1 day ago
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Where there is life, there is hope, and Oscar Piastri's F1 title hopes still have a pulse after the Australian claimed pole position for the Qatar Sprint race overnight.
Piastri led the 2025 Formula One championship through the European rounds, holding his advantage into early September.
His season turned on September 7 at Monza, where he scored his last podium before the downturn began.
The slide accelerated at the São Paulo weekend from November 8-9, when a Sprint crash on Saturday and a Turn 1 collision on Sunday earned him a 10-second penalty and a costly fifth-place finish.
Lando Norris won both the Sprint and Grand Prix that weekend, swinging momentum sharply his way and opening a significant points gap.
Piastri needed a strong rebound in Las Vegas on November 22-23, but McLaren's hopes collapsed when both cars were disqualified for excessive plank wear.
Australia's Oscar Piastri has earned pole position in the Qatar Sprint race to remain in contention for the F1 championship
Piastri's McLaren teammate Lando Norris is in a commanding position and is favourite to win the title
Before the disqualification, Piastri had finished fourth, a result that would have kept him in realistic contention.
Max Verstappen inherited the win on November 23, tightening the standings and dropping Piastri behind on countback.
With only Qatar on November 30 and Abu Dhabi December 7 remaining, Piastri now trails both Norris and Verstappen.
He enters the Middle East double-header with only a mathematical chance, needing perfect results and major errors from both rivals.
What was shaping as a breakthrough title year has instead become a late-season fight for survival.
However the gate has remained open a crack, with Piastri earning pole position for the Qatar Sprint race.
While there are only seven championship points on offer for the winner, it would keep him contention heading into the the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Piastri can still win the championship, but every scenario now depends on him beating Norris across both the Sprint and the Grand Prix in Qatar.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen is tied on championship points with Piastri and also remains a mathematical chance at winning the title
If Norris outscores him by two points or more this weekend, Piastri's title hopes end on the spot, no matter what happens in Abu Dhabi.
A win for Norris in the Grand Prix would effectively finish the job unless Piastri wins the race himself or finishes ahead of him in both sessions.
A strong Sprint result helps Piastri, but it only matters if he also gets the job done on Sunday.
The simplest way for him to stay alive is to finish ahead of Norris in both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, which guarantees the fight continues to the finale.
His best lifeline is winning the Qatar Grand Prix while Norris finishes outside the top two, a combination that would slash the 24-point gap and keep the pressure on.
If Piastri wins and Norris fails to score in the Sprint, the Australian's chances brighten considerably heading into Abu Dhabi.
Verstappen's presence complicates things further, because Piastri must also stay ahead of him to avoid dropping behind two rivals.
The only scenario that guarantees Piastri's survival regardless of Sprint points is winning Sunday's Grand Prix, which mathematically keeps him alive.
To actually claim the championship, he will need a near-perfect Abu Dhabi weekend - most likely a win - and for Norris to slip far enough that Piastri can overturn what remains of the deficit.
For now, Piastri says 'It's nice to be back.'
'[It was] a day when things clicked.'
