Piastri takes Sprint shootout win in McLaren one-two, Verstappen only third

Oscar Piastri took a fantastic P1 in the Sprint shootout session at the Qatar Grand Prix, beating his teammate Lando Norris, who finished in P2, and the champion-elect Max Verstappen, who could only take P3.

Delay to shootout after tyre trouble

The shootout was delayed by 20 minutes due to a fault with the Pirelli tyres. On certain tyres, cracks along them were found, and Pirelli and the FIA concluded that driving more laps on tyres could lead to tyre circumference damage.

As a result, the Italian tyre makers and the FIA agreed to revise and change the track limits around turns 12 and 13, resulting in a 10-minute familiarisation session for all drivers to understand the new track layout before the Sprint shootout and race later today.

Piastri navigates track limits trouble

Even after changes were made to the track limits to help the drivers and their tyres, multiple laps across all the sessions were deleted. This hindered drivers in SQ3, including Verstappen, who lost his first lap due to track limit violations, along with both Ferarri drivers and George Russell.

Conversely, both McLaren drivers, who lost their lap times in qualifying on Friday due to track limits, were able to set laps consistently in SQ3, allowing them to attack their second lap and give the team a fantastic 1-2.

Behind the top three was George Russell in P4, then the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in P5 and P6, respectively. Nico Hulkenberg took a superb P7 for Haas, as Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10.

SQ2

Track limits were the biggest talking point before the session, and that caused the most talking points during the Sprint shootout.

Many laps were lost due to drivers exceeding the track limits, and Lewis Hamilton fell victim to this, even after the 10-minute familiarisation session before the shootout.

The seven-time world champion lost his quickest lap time after going wide, causing him to fall to 12th place as SQ2 finished, although the deleted time would not have gotten him into SQ3 regardless.

Liam Lawson also lost his fastest time, dropping the New Zealander down to 14th, sandwiched between the two Alfa Romeo's, with Valtteri Bottas in 13th and Zhou Guanyu in 15th. Pierre Gasly just missed SQ3 and will start the Sprint race in P11.

OUT - P11: Gasly, P12: Hamilton, P13: Bottas, P14: Lawson, P15: Zhou

SQ1

Many lap times in SQ1 were also deleted, which caught Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant out, who both lost lap times that would have gotten them into SQ2, but they finished in 18th and 20th, respectively.

Lance Stroll's miserable weekend in Qatar also continued, as the Canadian could only finish the shootout in 16th after being knocked out in Q1 on Friday.

Sargeant's teammate Alex Albon and Haas' Kevin Magnussen also missed SQ2, finishing in 17th and 19th, respectively.

OUT - P16: Stroll, P17: Albon, P18: Tsunoda, P19: Magnussen, P20: Sargeant