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QATAR GP – Oscar Piastri beats Lando Norris to pole by a tenth, after Norris has scrappy Q3

Testing & Race Reports
Jack
29-11-2025

Oscar Piastri has beaten his teammate and title rival Lando Norris by a tenth to take pole position and set a new track record for the Qatar Grand Prix. The Australian continued his strong weekend, setting a 19.387. Norris had a messy end to Q3 when he had to abort his final attempt after understeering wide at Turn Two.

The top three in the championship start as the top three on the grid, but Norris goes into the Grand Prix as the only driver able to win the championship if he finishes four points ahead of Piastri and Max Verstappen. But it was Piastri who delivered, with a superb lap to give himself the perfect opportunity to keep his title hopes alive.

Norris looked on course to strike back after Piastri’s domination this weekend, but his final lap was over as soon as it started, he struggled for grip and went wide at Turn Two after he was three and a half hundredths faster on his first run. Norris also survived an error which left it all to do on his final lap in Q2.

But Piastri, a solid weekend at a crucial moment in the championship if he is to make an unlikely comeback to seal the championship in the second half of a season which has been filled with mistakes. Piastri found that in the Sprint, as he outpaced Norris over one lap for the first time in seven (Sprint and full-length) qualifying sessions and backed that up by cruising to victory.

Norris can become world champion with a race to spare if he is twenty-six points or more ahead of Piastri and twenty-five points in front of Verstappen after Sunday’s race. That means he must gain four points on Piastri and effectively finish ahead of Verstappen.

The reason Norris had to back out of his lap was he did not have the fuel on board to back off and go again. This opened the door to Piastri, who crucially found time on Norris in the opening sector and maintained an advantage to grasp his first grand prix pole since the race at Zandvoort.

There is the added complication in the grand prix of the tyres being limited to twenty-five laps, and that means, without a red flag, each driver will need to make two stops.

Piastri said, “Everything felt great all weekend. The team did a great job, but had a little bit of a question mark on which tyres I wanted to use. Did a lap on the used set, and that threw a spanner in the works because didn’t expect them to be so good but went well on the new ones.”

Norris said, “I just got a bit of understeer and was going go off and had to abort. But it’s the way it is. Oscar did a good job and has been driving very well all weekend. Nothing to complain about, just didn’t do the lap. All to play for tomorrow.”

Verstappen never really looked to have the serious pace to fight for pole when it came down to the final moments of Q3 in every part of qualifying, he was around a tenth off the two McLaren’s. All weekend, he has appeared uncomfortable with the Red Bull and has been unable to extract what he needs.

Verstappen, the only other driver in championship contention, was third. The Red Bull driver never looked able to pose a threat to the McLarens. The four-time champion once again complained about his RB21 bottoming out. He also needs to beat Norris if he is going to keep his chances of a fifth title.

Throughout the weekend, he has struggled with bouncing, though that did improve for qualifying; it was still not enough to try and fight for pole. Verstappen knows that, given the difficulty to overtake, McLaren’s pace advantage and the limits on stint lengths, this could be difficult for him to fight Piastri and Norris. Another nail in the coffin of his chances of a fifth championship this season.

He said, “This qualifying was a little bit better, even though we were still quite far off. Still some limitations (in the car). But at least we are P3, and it creates better opportunities because we know it is quite hard to pass around here.”

The Red Bull driver was only a thousandth ahead of the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, the Englishman managing to out-qualify his Italian teammate by just under three tenths. Antonelli, meanwhile, was nearly six hundredths ahead of Isack Hadjar.

Carlos Sainz was seventh, going a tenth and a quarter ahead of Fernando Alonso, the two-time champion unable to repeat his impressive sprint qualifying form where he had been fourth on the grid. Alonso was six hundredths ahead of Pierre Gasly, and Charles Leclerc completed the top ten.

Williams is under investigation for an unsafe release of Sainz during Q3 after the Spaniard’s rear tyres lifted a sticker from the garage floor and deposited it in the first sector, resulting in a brief red flag as drivers returned to the pits between their first and second Q3 runs.

It was another difficult session for Ferrari, the Monacan first lap was unrepresentative as he had a huge spin at the final corner, bringing out the red flag as he sprayed gravel over the track and debris which had peeled from the garage of Sainz. Leclerc had only just made it through to Q3, knocking out Nico Hulkenberg by three thousandths.

The top ten were covered by just over a second and a quarter, while Q2 was covered by just under a tenth and Q1 by just under a second

Hulkenberg put his Sauber eight hundredths ahead of Liam Lawson, with Ollie Bearman nearly a tenth ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian made a similar mistake to Norris as he clipped the gravel on his final attempt, leaving him nearly a tenth ahead of Alex Albon.

Albon setting the exact same time, 20.629, in both Q1 and Q2. However, Bortoletto will start nineteenth because of a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision on the opening lap of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Yuki Tsunoda was missing out on progressing to the second part by just over a tenth, which will not help pressure on him going into the winter if he is to retain the second Red Bull seat. The Japanese driver was three tenths off Verstappen at the end of Q1.

Esteban Ocon was four hundredths ahead of Hamilton, who had his third Q1 or SQ1 elimination in eight days. Lance Stroll was nineteenth, going eight hundredths ahead of Franco Colapinto, who completed the field.

Hamilton told BBC News, “I was generally feeling better. We made changes. The car was feeling better. Just wasn’t great.”

Asked by F1TV, for a message for his fans, he said: “I don’t really have a message right now. I’m sorry. But I’m incredibly grateful for the support I’ve had all year. I wouldn’t have made it through this year without them.”

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