If Lando Norris wins the race in Qatar on Sunday, then the McLaren driver will be the 2025 Formula 1 world champion. In the meantime, it looked as if the Englishman could also get the best starting position when he set a new track record in the first Q3 lap.
But after a mistake on his second lap – the second after SQ3 on Friday – he was unable to improve again at the crucial moment, opening the door for his teammate Oscar Piastri, who took the opportunity and took pole position, like the day before.
The mistake happened early on in Turn 2. “I got understeer and that was it,” he says angrily. This meant he had to take his foot off the accelerator to avoid driving off the track. “I don’t know. Maybe the wind shifted a bit or something and I went into a bit of understeer and that basically cost me the lap.”
“I had to abort, otherwise I would have slipped off the track. The understeer got worse the further I got through the corner, and after I damaged the underbody yesterday, I didn’t want to ruin another one today. So I had to abort the lap,” he explains to Sky.
No fuel for second attempt
Norris would have had enough time to make another attempt, but because his car didn’t have enough fuel on board, he drove straight into the pits.
“It’s frustrating because I definitely think I could have done better and significantly improved my lap – but I didn’t,” he says. “There were a lot of places where I thought I could be faster. Turn two wasn’t necessarily one of them…”
But he doesn’t think about how much he could have improved: “I have no idea. I don’t care now, it’s too late,” he shrugs. “Oscar did a very good job today, like he did all weekend.”
But he also has a small ray of hope himself, because after his car had some damage at the end of SQ3 the day before, he now felt more comfortable in the car again: “Definitely, yes,” he says. “It didn’t bring me much further forward, but I felt a lot more comfortable. I had the feeling today that I could at least fight for pole.”
Brown: Piastri “definitely back”
In the end, the pole went to his teammate Oscar Piastri, who will start from the front row in a Grand Prix for the first time since Zandvoort, with a lead of a tenth of a second.
“Oscar is definitely back, he is absolutely in focus,” says managing director Zak Brown at Sky after his team’s double pole. “He didn’t miss a vertex all weekend and rode perfectly.”
“Everything felt good this week, the car was in a good window,” says Piastri himself about his resurrection. “I felt like I found confidence quickly and the results reflect that.”
Qatar as a Piastri parade route
And with Qatar, Piastri is coming to a track this weekend that seems to suit him. He has won three sprint races in Formula 1 so far – all three Qatar Sprints.
“He likes fast routes,” says Brown. “If you look at his driving style and where he really shines, it’s in the fast corners – and this track is fast!”
Piastri himself at least has a lot of fun in Losail. “UI said at In-Lap: driving an F1 car on this track in these conditions is probably the coolest thing ever. When those three right-handers are practically no corners for your right foot – that’s pretty incredible. The grip level is extremely high and significantly higher than last night.”
The track also seems to suit his McLaren: “To be honest, it’s hard to find a place where it’s not good,” he praises. “But the high-speed corners feel the most impressive – turn 13, turn 14, flat out towards the end of qualifying. That’s always impressive.”
“But overall: the car is good, and on paper there should be a lot of medium and fast corners to suit us – and that’s exactly what you see in the result,” said the Australian, who wants to keep his world championship chances alive with a win on Sunday.
If he wins, he will travel to Qatar with a chance of winning the World Cup. But his two pursuers right behind him also have the plan: Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in second and third place.