Piastri Secures Pole Ahead of Penultimate Grand Prix of 2025 With Championship Rivals in 2nd and 3rd

 Oscar Piastri continues to impress in his return to form, following his sprint win Saturday evening with a pole for tomorrow's Qatar Grand Prix.

Piastri shaved two points off of his teammate and championship rival, Lando Norris, with his Sprint win to move to 22 points. The McLaren duo will start on the front row, with Piastri needing to finish ahead of his teammate to ensure that the championship battle is decided next week in the final race of the season.

Piastri was fastest in Q2 and Q3, with Norris making a mistake in both rounds. First in Q2, Norris had his first lap deleted for track limit violations, and then a bobble in his final run in Q3 opened the door for either Max Verstappen or Piastri to take pole. Piastri improved to 0.108 seconds ahead of Norris and Verstappen, 25 points behind Norris in third in the standings, and will start in third for the Qatar Grand Prix.

The Mercedes drivers, who struggled in Lusail's high-speed corners, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, follow the three championship contenders, qualifying fourth and fifth respectively.

Isack Hadjar continues to build on his strong qualifying performances as the best qualifier outside the big-four teams of McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari to complete the third row next to fellow rookie Antonelli.

The final round of qualifying was red-flagged after a sticker on the race track was picked up in the garage by Carlos Sainz and then deposited on the track, requiring a race marshal to remove it. This allowed Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to rebound from his high-speed spin.

Sainz qualified seventh ahead of Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly.

Leclerc had a major spin after holding onto the struggling Ferrari all weekend, but was able to compose himself under the surprise red flag and go out again to place a 1:20.461 time, which was the slowest of the final ten, putting him behind Gasly in ninth.

Q2 saw the exits of Nico Hulkenberg, Liam Lawson, Oliver Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Alex Albon.

Lewis Hamilton has now had three Q1 exits in a row, including yesterday's sprint qualifying, and will start 18th behind Yuki Tsuonda and Estaban Ocon and ahead of Lance Stroll and Franco C0lapinto.