F1 Qatar GP live commentary and updates - Sprint Qualifying

Russell is third from Leclerc and Albon.

One minute to go and Verstappen is on his way for his only chance to qualify near the front.

Verstappen loses out

Verstappen keeps his understeering RB21 on the black stuff, but it's not quick. He only manages fourth!

Piastri takes sprint pole

Oscar Piastri does it! He improves to a 1m20.055s and takes sprint pole.

Crucially, George Russell splits the McLarens as Norris looks to have made a mistake on his second lap.

Alonso takes fourth, and Verstappen gets beaten by Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda for fifth!

Antonelli, Sainz, Leclerc and Albon complete the top-10.

Norris went off the track in the final corner, although it looked like sprint pole had already eluded him by then.

"Nice to be back," says Piastri.

You don't suppose Tsunoda will make Verstappen's life difficult tomorrow, but the Dutchman will have his work cut out if he is to limit the damage to polesitter Piastri.

Just 19 laps to do so in tomorrow's sprint race.

Piastri: "It's been a good day which is nice for a change."

"It's been a good day which is nice for a change. Things have clicked from the start.  A pretty big moment on my lap but it was just enough in the end."

Piastri gets the Pirelli fastest lap trophy from Pirelli chief Mario Isola. No disrespect to the Italian, brilliant man, but that often means the VIP that was jetted in for the occasion has not showed up.

More from Oscar.

"Obviously, it's only only sprint pole and and for a few points. But I'll take whatever I can get and looking forward to tomorrow.

"A sprint weekend is always really tough to know if you're fully on top of things from from when you roll onto the track, but I think the car has felt really good all day.
We made some some good adjustments into qualifying which was nice and I think the the pace was there all day. Hopefully we can keep that running."

A good day for Yuki Tsunoda then in fifth. You feel it's too little too late to save his job, but good to see Yuki fight until the end.

And Alonso is just inevitable, isn't he?

Here's our report from that sprint qualifying session courtesy of Jake Boxall-Legge.

F1 Qatar GP: Piastri bolts to sprint race pole from Russell and Norris

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Zak Brown, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images