Oscar Piastri explains critical turnaround in Lando Norris title response

Oscar Piastri has addressed his F1 pace improvement following a comfortable win during the sprint race from Qatar.

Piastri entered the Qatar weekend with his title hopes hanging in the balance, with team-mate Lando Norris holding a 24-point lead in the drivers' championship.

The Australian's victory in the F1 sprint has seen the gap reduce to 22 points ahead of Sunday's grand prix and the season finale in Abu Dhabi next year.

It marks the first time since the Dutch Grand Prix that Piastri has classified ahead of Norris.

Explaining his boost in form after a challenging run, Piastri said: “It’s been a good weekend so far. 

“Everything went smoothly in the sprint there. Happy with how it's been so far, just need to keep it rolling.

“It's obviously a very different circuit to where we have been, much higher speeds, much higher grip.

“In the last couple of weekends, it’s just been things going wrong rather than being a lack of pace, so to speak.

“Here, everything has gone smoothly so far, and the pace has been strong. It's a track I've enjoyed in the past, so enjoying it again, clearly.”

With qualifying next up on the agenda, Piastri asserted he is not chasing major changes to his car in an effort to find more pace.

“Slowly, everyone finds a bit more pace through sprint weekends,” he said. “You've got to get every bit out of the car that you can.

“We'll try our best to do that, but I think our pace was very strong around here. It's more tuning than trying to reinvent the wheel.”