DOHA :Oscar Piastri was perfectly placed to cut McLaren teammate Lando Norris's 24-point Formula One championship lead after qualifying on pole position for the Qatar sprint race on Friday with the Briton third.
Red Bull's four-times world champion Max Verstappen, the other title contender who is level with Piastri in the standings, will start Saturday's race in sixth position with teammate Yuki Tsunoda in fifth.
The Japanese driver is sure to move aside, having said already that he will do all he can to help Verstappen, last year's grand prix winner at Lusail.
"Nice to be back. Thanks everybody," said a happy Piastri, returning to form after a steady decline, over the team radio.
There are 58 points remaining to be won, eight of them in the 100km sprint, from the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
MEAT IN MCLAREN SANDWICH
George Russell starts second for Mercedes, the "meat in the McLaren sandwich" as his race engineer informed him after the chequered flag, and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso qualified fourth.
Verstappen was fastest in the first phase, with Norris accusing him of impeding but stewards taking no further action after noting the possible infringement.
Norris was then top in phase two, ahead of Piastri who had gone fastest in the sole practice session.
PIASTRI SETS BEST TIME
Piastri - who has won the last two sprints in Qatar - then set a best time of one minute 20.055 seconds in the final part, 0.032 quicker than Russell who knocked Norris down to third.
"I'm pretty happy. It has been a while since I've been on P1," said the Australian.
"It almost went horribly wrong at Turn Four. Turning left in a right-hand corner is never a good thing. I lost two tenths. At that point I thought that lap was over, but I
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