Lando Norris played the team game by letting Oscar Piastri take the sprint win at Qatar. McLaren scored a 1-2 finish and with this sprint result, 15 points has been gained which will be important in the constructors’ championship.
George Russell finished in third place and despite several attempts to pass the McLaren of Piastri, the Las Vegas Grand Prix winner had to settle behind the Papaya cars.
Norris ensured Piastri remained second by staying within DRS range, which allowed Oscar to resist the pressure from George throughout the 19-lap race.
Having looked to have sealed the victory, Norris then let Piastri through at the finish line to allow his teammate to claim the sprint victory – and admitted that he had long planned to pay Piastri back for giving up the sprint win in Brazil.
Norris held off the pressure of starting from pole and led the way in Turn 1, leaving fellow front-row starter Russell in close company of Piastri – hanging his McLaren around the outside and held the favoured line for Turn 2 to complete the move.
With Norris driving off into an early lead, Piastri came under renewed pressure from Russell when the Mercedes driver collected DRS. This prompted Piastri to defend at the start of the third and fourth laps.
Norris then backed off to keep Piastri in DRS range, ensuring that the car number 81 had more tools to contain Russell over the rest of the race.
It got to a point where Norris admitted to struggling with his front tyres, and asked if he should continue to help Piastri stay in his wake – McLaren responded in the affirmative, and thus Norris continued to aid McLaren’s claim to a 1-2 finish.
Piastri didn’t manage to get DRS in the final lap which opened him up to a final Russell assault, but the eventual winner held firm – and then moved past a slowing Norris at the line to pick up the win.
Russell had Carlos Sainz behind him throughout the race, although the Ferrari driver was locked in the DRS train and unable to interlope on the battle for a top-three finish.
Charles Leclerc wrested fifth from Lewis Hamilton with an impressive move at the start of lap 13, in which the Monegasque gathered pace with DRS and went down the inside into Turn 1.
Hamilton held on around the outside and looked to have defended with the inside line into Turn 2, but Leclerc kept his foot in and went around the outside to gain the upper hand into the next corner.
Nico Hulkenberg got valuable points on the board for Haas with seventh, as the new 2024 champion Max Verstappen finished eighth – the Red Bull driver was wayward in the opening lap and got passed by a fast-starting Hamilton, Hulkenberg and Gasly after suffering with oversteer.
Verstappen reclaimed the final point from Gasly ahead of the race’s halfway point, but could make no inroads into Hulkenberg. Gasly finished just under a second clear of Kevin Magnussen, who made a stunning getaway off the line to convert P15 into P10.
Zhou Guanyu and Sergio Perez were the only stoppers in the race – the Sauber driver soft-tyre gamble did not pay off, while Perez was slow to get away from his pitlane start and was passed by fellow slow-lane occupant Franco Colapinto on the pit exit. The Red Bull then stopped for a new front wing after spending the early laps stuck at the back.
So respect to Lando Norris to gift the sprint win to Oscar Piastri as payback to what happened in Brazil. Yes, the drivers’ championship is over but playing the team game to score the most points in the constructors’ is the most important factor.
Qatar Grand Prix, sprint results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 27:03.010
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.136s
3 George Russell Mercedes +0.41s
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +1.326s
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +5.073s
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +5.650s
7 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +8.508s
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull +10.368s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +14.513s
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas +15.485s
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +19.204s
12 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +23.351s
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +24.421s
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine +30.379s
15 Alexander Albon Williams +33.062s
16 Liam Lawson RB +34.356s
17 Yuki Tsunoda RB +35.102s
18 Franco Colapinto Williams +35.639s
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +71.436s
20 Sergio Perez Red Bull +74.371s
Oscar Piastri has claimed victory in the Sprint at the Qatar Grand Prix after team mate Lando Norris – who had led the event throughout – pulled over to let his fellow McLaren driver through at the very last moment, seemingly paying the Australian back for their previous switch during the Sprint event in Sao Paulo.
After making a strong launch from pole position when Saturday’s event got under way at the Lusail International Circuit, Norris sailed into the lead from the off while Piastri soon took P2 from George Russell, with the scrap between the second McLaren and the Mercedes playing out for much of the 19-lap dash.
Piastri managed to hold onto second place throughout – before that became P1 in the dying seconds when Norris pulled aside just before the chequered flag to allow his team mate through, giving the 23-year-old another Qatar Sprint win after taking victory in the same event last year.
Russell had to settle for third, while Carlos Sainz was close behind in fourth for Ferrari ahead of team mate Charles Leclerc, who had won out in a thrilling battle with Lewis Hamilton. This put the seven-time world champion in sixth, and Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen rounded out the points-paying positions in seventh and eighth respectively.
After just one practice session on Friday, Sprint Qualifying had decided the grid for the final 100km dash of the season, a format that awards points to the top eight finishers from a maximum of eight for P1 down to one for P8.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-takes-victory-in-qatar-sprint-as-norris-reverses-positions-on-last.7v82IEKEgBWvArryjBD3dS
Lando Norris says he had made his mind up already in Brazil to sacrifice a Formula 1 sprint win for Oscar Piastri as payback for what his team-mate did there.
The Briton dominated the Qatar sprint race from the start, and spent much of the event backing off to help his pursuing team-mate stay in the DRS zone as he fought against the pursuing George Russell.
But as the cars came out of the final corner, Norris backed off to let Piastri through and hand the Australian the victory.
With Russell being close to Piastri, executing the move was not easy, but Norris said that it was important he gave payback for his Australian team-mate having given up the win in the Brazilian GP sprint for him at a time when he was fighting for the world championship.
“I know it was a bit closer than what I was wanting,” said Norris afterwards. “But I planned to do it since Brazil. Just what I thought was best is 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. So honestly, I don’t mind.
“I’m not here to win sprint races. I’m here to win races and a championship, but that’s not gone to plan. So I did the best we could, and I look forward to tomorrow.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-had-decided-on-sprint-race-sacrifice-at-brazilian-gp/10677924/
George Russell labelled McLaren’s tactics “infuriating” after being relegated to third place in the Qatar F1 sprint, having qualified second and fallen fractionally short of pole position yesterday.
McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed pole, with team-mate Oscar Piastri in third, but the Australian made a bold move past Russell’s Mercedes around the outside into Turn 2 on the opening lap to claim second place.
Thereafter the McLarens teamed up to keep Russell in check as Norris, having initially pulled away, dropped back slightly to keep Piastri in the DRS window.
Russell also had DRS and lunged up the inside into Turn 1 at the beginning of the third and fourth laps, only to have the door closed robustly. On both attempts the defensive move came so late, and the cars came so close to touching, that Russell fulminated over the team radio.
At the beginning of the final lap Russell tried again but once again the McLaren’s rear wing fully occupied his field of vision. Norris then let Piastri pass to win the race.
“It was very close into Turn 1 on a couple of occasions,” said Russell. “It was so frustrating every lap, Lando backing up, giving Oscar the DRS.
“Obviously I understand why they did that. But when you’re out here, you’re fighting. You want to give it everything, and you want to put a race on for the fans. It was just pretty infuriating.
To be honest, I struggled towards the end, but I think Lando had some good pace. Oscar was struggling a little bit, so it would have been good to be able to go head-to-head with Lando and see what the true pace would have been – as I think he had quite a lot in the pocket, just giving Oscar the DRS.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/russell-frustrated-by-infuriating-mclaren-qatar-f1-sprint-race-tactics/10677931/
Four-time Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen rued his “terrible” balance through the Qatar Grand Prix sprint and felt his Red Bull felt more like a rally car during the 19-lap race.
The Dutchman fell to ninth on the opening lap after being overtaken by a fast-starting Lewis Hamilton off the line, and then his wide lines through the opening corners left him open to passes from Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly.
Verstappen ultimately re-passed Gasly for eighth, earning the final point available in the Saturday race, but could not get within touching distance of Hulkenberg.
Speaking about his low-key race, Verstappen stated that his balance was out of the window and that he particularly struggled at the start with cold tyres.
“I just had no grip. The balance is terrible. On cold tyres you suffer even more from that. It felt like a rally car,” Verstappen told Viaplay.
“I think I would have been better off competing with my father [Jos] at Spa in a rally – we would have had a better chance of being competitive over there, I think. It’s really terrible, it was undriveable.
“We can change a lot of things [before qualifying], but we can’t fix the problem. I don’t know. We will change some things, but I don’t expect miracles.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-rally-car-red-bull-was-undriveable-in-qatar-gp-sprint/10677955/