Oscar Piastri says a “question mark” hovers over Pirelli’s tyres for this evening’s Sprint in Qatar, but the McLaren poleman will give it his all in the 19 lap mad dash.
Piastri will head an all-McLaren front row after coming out on top, just ahead of teammate Lando Norris, in Saturday’s sprint shootout.
The qualifying was preceded by a 10-minute “familiarization” session to allow the field of drivers to experience the track limit changes implemented at Turn 12-13 in the wake of Pirelli’s warning over the risk of potential tyre failures due to the new kerbs installed around the Lusail circuit.
Yesterday, Piastri learned that he had lost his top-three position in qualifying for Sunday’s race – for a track limit infringement – during his parc fermé interview.
The Aussie joked after the sprint shootout that he might “give the FIA five minutes to make sure I'm actually on pole”.
"It was a pretty good lap,” he added. “I saw Lando on the big screen, he made a mistake at the last corner so I don't know what his lap was looking like, but very happy.
"Obviously Max is starting third so he is not a million miles away, but we will try our best [to win].
"A question mark on tyres but we will try our best and see what we can pull off."
On the other side of the McLaren garage, a visibly disappointed Norris conceded that his teammate had done a better job while the Briton admitted “I'm just not delivering on what I need to do”.
Norris was on a charge on his final flyer as he looked to better his first hot lap on the soft tyre in the final segment of qualifying. But a bout of oversteer at the final corner sent him wide and sealed his runner-up spot behind Piastri.
“Happy for the team, I'm happy for Oscar, but I did another bad job,” he said. “Should have been pole yesterday, should have been pole today, but I'm not."
Lap time deletions were a dime a dozen in the session, with max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc also caught out by transgressions.
But Norris lamented missing out o na strong result for the second time of the weekend.
"It's just mistakes, not putting the lap together when I need to. Easily quick enough for pole, I just didn't put it together at all," he said.
"Oscar did a good job, Max has done a good job, so frustrating because the car is quick enough.
"The team is doing an excellent job, but I'm just not delivering on what I need to do."
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