F1 Qatar GP sprint pole pan-alp-drama under the Lusail floodlights saw Oscar Piastri set a blistering pace at the top of the timesheets with one of the best qualifying laps of his short Formula 1 racing history. This was not going to be an ordinary Saturday ever since the session started. The pressure was intense, the track was changing fast and the grid was narrowing by the lap. What ensued was a gripping sprint qualifying battle with late surprises, marginal margins and an awesome turn-around of late fortunes of the McLaren pilot.

Piastri even in the first laps appeared as an entirely different driver than in the recent weeks. To begin with, he bestowed the practice session and looked promising again. Then he made it even more by topping the first soft tyre laps by only SQ3 with team mate Norris running just 0.044s behind him. McLaren seemed at that point to be on the verge of locking out first place but George Russell had different intentions. It was the last attempt made by the Mercedes driver who tried it aggressively almost two tenths on Piastri and provisional pole.

Nevertheless, Piastri was yet to become better. With the last sector he got all of the grip possible out of the soft tyres and crossed the line 0.032s ahead of Russell and once more holding the pole at the last moment. It was a statement lap composed and at the same time decisive and that signified his precision and his increase in maturity in wheel to wheel competition.Norris however was unable to make it through his final lap itself. He drifted over the last corner putting a wheel into the gravel and lost what it needed to get above third place. Nevertheless, his previous lap placed him firmly in the top three and Fernando Alonso would be placing with him following a poor late at the helm of Aston Martin.

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen was having a characteristically shaky campaign. He was not very successful in jumping on the tender tyres and his first one had to be abandoned. It taught Verstappen until his last lap which he completed a clean yet Yuki Tsunoda beat him by 0.009s. Stewards decided that no further action should be taken when both Verstappen and Norris were investigated regarding incidences of impeding in SQ1.

Successive to the order, Andrea Kimi Antonelli had not ceased to thrust himself up the development curve. He narrowly avoided crashing at SQ2 but made it to the seventh place and eliminated Ferrari Carlos Sainz by 0.01s. Charles Leclerc was only ninth, and then Alex Albon, who made both Williams cars make SQ3 in their packages, despite the circuit not being designed to suit Williams.

Isack Hadjar had a heartbreak as a defining moment during the session. A lap was disqualified due to a track limits violation in Turn 8 to give Antonelli an opportunity. Ollie bearman made it in at the end but finished 12th and fellow teammates Gabriel bortoleto and nico hulkenberg were placed 13th and 14th respectively. The exit SQ2 was done by Esteban Ocon in the 15th.

The last shock was the largest one in SQ1 the elimination of Lewis Hamilton. Giving it a last effort, he did not manage to get out of the drop zone as the middle ground was becoming higher and higher. He was overtaken by late laps by Haas, Williams, and Antonelli to 18th, as it was one of his lowest sprint qualifying performances in recent history.

What is all of this leading to the sprint? Momentum is squarely with Oscar Piastri, who not only ended a challenge with his bad habit of not succeeding but also made herself felt by the other members of the team as well as the other competitors in the title race. The sprint is full of narrow turns and daring passes and a cutthroat battle down the opposition.

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