Oscar Piastri is perfectly placed to cut into McLaren teammate Lando Norris's 24-point Formula 1 championship lead after qualifying in pole position for the Qatar sprint race.
Norris is third on the grid behind Piastri and Mercedes's George Russell, while Red Bull four-time world champion Max Verstappen, level with Piastri in the standings, will start Saturday's race in sixth position.
"Nice to be back. Thanks everybody," a happy Piastri said over the team radio as he returned to form after a steady decline.
There are 58 points remaining to be won, eight of them in the 100km sprint, from the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
[standings]The sprint race starts at 1am AEDT on Sunday.
If the three championship contenders remain in their qualifying positions, the Australian will move two points closer to Norris in the standings and pull five points clear of Verstappen.
Piastri — who has won the last two sprints in Qatar — set a best time of one minute and 20.055 seconds, 0.032 quicker than Russell, who knocked Norris down to third.
"I'm pretty happy. It has been a while since I've been on P1," the Australian said.
"It almost went horribly wrong at turn four. Turning left in a right-hand corner is never a good thing. I lost two-tenths. At that point I thought that lap was over, but I kept pushing and was able to find some more time."
Norris said he made a mistake in the final corner and was more or less resigned to his fate in the sprint.
"I would be stupid not to try and win but it's impossible to overtake so I think I will probably finish P3," he said.
"Getting past George Russell on the line is probably the best I can hope for."
Verstappen complained his car was "bouncing like crazy", an observation that echoes of the previous race in Las Vegas where both McLarens suffered the 'porpoising' phenomenon and were disqualified for excessive skid wear.
"Just really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer that would shift into oversteer at high-speed," the Dutch driver said.
"We tried to change a few things on the wheel but it never really worked, so it made it quite tricky. With this balance, it will not be a lot of fun. It will be more about trying to survive I guess and make some changes going into qualifying."
Reuters
