After the pole position he won in the Sprint Qualifying in Qatar, Oscar Piastri said that everything was working well for him from the start in Losail, Lando Norris fears that victory in Saturday’s Sprint race , will be decided in the first corner, while Max Verstappen predicts, ominously, that for him the Sprint will be a “survival race”.
Oscar Piastri returned to the top of an official Formula 1 season for the first time since the end of August, when he won the Dutch GP, by taking pole position for tomorrow’s short 100km Sprint race at the Losail circuit. Despite having an oversteer at Turn 4 on his fastest lap, the Australian won Sprint Qualifying with a time of 1:20.055 – beating Mercedes’ George Russell by 32 milliseconds and leaving Lando Norris – who had a run-out on his last lap – in 3rd place.
Piastri – winner of the Sprint in Qatar the previous two years – said on the radio upon returning to the pits that “it’s nice to be back” and stressed that everything “clicked” for him from the beginning of the day.
“It was a good day, a nice change, and it was one of those days where everything works as it should from the start,” explained the Australian.
“Sprint Qualifying went really well. I had a tough time on my lap, but in the end it was enough [for pole position]. The car is very strong this weekend, so I’m pretty happy.
If I did everything perfectly I could have dropped to 1:19 on the lap, but I’m happy with the result. There are a few things we can improve on, but it’s nice to be able to say that when you start from pole position. It’s only pole for the Sprint and for a few points, but I’ll take what I can,” he concluded.
Piastri also acknowledged the difficulty of three-day Sprint races, where the adaptation time is minimal: “In three-day Sprint races it is always difficult to know if you are really at the pace you want from the moment you get on the track, but the car was very good all day.
We made good changes to the setup in qualifying, which was positive, and the pace was there throughout, so I hope we can continue like this,” concluded Piastri.
Norris, for his part, said he would try to win tomorrow’s Sprint, but admitted he would have to make his attack and pass Russell and Piastri in the first corner – as overtaking will be difficult after that, on a track that does not favour them.
“It is impossible to overtake, so I will probably finish third. But if I can at least pass George at the start or something like that, that is probably the best I can hope for,” said Norris – after first stressing that it would be “stupid” not to aim for the Sprint win.
The Briton, the leader of the points, acknowledged that he had the pace for something better in Sprint Qualifying, but a mistake in the final corner cost him a potential attack for pole position.
“The pace was there. I just made a mistake on the last corner on my first lap and couldn’t put it together properly,” he explained. “I’d be a fool not to try to win. I’ll see what I can find tonight and what we can do for tomorrow,” he concluded.
As for Verstappen, the Dutchman struggled in Sprint Qualifying with the problematic settings (which brought very strong bounces and constant slippage of the nose and sometimes the tail) of the Red Bull RB21 and remained in 6th place – as a result of which he did not have much hope for tomorrow’s race.
“It did not go well from the first lap”, said the champion. “I had very bad bounces and a very aggressive understeer, which turned into oversteer in the very fast corners.
You can’t go fast like that. We tried to change some things on the steering wheel, but it never really worked. That made it quite difficult”.
of the 19 laps, Verstappen believes that “with this balance in the Sprint it’s not going to be fun.
It will be more about survival and just getting the car to the finish as it is. Then we can make changes for the qualifying of the race”.
Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko revealed that the set-up choice that Verstappen followed with his engineers did not suit the soft tyres – although the difficulties had already started with the mediums.
“We had no bounces with the mediums, we have to see why it appeared on the softs,” the Austrian told ORF. “We have a problem with the softs. With the mediums we were in the game, but with the softs you better not ask.
I honestly don’t remember the last time Max’s counterpart passed him. Yuki only lost a tenth at Turn 1. The changes we made were intended to help the performance on the softs, but it turned out to work better for Yuki. Luckily it’s only the Sprint. The important thing is to be able to fix it for the regular race”, concluded Marco.
