Oscar Piastri did what he needed to do to keep his world championship hopes alive with a decisive victory in the F1 sprint at the Qatar Grand Prix. Although the McLaren driver beat George Russell by 4.951 seconds, he showed he still had control of the pace, recording a faster lap than any of the final Tour’s points scorers.
Pole-sitter Piastri was able to pull away and cruise through Turn 1 with ease, while fellow front-row starter Russell faced an early challenge from Lando Norris but managed to resist.
Behind him, fourth-place starter Fernando Alonso was passed off the line by Hiroki Tsunoda, while the other Red Bull’s Max Verstappen also managed to escape entering Turn 2. Verstappen continued to move forward and passed Tsunoda by Turn 3.
These positions would remain in the top five for the remainder of the race, with Piastri slipping further and further away, while Norris, although staying within Russell’s DRS in the early laps, also faced pressure from Verstappen, who remained within a second of the McLaren man until lap eight.
Piastri’s victory, which came after failing to complete the final two sprints in Austin and Sao Paulo, moved him within 22 points of Norris in the drivers’ championship.
“Obviously it’s a lot different than the previous circuits, the speed is much higher, the grip is much higher,” Piastri said. “I think the last couple of weeks, it’s not so much a lack of pace, so to speak, but things just not working out for us. Everything has been going well so far here, and the pace has been strong.”
“Ideally, if we can find more pace. I think everyone will pick up pace slowly and little throughout the sprint weekend, so we have to try to get everything we can out of the car as much as we can. I think the base performance around here is very strong, so it’s more just tuning than trying to reinvent the wheel.”
Norris is on track to win his first world title in third place, and regardless of Piastri and Verstappen’s results, the same result in the final two grands prix will be enough to secure the crown. And finishing ahead of Verstappen in the sprint means the reigning champion will miss out on next week’s final race in Abu Dhabi if he finishes behind Norris again in Sunday’s Grand Prix.
“Actually, I’ve never seen him,” Norris said of Verstappen during the sprint. “I could see George in front. I tried to go in front. We were pretty close at the start, which was good.”
“It’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, but it’s not easy to get through here. It’s too difficult. So it’s all about qualifying.”
“George almost got pole position. He’s shown that Mercedes is fast and he’s doing a very good job, so I think it’s close. But the team, as always, gave us a very good car again this year, and it was fast. We had a hell of a lap in qualifying here, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Tsunoda finished in 5th place, but was given a 5 second penalty due to too many track limit violations and was temporarily classified as 6th place. This allowed Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli to move up the order – taking Alonso’s sixth place at the start of lap 16 after the Aston Martin driver went wide at the final corner of the previous lap – but he was given a penalty of his own. Antonelli’s deleted final lap was temporarily reinstated, but was removed again after the race, ensuring he was penalized and granted his actual finishing position.
Alonso got off to a poor start and returned home in seventh place after a moment handing sixth place to Antonelli, while Carlos Sainz withstood pressure from Izak Hajar in the closing stages to take the final points-scoring position in eighth. Hajjar and Sainz’s Williams teammate Alexander Albon rounded out the top ten.
Gabriel Bortleto finished 11th, and together with Nico Hulkenberg’s 16th place finish, Sauber ended the year as the only team without a point in the sprint. Meanwhile, Leclerc’s 13th place was the result of Liam Lawson regaining the position at the start of lap 12 after the Racing Bulls driver ran wide to overtake him on the previous lap, while Lewis Hamilton’s 17th place after a pitlane start was the first since Monza in 2021, when Ferrari failed to score in the sprint.
Pierre Gasly, along with Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, set the fastest lap in 1 minute 23.188 seconds after failing to make much progress from their pit lane start with Hamilton and pitting for soft tires late in the race.
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