Oscar Piastri returned to form by scoring pole position for the Qatar sprint race.
McLaren driver Piastri has endured a miserable run of late since victory in the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, to leave himself 24 points adrift of team-mate Lando Norris going into this weekend.
But the Australian looked comfortable around the Lusail International Circuit, delivering a superb lap of 1:20.055s, finishing 0.032s ahead of Mercedes' George Russell, with Norris only third fastest, 0.230s adrift.
As for Max Verstappen, also 24 points behind Norris, the four-time F1 champion could only manage sixth on the grid, notably after making a mistake on his first push lap on the soft tyres in SQ3. Second time around, he finished 0.473s down.
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, suffered another qualifying horror show. A week on from finishing the slowest ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the seven-time F1 champion will start 18th in his Ferrari, with only the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto behind him.
Check out the full sprint qualifying results below!
Result Sprint qualifying - Qatar
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