Norris gives victory to Piastri Qatar Sprint

Oscar Piastri led a McLaren one-two in the Qatar Sprint after pole-sitter Lando Norris gave his team-mate the lead on the final lap.

Norris made the decision to change places exiting the final corner of his own volition as revenge for Piastri’s victory in the Sao Paulo sprint last month, when he was still in contention for the drivers’ championship.

Norris made his pole start to maintain the lead into the first turn, but front-row starter George Russell was challenged by Piastri, starting third. The Australian led the Brit side by side on the outside into the first corner before cutting him on the inside into Turn 2 for a dream start to the race for McLaren.

By then, Norris had escaped, however, taking advantage of the fight behind to put 1.2 seconds on the field at the end of the first sector, leaving Piastri vulnerable to the slippery Mercedes behind.

Russell attempted to regain the spot on Lap 4, using DRS on the main straight to close in on the rear of the McLaren, but Piastri was aggressive in closing the door on Turn 1 right-hander.

“It just became me,” fumed Russell, although the stewards were unaware of the move.

By now, the threat to the one-two was clear, and Norris was asked to slow down to keep Piastri within DRS range as a defensive play against Russell, neutralizing the Mercedes driver’s own DRS advantage. The slowdown in pace brought Sainz back into the group, taking fourth place at the start, but prevented any position change in the DRS train.

The imposed ceasefire was briefly broken on lap 14, when Norris stretched his legs to set what was then the fastest lap of the sprint and moved 1.4 seconds clear of the pack again. Russell attempted to seize the opportunity with another DRS-assisted move on the inside, but again found the door firmly closed.

“Fuck me he was late, twice now,” he complained, but without race control taking any action.

The Briton had one more chance on the final lap, when Piastri again fell behind the leader, but again he was unable to force a mistake, forcing the Mercedes driver to closely follow the leaders throughout the lap.

It was with him just 0.6 seconds behind Piastri that Norris decided to hit the brakes into the final corner to make a finely judged change in gratitude for his team-mate who did the same in Brazil.

“It was probably a little closer than I expected,” he said. “But I planned to do it from Brazil. It’s just what I thought was best.

“It was probably a little sketchy. The team told me not to do it, but I thought I could get away with it and we did it.

“We have achieved a double. That’s what we were looking for today. We got the maximum points. We are happy as a team. We executed things perfectly.”

Piastri credited his teammate for helping him defend second place throughout the race to secure the one-two finish.

“To be honest, it was about defense the whole race,” he said. “I had a good start and a good Turn 1, but then I didn’t have the pace. I think I killed the front a little early on. I was struggling a bit for the rest of the Sprint.

“Great teamwork. I think without that help it would have been a much more difficult Sprint.”

Frustrated by the McLaren team’s play, Russell finished third ahead of Ferrari teammates Sainz and Charles Leclerc in fourth and fifth.

Leclerc had fallen behind Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap but overtook him with a brave exchange on lap 13, darting around the inside of the Briton into Turn 1 and then around his outside into Turn 2 to complete the move. It limited the damage done to Ferrari’s constructors’ title hopes to six points, taking its margin over McLaren now to 30 points.

Hamilton finished sixth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who scored two valuable points to keep Haas sixth in the title standings.

Max Verstappen finished in an uncompetitive eighth place after losing three places from the finish line and regaining just one from Pierre Gasly.

Gasly finished ninth ahead of Kevin Magnussen to complete the top 10, with Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon.

Liam Lawson dropped seven places on the first lap to finish 16th ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Franco Colapinto finished 18th after passing Sergio Pérez at the pit lane exit, both having started off the grid following set-up changes overnight.

Zhou Guanyu opted for the soft tire and was forced to pit en route to 19th place, while Perez finished 20th after a pit stop for a new front wing.