Piastri gifted sprint win, Verstappen stripped of pole

Mercedes's George Russell has been promoted to pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix after stewards gave Red Bull's Max Verstappen a one-place grid drop for driving unnecessarily slowly during qualifying.

Four-time world champion Verstappen had celebrated a first pole in five months but then faced an investigation on Saturday for an incident with Russell that the Briton described as "super-dangerous".

Stewards said the case was complicated but agreed that Verstappen, who clinched his fourth title in a row in Las Vegas last weekend, was going too slow on a cool down lap when Russell suddenly came up behind him.

"Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap," they said in a statement.

"Had Car 63 (Russell) been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual three-grid position.

"However in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that the driver of Car 63 had clear visibility of Car 1 (Verstappen)."

The constructors' title could be won in Sunday's race, with leaders McLaren qualifying both their cars ahead of closest rivals Ferrari.

Earlier, McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified third and fourth respectively after taking maximum points from the sprint to send the team 30 points clear in their chase for a first constructors' title in 26 years.

Norris ignored team orders to gift Australian Piastri victory in the sprint. The risky swap at the chequered flag, despite the team telling Norris to hold position with Russell close behind, was payback for 23-year-old Piastri, who gifted Norris a sprint victory in Brazil.

The Briton was still fighting for the championship at the time but Verstappen ended that battle in Las Vegas last Saturday.

Just 1.3 seconds divided the top four at the finish, with Piastri crossing the line a mere 0.136 ahead of his team mate to take his second successive Qatar sprint win.

"It was probably a bit closer than I was wanting but I planned to do it since Brazil," Norris said of the swap.

"It's just what I thought was best. It's probably a little bit sketchy. The team told me not to do it but I thought I could get away with it, and we did.

"Honestly, I don't mind. I'm not here to win sprint races, I'm here to win (grand prix) races and a championship, but that's not gone to plan."

Norris led from pole position while Piastri passed Russell for second at turn two on the opening lap, a crucial move that then put him in a position to take the victory.

Norris kept Piastri in his slipstream, easing off to ensure the Melburnian stayed in DRS range to allow him to defend against Russell down the straight.

"It was about defence for the whole race," said Piastri.

"I had a good start and good turn one but didn't quite have the pace. I think I killed the front (tyre) a bit early on.

"I was struggling a bit for the rest of the sprint but some great team work. Without that help, it would have been a much more difficult sprint."