Oscar Piastri was left delighted after securing pole position in the Shootout ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix Sprint.
The Australian secured top spot in the three-part elimination session to head an all-McLaren front row ahead of team-mate Lando Norris.
Norris had been on a fast lap himself before a mistake exiting the final corner saw him run wide, ruining any chance of stealing pole position away.
“Very, very happy,” said the rookie.
“I’ll just give the FIA five minutes first to make sure I’m actually on pole, but as long as that’s okay!”
Track limits proved an issue during qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix in which both Piastri and Norris had times deleted.
That cost Norris a front-row berth and had briefly promoted Piastri to third before he fell to sixth when his best lap was removed.
Changes to the track overnight had been made after Pirelli raised concerns surrounding the kerbs.
That prompted a 10-minute ‘familiarisation’ session ahead of the Shootout, delaying the session by half an hour.
The change saw Turns 12 and 13 narrowed, with the exit kerb moved some 80cm into the track.
“It changes it a bit I think also because it’s a painted curb. It’s impossible to know where it is, we can’t see it, so makes things a bit more difficult but obviously, it’s the same for everyone.
“I struggled quite a bit in the first two parts of that qualifying and then got back together a bit more for the last one so very, very happy and great work from the team.”
With Piastri on pole and Norris alongside him, the biggest threat comes from third-placed Max Verstappen.
“He’s not a million miles away but we’ll try our best,” Piastri noted.
“Obviously a bit of a question mark on tyres we’ll try our best and see what we can pull off.”
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