Piastri heads McLaren one-two in Qatar Sprint Shooutout

F1 Grand Prix, GP Qatar, Losail International Circuit

McLaren's rookie driver Oscar Piastri secured pole position for the Sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix, edging out his team-mate Lando Norris. Reigning champion Max Verstappen ended up third fastest in the short qualifying session. F1Technical's senior writer Balázs Szabó reports on the Sprint Shootout session.

McLaren displayed eye-catching speed in yesterday's qualifying session, but their drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both had their crucial lap times deleted in Q3 which meant that they finished down in P10 and P6 respectively. It was therefore no surprise that the Woking-based squad turned out to be the main rival for reigning world champion Max Verstappen.

The last part of the sprint shootout saw Oscar Piastri set the best time with a 1m24.454s, pipping his team-mate Lando Norris by just 0.082s, while champion-elect Max Verstappen was left third after having his best lap time deleted for track limits. The Dutchman's first hot lap in Q3 was a 1m24.543s which would have been better than what he managed on his second flying lap, but it would have not been good enough to beat the McLarens.

Mercedes had an up-and-down day with George Russell continuing his fine form from Friday, finishing fourth fastest. However, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in SQ2 and will line up only 12th on the starting grid for the Sprint race. The seven-time world champion complained about balance issues after the session, claiming that his car was suffering from understeery nature.

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg displayed encouraging qualfiying pace once again and was only narrowly pipped by the Ferraris and will start from P7 ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who had another miserable qualifying session.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso appeared to be quick once again and set the fifth fastest time in SQ3, but he had his fastest lap deleted. As a result of it, he lost his only timed lap and will start from P9 later on tonight.

Esteban Ocon completed the top-10 ahead of Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly. Valtteri Bottas set the 13th quickest lap while his team-mate Zhou Guanyu finished two places further down the order with AlphaTauri's Liam Lawson slotting in between the two Alfa Romeo drivers.

Lance Stroll had a difficult day yesterday and was again knocked out in SQ1 as he missed out on a place in the next round of qualifying 0.018s. The Canadian will start the sprint race in 16th place ahead of Williams driver Alex Albon

AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda ended up 18th fastest with Kevin Magnussen finishing second-to-last. Williams' American driver Logan Sargeant qualified last after having his best effort deleted for exceeding track limits.