The McLaren driver led all 19 laps in the Sprint from pole to claim his third career Sprint victory at the venue, finishing comfortably ahead of George Russell and Lando Norris as the title fight tightened heading into qualifying.

Piastri said the performance was the product of a trouble-free run and a layout that immediately suited him after several frustrating weekends.

“It’s been a good weekend so far,” he explained.

“I think everything went smoothly in the Sprint there.

“So, yeah, happy with how it’s been so far. I just need to keep it rolling.”

He said the shift to a higher-grip, high-speed track helped unlock pace that had been masked recently.

“It’s obviously a very different circuit to where we have been. Much higher speed. Much higher grip,” he added.

“I think in the last couple of weekends has just been things going wrong rather than being a lack of pace.”

Piastri noted that while gains would be limited ahead of the grand prix, the team’s baseline remained encouraging.

“Ideally if we can find more pace, I think you know, everyone slowly finds a little bit more through Sprint weekends,” he said.

“But I think our base performance seems very strong around here, so it’s more just tuning rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.”

He also warned that rivals were likely to make improvements.

“Nothing’s guaranteed at all. A lot of people can try and change things on their car. So other teams might find a bit more performance,” he said.

“I think Red Bull will probably find some pace. So yeah, just because it’s gone well so far doesn’t mean it’s going to continue that way, but I think everything’s been smooth so far, which has been nice.”

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella praised the result and said he was particularly proud of the team’s response to its double disqualification in Las Vegas, adding that the foundation for their rebound was laid away from the circuit.

“It was a strong reaction in terms of a result on track. But a strong reaction, you know, like it happened away from the track,” he said.

“I have to say, I’m very proud. Like our culture has been tested by certainly a hard situation. I think we emerge even stronger.”

Stella said Piastri’s pace came as no surprise once conditions aligned with his natural strengths.

“Oscar, once we are back at a circuit where the grip is high, we can see how quick he is,” he said, noting that the tyre behaviour at Lusail played into the Australian’s comfort zone.

With both Piastri and Norris expecting a shift in form across the field before qualifying, Stella warned against assuming the Sprint order would hold.

“From the Sprint to the main qualifying, things can change by a large amount,” he said.

“So I think there will be not only Russell, there will be Verstappen.

“Yesterday until he damaged the car in Q3, he was in the same tenth of a second as our car. So I do expect Verstappen to be competing for pole position.

“But what’s important is that we are there”

Qualifying begins at 9pm local time (5am AEDT).

Piastri cuts Norris’ championship lead with dominant Qatar Sprint win