Lusail International Circuit: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri surpassed Mercedes' George Russell and compatriot Lando Norris to secure the Qatar sprint win in a comprehensive 19-lap event at the Lusail International Circuit.
Piastri opened the race from pole position in front of Russell and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and maintained his tyre degradation perfectly to finish atop. Third title contender Red Bull's Max Verstappen could only improve to fourth from sixth, suffering a porpoising issue, while Kimi Antonelli initially took fifth place after Yuki Tsunoda was handed a time penalty for exceeding track limits. However, Antonelli was also dealt a five-second penalty after the chequered flag, dropping the Mercedes rookie back to sixth and leaving Tsunoda with four points. Alonso and Carlos Sainz rounded out the points-paying positions in a Sprint dictated by tyre management and staying clean on the track.
On Friday, Piastri put out a perfect final lap to take pole position ahead of Russell by 0.032 seconds, while Norris saw his time cut off after he found gravel on the last lap of the sprint, dropping him behind Russell and in front of Alonso, while Yuki Tsunoda finished fifth.
