Oscar Piastri steals Qatar pole position after critical Lando Norris error

Oscar Piastri stole Qatar Grand Prix pole position away from title rival and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, after a critical mistake.

After the first runs in Q3, Norris held a 0.035s advantage over Piastri, but on his second flying lap, Norris made a mistake at Turn 2 and aborted the lap. 

This opened the door for Piastri to steal a crucial pole position away from Norris, with a 1:19.387 moving Piastri 0.108s clear to secure P1. 

Given the overtaking difficulty in Qatar, as evidenced by the Sprint race, Piastri has a golden opportunity to eat into Norris's points lead, which stands at 22 heading into the race, with a Norris win securing the title regardless.

Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull, with George Russell fourth as Lewis Hamilton's misery continues with elimination in 18th, although he will start 17th after a penalty for Gabriel Bortoleto.

Q3 drama

After the first Q3 runs, Norri's 1:19.495 played Piastri's 1:19.530, with the two more than three-tenths clear of Russell in third.

Norris was placed ahead of Piastri for the second laps, but Norris's crucial mistake at Turn 2 caused him to abort the lap, opening the door for Piastri.

He walked straight through it, to claim a much-needed pole position and put Norris on the dirty side of the grid for the race.

Verstappen was third, 0.011s ahead of Russell, with Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc rounding out the top 10.

On his first lap, Leclerc suffered a huge high-spin speed in the second sector as the session suffered a brief red-flag for a sticker coming loose from Sainz's garage and being left on track by the Williams.

The incident is under investigation. 

Norris survives scare in Q2

The big story of Q2 was Norris getting his initial lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 10 on his first run. 

The deletion left him facing one final lap from 15th in the times, but he did not falter to post a 1:19.861 to finish second to Piastri in the segment, with Verstappen third.

Nico Hulkenberg led the eliminees, falling just 0.003s short of Hadjar on the right side of the cut-line, with Liam Lawson and Oliver Bearman also both within a tenth of safety. 

Gabriel Bortoleto finished in 14th place but drops back to 19th to serve his five-place penalty for causing the collision with Stroll in Las Vegas.

Alex Albon completed the Q2 eliminees, nearly a tenth slower than Bortoleto's Stake after a tricky final lap. 

Hamilton falls in Q1 yet again

Once again, the big name casualty of Q1 was Hamilton, who qualified 18th fastest, which is where he also placed in Sprint Qualifying.

Using a new set of soft tyres, Hamilton's final flying lap was a 1:20.907, about three-and-a-half-tenths slower than team-mate Leclerc, who had set his time just seconds before after multiple runs across both cars.

It is the third straight exit in the first segment of qualifying for Hamilton after falling in Q1 in Las Vegas and then again in Sprint qualifying in Qatar - the first time this has happened since the 2009 Monaco, Turkish, and British Grands Prix.

He was joined in the elimination zone by Yuki Tsunoda, who was furious at dropping out and Esteban Ocon ahead. 

Hamilton did out-qualify Lance Stroll of Aston Martin and Franco Colapinto's Alpine as Russell, Norris, and Piastri topped the segment.