Piastri wary of Norris fightback after McLaren 'in the bin' risk

Oscar Piastri is expecting Lando Norris to fight back in the Bahrain Grand Prix after his qualifying disaster, as he revealed a risk that could have seen McLaren's weekend "in the bin."

Piastri took a second career pole with a commanding performance in Sakhir, but Norris was only sixth fastest in the sister car, meaning Piastri can take the lead of the drivers' championship for the first time if he wins and Norris finishes no higher than fourth. 

Norris branded himself as "clueless" after the tricky qualifying session with McLaren's MCL39 thus far the dominant car in Bahrain, and felt Piastri would ease to a straight-forward win.

Despite the comfortable pole, Piastri explained how McLaren put its weekend at "risk" in Q2, where his efforts could have gone "in the bin" after the red flag for Esteban Ocon's crash, as he also touched on the threat of Norris

"The timing of the red flag was quite awkward because it was right on the limit for being able to do two runs and no one had set a lap at that point," Piastri told media including RacingNews365. 

"Being at our end of the pit lane, getting out of the pits can take nearly five minutes sometimes, so you have to factor that in. 

"We went pretty risky and just went for the one lap and it was enough obviously, that was a tricky point that you needed to get right because otherwise, your weekend was pretty much in the bin. 

"I'm glad we managed that. Q3 was a little bit more simple, with just the two runs.

"Let's see where [Lando] finishes first, obviously," Piastri added of his team-mate.

"I'm expecting him to fight back [in the race]. I'll just try and make sure that I do the best job that I can, and wherever he ends up is where he ends up."