(Doha) The day after his third crown as Formula 1 world champion, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the Qatar Grand Prix without trembling, Sunday evening on the Lusail circuit.
Starting in the lead position, the Dutchman was once again untouchable and took his 14th victory of the season in 17 races, the 49th of his career.
As at Suzuka two weeks ago, Verstappen was ahead of the two McLaren single-seaters. But this time, Australian rookie Oscar Piastri, winner of the sprint on Saturday, took second place while Briton Lando Norris climbed to the third step of the podium.
“The most important thing was the first stint after which I was able to manage. But the McLarens were still very fast today and that made the race difficult. There are still races to do and I want to win them,” underlined Verstappen, who suffered from the heat like all the drivers.
On Sunday, the race was difficult to read due to the numerous pit stops by all the competitors.
Due to the uncertainty surrounding the degradation of Pirelli tires on the Lusail circuit, the FIA took measures which had the consequence of forcing the teams to stop three times since a set of tires should not be used for more than 18 laps, under penalty of disqualification, while the Grand Prix had 57 laps.
The only big drama of the Grand Prix occurred at the first corner, when the two Mercedes of Britons George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who started in second and third positions, collided.
The big loser of the day was therefore the seven-time world champion, who was forced to retire. This incident is a blow for Hamilton, who is vying for second place in the drivers’ standings behind Verstappen.
Before the race, he was 29 points behind Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) and had a good opportunity to close the gap as the Mexican started from the pit lane in last position. Fortunately for Hamilton, Pérez finished 10th after receiving three five-second penalties for violating track limits, which deprived him of some valuable points.
“At the time, I thought it happened like that (released by Russell, Editor’s note) but it’s a racing incident. I was even ready to take responsibility. It was very tight and George had nowhere to go. I wanted to attack and get in front but it’s clearly not a good result today,” said Hamilton at the microphone of Canal.
Russell still saved the furniture for Mercedes by taking a good fourth place given the circumstances, but the German team missed a great opportunity to outrun Ferrari in the race for second place in the world constructors’ ranking.
The Scuderia had in fact only fielded one car on Sunday after the last minute withdrawal of Spaniard Carlos Sainz due to a fuel supply problem on his car. Monegasque Charles Leclerc limited the damage for the Italian team by finishing fifth, just ahead of Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin).
The surprise of the day is to the credit of Alfa-Romeo, which managed to place its two cars in the points. Finnish Valtteri Bottas took eighth place, ahead of his Chinese teammate Guanyu Zhou, who started last on the starting grid. They notably took advantage of the rain of penalties that fell on their direct competitors at the end of the race.
The French team Alpine may have regrets since its two cars should have scored points on Sunday but ultimately only Frenchman Esteban Ocon finished in the Top 10, taking seventh place. His compatriot Pierre Gasly received several penalties for not respecting the track limits and he fell to 12th place.