Oscar Piastri names critical factor to deny Lando Norris F1 title glory

Oscar Piastri believes the launch and start of the Qatar Grand Prix is the "biggest thing" he needs to ace to deny Lando Norris the F1 title.

After Norris's fumble in Q3, Piastri roared to pole position at Lusail, knowing that if the Briton does win, he will be crowned champion as he goes into the race with a 22-point lead over the Australian.

In the Sprint race, Piastri controlled proceedings from pole position in a race where overtaking proved difficult, with the long sweeping corners meaning dirty air affected the performance of following cars.

With this in mind, Piastri believes he must get to Turn 1 ahead of his rival to earn the "massive advantage."

"I think the start is probably the biggest thing I need to get right," Piastri explained to media, including RacingNews365.

"I think we saw [in the Sprint] with clean air, it's a massive advantage around here, and with the stint lengths, I think it's going to be a pretty fast-paced race. 

"So that's probably the biggest thing to get right."

When asked when the last time he had enjoyed driving the car to this level, Piastri went back to his last grand prix victory in August's Dutch Grand Prix.

"Winning is a lot more fun than whatever the hell happened the last four or five races — that’s for sure," he added.

"  mean, you always try and enjoy it. When you look at the bigger picture, even in the last few weeks that have been tough, I’m still driving probably the fastest car or one of the fastest cars that's ever been in the world and doing something I love and all of that.

"Things just haven’t clicked [since Zandvoort].

"I think this track just lends itself to the full potential of what an F1 car — and especially one of this generation — can do. 

"Obviously, if I weren’t on pole, it probably wouldn’t be quite as much fun, but it still would’ve been a pretty cool experience either way.

"I said on the in-lap, I think driving an F1 car around this track in those conditions is probably the coolest thing ever. 

"Having those three right-hand corners not be corners according to your right foot is pretty remarkable. Obviously, the grip level is incredibly high and much higher than [Sprint qualifying too], so it's a lot of fun.

"Everything’s just felt good this week. The car has been in a nice window. I feel like I've been able to get comfortable with it pretty quickly, and the results have followed."