Oscar Piastri has ended a long win drought with a pole-to-flag victory in the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race to trim teammate Lando Norris's Formula 1 championship lead from 24 to 22 points.
Piastri continued a perfect Saturday on the penultimate race weekend of the season by qualifying fastest for the Grand Prix, joined by Norris on the front row with Red Bull's four-time world champion Max Verstappen third.
"Let's go baby," Piastri said on the team radio after his blistering final lap nabbed him pole position.
"Good session everyone, that was mega.
"[I] think that is probably the most fun I've had driving an F1 car. Thank you.
"Great car, great track. Let's go."
Norris maintained his grid position to finish third in the sprint, behind Piastri and Mercedes's George Russell, who was 4.951 seconds behind Piastri.
It was the Australian's first win of any sort since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August and third Qatar sprint success in three years.
Verstappen was fourth and now 25 points adrift.
Norris has 396 points, with Piastri on 374 and Verstappen on 371 with 50 points remaining to be won, but only 25 after Sunday.
[standings]"I think the last couple of weekends has just been things going wrong rather than a lack of pace," Piastri said after 19 laps of the floodlit Lusail circuit.
"Here, everything's gone smoothly so far, and the pace has been strong. It's a track I've enjoyed in the past, and I'm enjoying it again, clearly."
Piastri's win was his first in a sprint this season and he was never challenged or troubled from the moment the lights went out, with Russell and Norris almost touching in the race for the first corner but avoiding contact.
Norris had recognised before the start that overtaking would be a problem and he was not wrong.
The Briton remains in a strong position to win the world championship after qualifying second, just 0.108 of a second behind his teammate, for the main race, from 3am AEDT on Monday.
Verstappen is third, with Russell fourth.
ABC Sport will have live blog coverage of the Qatar Grand Prix in Lusail from 3am AEDT on Monday.
Reuters/ABC
