Newly world champion Max Verstappen dominated the Qatar Grand Prix and this is the Red Bull’s driver 14th victory in an ultra-successful season.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finished second and third, recording another podium for McLaren, while Oscar was Max’s closest pursuer for much of the race and the latter charging up from starting P10.
At the start, Verstappen moved his car to cover George Russell’s run to the inside of Turn 1 and as he went left just behind the Red Bull’s left rear, Lewis Hamilton – starting on the softs with the two front-row starters on mediums – attacked his Mercedes teammate.
As the soft-shod W14 surged around the one running mediums, they came together in Verstappen’s wake and the contact popped Hamilton’s right rear off and spun him out in the gravel, with Russell spinning and falling to last.
The safety car was sent out as Hamilton’s car was recovered – team radio messages revealing both Mercedes drivers initially blamed the other for the shunt – and so the race only really got going at the start of lap five of 57, with Verstappen leading Piastri, Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen aced the restart to run immediately 1.0 seconds clear of Piastri, with the Red Bull driver doubling his advantage heading towards the lap count hitting double figures, despite the McLaren clearly pushing early on to try and regain the DRS advantage.
The lead gap had hit three seconds when McLaren pitted Piastri on lap 12, with Red Bull, which could leave Verstappen out until lap 17 per the number of laps the used set had done before the race, choosing to do so.
As Piastri had had to battle several others that had stopped under the safety car, when everything shook out again following the first round of stops for the leaders Verstappen’s advantage went up to 8.1 seconds.
Over the first two laps after Verstappen’s first stop, Piastri was able to shrink this down to only 7.4 seconds as the leader gently eased his second set of used mediums before pulling away again.
Piastri being on used mediums that had done more previous laps than Verstappen meant he again pitted for the second time comparatively early, on lap 25 for a third second of mediums – in this case, a new set for Piastri that meant he could run the full 18 laps for his third stint.
Verstappen made his second stop on lap 34, by which point Piastri’s strong pace early in his third stint meant he had cut the Red Bull’s lead to 5.8 seconds as the second stop sequences played out.
For his third stint, Verstappen had been handed new hards, which set up a difference for the fourth stint – with Piastri by this point with just over 20 laps to go having his teammate Norris catching up quickly too.
Verstappen used his hards to extend his lead back out again as the final third wore on, with Piastri facing a 10.2 seconds deficit by the time he stopped for the final time – taking hards – on lap 43.
As McLaren pitted Norris the next time by, the focus for the race’s ending became whether he could overall his teammate during the run to the flag, as Piastri had lost time warming his hards up to temperature and so Norris was able to get within 1.8 seconds as he rejoined.
But that pulled out again to 2.5 seconds as Norris had to go through the warm-up phase on the hards, at which point McLaren told Norris it wanted the pair to hold position as the team was worried the recovering Russell might put a set of softs on at the end and be a real threat.
Norris initially disagreed with McLaren’s call, but in the end held station just over a second behind his teammate as the orange squad wrapped up its second double podium in successive races.
Verstappen’s winning margin ended up being 4.8 seconds after he stopped for a third time to go back to the mediums on lap 51 – but his service ended up at a slightly sluggish 4.1 seconds as Red Bull struggled to get his front left used hard off, did the most damage to Max previous commanding gap over Piastri.
Despite that, Max crossed the finishing line in front of the McLarens to take his latest victory. Another masterclass performance in the Red Bull.
Qatar Grand Prix race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:27:39.168
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +4.833s
3 Lando Norris McLaren +5.969s
4 George Russell Mercedes +34.119s
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +38.976s
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +49.032s
7 Esteban Ocon Alpine +62.390s
8 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +66.563s
9 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +76.127s
10 Sergio Perez Red Bull +80.181s
11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +81.652s
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine +82.300s
13 Alexander Albon Williams +91.014s
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
15 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +1 lap
16 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
17 Liam Lawson AlphaTauri +1 lap
Logan Sargeant Williams DNF
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes DNF
Carlos Sainz Ferrari DNS
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen continued his title celebrations with a dominant performance during Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix, leading home the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris following a first-lap collision between Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Hamilton and Russell went wheel-to-wheel moments after the lights went out at the Lusail International Circuit, the seven-time world champion attempting to go around the outside of his young team mate into Turn 1, only for the duo to dramatically make contact.
With Hamilton out of the race on the spot, and Russell forced to pit for a new front wing at the end of the opening lap, two of Verstappen’s main rivals had already fallen by the wayside and the now triple world champion never looked back, romping to win number 14 of 2023.
McLaren backed up their impressive Sprint race display as Piastri and Norris came home second and third respectively for another double podium finish, rising from their P6 and P10 grid slots after losing lap times over track limits violations in qualifying.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-cruises-to-qatar-gp-victory-over-piastri-and-norris-after.63iY0CEd0WFzm1y0Z4ycui.html
Oscar Piastri says Formula 1’s Qatar Grand Prix was the “hardest race of my life” as he took second in the sweltering heat of Losail after “57 qualifying laps”.
In a race with three mandatory tyre changes following Pirelli reliability concerns, drivers were able to push hard in each of their four stints rather than having to conserve their rubber for longer.
Behind Red Bull’s sovereign winner Max Verstappen, Piastri clinched his second consecutive podium, picking up where he left off after winning Saturday’s sprint in what he described as a gruelling race of 57 qualifying laps.
“Definitely the hardest race I’ve had in my life,” Piastri said. “With the three stops, it was basically flat out, so it was 57 qualifying laps which I definitely feel like I’ve done.
“A really good race, happy that all tyres stayed together.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/piastri-57-qualifying-laps-made-qatar-f1-hardest-race-of-my-life/10530637/
Lewis Hamilton has taken the blame for his Qatar GP start clash with Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate George Russell and said it was “100% my fault”.
Hamilton started third behind Russell and Red Bull’s polesitter Max Verstappen and on his soft tyres he made a better getaway than the front-row starters on mediums.
That initial grip advantage gave Hamilton the confidence and momentum to try and pass both cars around the outside of Turn 1, but he then turned in too early, leaving Russell with no room to avoid a collision.
Hamilton retired on the spot as he lost a wheel and tumbled into the gravel trap, while a furious Russell was forced to pit with what appeared to be a damaged front-left wheel.
Initially, Hamilton said on the team radio he was “taken out by my team-mate” but he soon rectified that once he had seen the replays.
“I’ve watched the replay, and it was 100% my fault and I take full responsibility. Apologies to my team and to George,” Hamilton said on X (formerly Twitter).
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-russell-f1-qatar-gp-clash-100-my-fault/10530662/