Oscar Piastri issues defiant message after 'spanner in the works' discovery

Oscar Piastri insisted "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" after stealing pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix from under the nose of Lando Norris.

It was the Australian's second pole of the weekend, having gone quickest in sprint qualifying, which set him up for victory in the one-third distance race itself.

After the man from Melbourne looked imperious for much of qualifying, Norris gained the upper hand in Q3, but he abandoned his final push lap after a mistake at Turn 2, which opened the door for the formidable Piastri.

The McLaren driver also conceded it is "pretty much" win or bust at the Lusail International Circuit, with his team-mate and F1 drivers' championship leader alongside him on the front row for the 57-lap race.

22 points separate the team-mates, meaning victory will secure Norris the title under the lights, but Piastri is not showing any signs of low confidence, adopting the Sebastian Vettel finger wag after getting his Pirelli tyre award for pole.

"We left it pretty much the same," the 24-year-old explained when asked if he had made any changes to his MCL39 after winning the sprint.

"Very, very minor tweaks here and there, but no, everything felt great all weekend. So yeah, if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

However, the nine-time grand prix winner had to stay true to that mantra after it became apparent that scrubbed soft-compound Pirellis were surprisingly strong in Q2.

"It was really good. The team did a great job," he said.

"Had a little bit of a question mark on which tyres we wanted to use, because I did a quick lap on the used set in Q2, and those were a little bit of a spanner in the works, as we didn't expect it to be so good. But Q3 was really good on the new tyres. So very happy."

When it was put to him that the Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the season, is win or bust for him, Piastri replied: "Pretty much."

"I'll try my best, starting from the best spot. So, try and do some more of what I did today in the sprint and see what we can do."

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