DOHA, Qatar -- Max Verstappen and Lando Norris will both be in damage limitation mode for Saturday's sprint after Oscar Piastri's surprising pole position added another unexpected twist in F1's three-way title fight.
Piastri ended his long run of rotten form with a timely return to pole in Qatar, catching a massive snap of his car during the crucial final lap to beat George Russell to pole.
"It's been a good day," said Piastri, who had not had a win since August's Dutch Grand Prix, which was also his last F1 win. "I think from the first lap we've looked competitive and we made some good adjustments into qualifying and everything felt good. I think the last lap was pretty solid, except for one pretty big moment, but clearly it was good enough still. So I'm happy. It's nice to be back on top, so hopefully we can keep it rolling."
Norris, who leads both Piastri and Verstappen by 24 points ahead of the penultimate round of the season, ran wide at the end of his own lap to spoil his own chance of lining up on pole position.
Verstappen could only manage sixth.
Norris still appears the strong favourite for the championship and he will claim the title if he finishes third in all of the remaining races -- Saturday's sprint, Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Dec. 7.
The British driver insisted he will still be going for it on Saturday's shortened race, where a maximum of eight points are available.
Asked if he would play it safe in the sprint, Norris said: "No, of course, I'm stupid to not try and win. I mean, I'm here to try and win. So, I'll see what I can find overnight and see what we can do for tomorrow. It's impossible to overtake, so I think I'm probably going to finish P3. But if I can at least get George off the line or something, then that's probably the most I can hope for."
Verstappen struggled throughout the session, complaining to Red Bull about the balance of his car and being out-qualified by teammate Yuki Tsunoda for the first time ever.
"Not good from the first lap," Verstappen said after the session. "Just really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer that would shift into oversteer in high speed. Not what you want to go fast. So then you're locked in and we tried to, of course, change a few things on the wheel, but it never really worked. That made it quite tricky."
Asked what he can hope for in the sprint, which is run a few hours before another qualifying session for Sunday's grand prix, he sounded pessimistic.
"With this balance, tomorrow in the sprint at least, it will not be a lot of fun. So it will be more about just trying to survive, I guess, and then make some changes going into qualifying."
As his two rivals bemoaned disappointing sessions, Piastri was left to celebrate an unexpected return to form after a run of form which has seen him dramatically drop out of the lead of the championship.
Piastri had not taken a pole position of any kind since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, which was also his last F1 victory.
In the time since, he's lost the championship lead to Norris and seen Verstappen wipe out a 104-point deficit to him.
When asked if Turn 1 was crucial for his title bid on Saturday, Piastri replied: "Yeah, exactly. That's all I can do and we've started on the right note, so hopefully we can keep that going."
