Oscar Piastri proved he meant it when he said Lando Norris would get no help from him in the Formula 1 title race. The Aussie took pole for Saturday’s Sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix while his McLaren team-mate and championship rival managed only third behind fellow Brit George Russell in the Mercedes.

And Piastri showed what it meant by shouting: “F**k yeah!” on the radio when that result was confirmed. He later added: “It’s been a day where things have clicked from the start. I’m happy with the result – a few things to tidy up but it’s nice to be able to say that starting from pole. It’s only the Sprint, but I’ll take what I can get. The pace was there all day, hopefully we can keep that going.”

Norris, 24 points ahead in the title battle, also felt the pace in his McLaren but rued that he could not get the best out of it. “That’s life,” the Brit quipped, before adding: “The pace was there, but I made a mistake on the last corner on my first lap and didn’t put it together.”

Norris doesn’t need to beat Piastri and Max Verstappen in these final two weekends to win the title, but scoffed at the suggestion he could play it safe. The championship leader added: “I’d be stupid not to try to win – I’m here to try to win, so I’ll see what I can find overnight.”

But the 26-year-old conceded that getting the better of Piastri in Saturday’s short-form race will be difficult, adding: “It’s impossible to overtake so I’ll probably finish P3. If I can get George off the line, then that’s probably the most I can hope for.”

Verstappen was only sixth, surprisingly beaten by team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, having yelled: “This f*****g car man” about his “idiot” Red Bull machine. The Dutchman said: “From the first lap, really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer which would then shift into oversteer at high speed – not what you want.

“We tried to change a few things on the wheel but it never really worked, so that was tricky. With this balance, tomorrow the Sprint will not be a lot of fun so it will just be about trying to survive, I guess, and I’ll make some changes going into qualifying.”

Lewis Hamilton suffered another galling bottom-five exit, just 18th fastest in the Ferrari a week on from another dreadful performance where he qualified 20th and dead last for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Speaking to Sky Sports afterwards, he had just 11 words to offer in response to three separate questions – the only positive ones pointing out: “The weather is nice.”