrari and Red Bull’s second car. Yuki Tsunoda’s strong Sprint result did not translate to qualifying pace and he dropped out in Q1 in sixteenth. Esteban Ocon followed for Haas, while Lewis Hamilton suffered another bruising session, eliminated in Q1 for the third time in a row. Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto complete the final row.
What this means for the title fight
On raw pace, Qatar has turned into Piastri’s weekend. He has topped Sprint Qualifying, won the Sprint and now starts the Grand Prix from pole. Norris still holds the points advantage and the simplest equation: win the race and he is world champion.
The grid, though, makes that simple story a lot more tangled.
- Piastri has clean air and nothing to lose.
- Norris has a title on the line and a team mate in front of him.
- Verstappen has to attack both from third with a car that still does not feel fully in the window.
Strategy will not be straightforward. The 25 lap cap on every slick set is in play, tyre life at Lusail is always fragile and track position is vital once the stint spreads out.
McLaren on the front row and Red Bull on the hunter’s role rather than the usual hammer. If Norris manages a clean launch and a disciplined race, the championship can end here. If Piastri controls the pace and Verstappen finds a way through, Abu Dhabi becomes the final punch in a fight that refused to calm down.
Either way, Qatar has given the season exactly what it promised: all three contenders facing each other head on, under the lights, with nothing left to hide behind.
