Piastri over the moon with pole for sprint race Qatar: 'But Max is not far'

Oscar Piastri has secured the top starting position for the sprint race in Qatar and is logically very happy about it. The McLaren driver starts ahead of his teammate Lando Norris and ahead of Max Verstappen, who has to come from P3.

"Very, very happy. It was a pretty good lap. I saw Lando on the big screen made a mistake at the last corner," said Piastri after the sprint shootout, in which he battled it out with his teammate for the first starting position in the final moments.

"I struggled quite a bit in the first two parts of that qualifying, then got my act together for the last one. Very happy. Great work from the team," the McLaren driver continued.

However, Piastri realises that he will see Max Verstappen in his mirrors at the start of the sprint race. "Max is only starting third, so he's not a million miles away. We will try our best. A question mark on tyres, so we will do our best and see what we can pull off," Piastri said.