F1 Qatar: shootout rewards McLaren, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc on third row

Oscar Piastri in pole in the Sprint race

It's Oscar Piastri's best time of the shootout in Qatar, a 1:24.454 that allows the McLaren driver to start ahead of everyone in the Sprint race scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Italian time. The Australian preceded, in the last qualifying session, teammate Lando Norris, who completes the front row, by just 82 hundredths.

Third place for Max Verstappen, on Red Bull, with a time 192 thousandths slower than Piastri, fourth instead George Russell, who pushed his Marcedes to a time still 387 thousandths away from pole.

The two Ferraris, on the other hand, will start from the third row: fifth Carlos Sainz, who completed his best lap in Q3 with a time of 1:25.155, sixth instead Charles Leclerc, who saw a couple of his fast laps cancelled for exceeding the track limits, having to settle for 1:25.247, a time 793 thousandths slower than Piastri's.

The official results of the Qatar Sprint shootout:

1    81    Oscar Piastri    McLaren Mercedes    1:25.979     1:25.496    1:24.454     18
2    4    Lando Norris    McLaren Mercedes    1:25.672     1:24.947    1:24.536     14
3       Max Verstappen     Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT     1:25.510      1:25.199     1:24.646    12
4    63    George Russell   Mercedes     1:25.413     1:25.027    1:24.841     17
5    55    Carlos Sainz    Ferrari     1:25.872     1:25.433    1:25.155     21
6    16    Charles Leclerc    Ferrari     1:26.266     1:25.367    1:25.247    21
7    27    Nico Hulkenberg    Haas Ferrari    1:26.450     1:25.499    1:25.320    16
8       Sergio Perez    Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT     1:26.123      1:25.143    1:25.382     17
9       Fernando Alonso    Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes      1:25.936      1:25.344     DNF    13
10    31    Esteban Ocon    Alpine Renault     1:26.072      1:25.510    DNF    15
11       Pierre Gasly     Alpine Renault       1:25.829         12
12    44    Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes     1:26.424     1:25.962        14
13    77    Valtteri Bottas    Alfa Romeo Ferrari     1:26.449         1:26.236      8
14        Liam Lawson    AlphaTauri Honda RBPT      1:26.202          12
15    24    Zhou Guanyu    Alfa Romeo Ferrari     1:26.669      1:54.546        10
16    18    Lance Stroll    Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes     1:26.849         8
17     23    Alexander Albon    Williams Mercedes             6
18    22     Yuki Tsunoda    AlphaTauri Honda RBPT             6
19    20    Kevin Magnussen     Haas Ferrari             5
NC    2    Logan Sargeant    Williams Mercedes    2:05.741          7