DOHA — Oscar Piastri beat McLaren teammate and championship leader Lando Norris to pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday as Formula One’s title-chasing trio filled the top three grid places for a potentially decisive race.

Norris can be crowned champion on Sunday but a win for Piastri would take the battle down to a final showdown in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

While McLaren enjoyed the front row lockout, Red Bull’s four-times world champion Max Verstappen will be breathing down their necks from third place and hoping to keep his hopes alive with a third Qatar win in a row.

George Russell, last year’s pole-sitter and second in the sprint, completed the second row for Mercedes at the floodlit Lusail circuit where overtaking can be tough.

Piastri has had a perfect weekend so far, winning a processional sprint race from pole to cut Norris’s lead to 22 points and move three clear of Verstappen, and is back on form after a long slide.

The pole was the Australian’s first since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, with Zandvoort also the scene of his last full distance win, and ended a run of three successive poles by Norris.