DOHA, Qatar – Max Verstappen and Lando Norris will face a sprint race full of challenges on Saturday, after the surprising pole position of Oscar Piastri, which adds an unexpected twist to the Formula 1 title fight.Piastri, after a period of irregular results, achieved an outstanding pole position in Qatar. He surpassed George Russell on the last lap, demonstrating his skill on the track.
Norris, who leads Piastri and Verstappen by 24 points before the penultimate round of the season, went off track at the end of his lap, missing the opportunity to secure pole position.It’s been a good day. From the first lap we’ve been competitive and we’ve made good adjustments in qualifying and everything has gone well. The last lap was quite solid, except for an important moment, but it was clearly good enough. I am happy. It’s good to be back on top, so let’s hope we can continue like this.
Oscar Piastri
Verstappen, for his part, could only obtain sixth place.
Verstappen had problems during the session, complaining to the Red Bull team about the balance of his car and being surpassed in qualifying by his teammate Yuki Tsunoda for the first time.No, of course, I’m stupid if I don’t try to win. I’m here to try to win. I’ll see what I can find overnight and what we can do for tomorrow. It’s impossible to overtake, so I think I’ll probably finish third. But if I can at least get George off the line or something, then that’s probably the most I can hope for.
Lando Norris
When asked about his expectations for the sprint race, Verstappen was pessimistic.It wasn’t good from the first lap. There were really a lot of bumps and aggressive understeer that turned into oversteer at high speed. It’s not what you want to go fast. So you’re locked in and we tried, of course, to change some things on the steering wheel, but it never really worked. That made it quite complicated.
Max Verstappen
While his two rivals lamented their disappointing sessions, Piastri celebrated his unexpected return to form, after losing the championship lead.Piastri hadn’t achieved any pole position since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, which was also his last victory in F1.In the time elapsed, he lost the championship lead to Norris and saw Verstappen reduce a 104-point deficit.Yes, exactly. That’s all I can do and we’ve started off on the right foot, so let’s hope we can keep it up.With this balance, tomorrow in the sprint at least, it won’t be very fun. So it will be more about trying to survive, I suppose, and then making some changes for qualifying.
Max Verstappen
