Championship leader Norris – who could win the title this weekend – finished third behind Mercedes’ George Russell in a tense race, with F1’s other contender Max Verstappen one place back in fourth.
Third place was no disaster for Norris’ title bid and he will become world champion if he wins the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday.
With eight points awarded to the top eight finishers in F1’s sprint races, Piastri has moved into qualifying for the event, which is the final round of the year, 22 points behind Norris, with Verstappen now 25 points behind the Englishman with 50 points left to play for over the next two Sundays.
Verstappen spent the first eight laps of the 19-lap event within a second of Norris, meaning he used the Drag Reduction System (DRS) overtaking aid to get closer on the straight, but never saw a legitimate chance to force an overtake.
After that spell, he dropped back, finishing 2.7 seconds behind Norris and 9.054 seconds behind Piastri, showing that Red Bull have work to do to remain competitive for the rest of the weekend.
The reigning four-time world champion will now have to finish ahead of Norris on Sunday to have any chance of winning a fifth world championship at next week’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Saturday’s sprint, the last of six this season, was a procession lacking any major drama, the start of which was made amusing by the fast-starting Red Bull of Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who moved from fifth to challenge Norris for third at Turn 1. It was another poor advertisement for the abbreviated version of racing F1 introduced in 2021 to deliver few races during the season’s three days of competitive action.
Tsunoda bounced back quickly to finish in what was believed to be a season-best finish of fifth, with only a five-second penalty for repeatedly violating track limits dropping him back to sixth.
Even with the penalty, it was a refreshing display of speed from the Japanese driver after a difficult year, and it came at a turning point in his Formula 1 career.
Red Bull is believed to be promoting Isak Hadjar from the junior team to replace Tsunoda next year, but has not decided whether to keep the Japanese driver or Liam Lawson in the junior team, with the company’s rising talent Arvid Lindblad expected to step into the second seat from Formula 2.
With the decision expected to come between the races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, Sunday’s race could be Tsunoda’s final chance to put an exclamation mark on why he deserves to be in the company’s class.
Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli dropped to fifth after Tsunoda’s penalty was applied, although he himself received five penalties, dropping him to sixth.
Fernando Alonso finished seventh for Aston Martin, with Carlos Sainz taking the final points finish in eighth.
Ferrari’s weekend began in miserable conditions.
Piero Ferrari, son of company founder Enzo, watched from the garage as Charles Leclerc finished 13th in an uncharacteristically dirty performance that included several off-track excursions.
A struggling Lewis Hamilton finished 17th in the second red car. After crossing the limit, he told Ferrari over the radio: “I don’t know how, but we have made the car worse.”
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