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Formula 1: manufacturers ranking
Formula 1: drivers ranking
Alpine, the big blow
25 points in the bag. Difficult to do better for the French brand. Third at the end of this Grand Prix of Qatar, won this Sunday by Lewis Hamilton (see elsewhere), Fernando Alonso offers Alpine a second podium this season, after Esteban Ocon's victory in Hungary, and gets back on the box for the first time since… 2014. A real performance. Fifth, Esteban Ocon validates the excellent weekend of the blue cars which made the hole in the fifth place in the standings of the manufacturers because Alpha Tauri had a black Sunday (see elsewhere).
Hamilton teaches the lesson
Saturday, the seven-time world champion had impressed by slamming his 102nd pole position, the first since Hungary. On Sunday, he did it again by signing with authority his 102nd career victory, leading the Qatar Grand Prix from start to finish. Lewis Hamilton is the strong man of the end of the season. His W12 flies in the race and here he is, eight points behind Max Verstappen in the drivers' standings, two races from the end of the season.
Verstappen limits the damage
Penalized by five places on the grid for a failure to respect a double yellow flag, Max Verstappen, second in qualifying, started from seventh place. But the championship leader had recovered from the sixth round. Second in the Qatar GP with the fastest lap in the race, the Dutchman conceded just six points to Lewis Hamilton and kept eight units in advance. The Mercedes was too strong and the Red Bull driver is happy with that.
Aston Martin in the top 10
For the first time since the French Grand Prix, Aston Martin placed his two cars in the top 10. Lance Stroll had a brilliant race to take sixth place and thus sign his best result of the season.
For his part, Sebastian Vettel finished tenth at Losail and confirms his good period with three appearances in the top 10 in the last four races.
FLOPS
Alpha Tauri loses big
Zero point. At the worst time. Second on the grid after the penalty game, Pierre Gasly finally took a modest eleventh place. Blame it on a two-stop strategy while the one-stop strategy was the best to enter the top 10. The disappointment is great for the Frenchman as well as for his team. His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, on the same strategy, could not do better with a thirteenth place at the finish. Alpha Tauri lost big in the race for fifth place among constructors and found himself 25 units behind Alpine, while the two teams were neck and neck.
Bottas unlucky
He had missed his start from sixth place to eleventh.
Then, the Finn had set off quietly, after a few words from Toto Wolff on the radio.
So much so that he was third and clearly playing the podium twenty-five laps from the finish.
By stretching his first stint with his medium tires, the number two Mercedes was back in the game but his left front tire exploded, too worn.
And Valtteri Bottas lost everything.
Relegated to twelfth place, then forced to retire by his box, the future Alfa Romeo driver had another complicated Sunday.
This allows Red Bull to come back to five points behind Mercedes.