The day after winning his third Formula 1 world championship title, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday evening at the Lusail circuit. Starting from pole position, the Dutchman was once again untouchable and took his 14th win of the season in 17 races, the 49th of his career.
As at Suzuka two weeks ago, Verstappen was ahead of the two McLaren cars. But this time, Australian rookie Oscar Piastri, winner of Saturday's sprint, took second place while Britain's Lando Norris climbed onto the third step of the podium.
"The most important thing was the first stint after I was able to manage. But the McLarens were still very fast today and that made the race difficult. There are still races to go and I want to win them," said Verstappen, who suffered from the heat like all the drivers.
The podium of #QatarGP🤩
Verstappen🏆
Piastri🥈
Norris🥉
Champagne❌#QatarGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/3sP71NINoC
— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) October 8, 2023
On Sunday, the race was difficult to read because of the many pit stops of all the competitors.
Due to the uncertainty surrounding the degradation of Pirelli's tyres at the Lusail circuit, the FIA had taken measures that resulted in teams being required to stop three times as a set of tyres had to be used for no more than 18 laps, under penalty of disqualification, while the Grand Prix had 57 laps.
The only big twist of the Grand Prix came at the first corner, when the two Mercedes of Britain's George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who started in second and third positions, collided.
The big loser of the day was the seven-time world champion, who was forced to retire. The incident was a blow to Hamilton, who is vying for second place in the drivers' standings behind Verstappen.
Mercedes is doing well
Before the race, he was 29 points behind Red Bull's Sergio Pérez and had a good opportunity to close the gap as the Mexican started from the pit lane in last position. Luckily for Hamilton, Perez finished 10th after picking up three five-second penalties for not meeting track limits, which robbed him of some valuable points.
"At the time, I thought it had happened that way (Russell's exit) but it was a racing incident. I even prepared myself to take responsibility. It was very tight and George had nowhere to go. I wanted to push and get to the front but it was clearly not a good result today," Hamilton told Canal+.
Russell saved the day for Mercedes with a fine fourth place under the circumstances, but the German team missed a great opportunity to pull away from Ferrari in the race for second place in the constructors' standings.
The Scuderia fielded only one car on Sunday after Spaniard Carlos Sainz withdrew at the last minute 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 was Alfa-Romeo, who managed to place both cars in the points. Finland's Valtteri Bottas took eighth, ahead of his Chinese team-mate Guanyu Zhou, who started last on the grid. In particular, they took advantage of the rain of penalties that fell on their direct rivals at the end of the race.
The French Alpine team may have some regrets as both cars should have scored points on Sunday but in the end only Frenchman Esteban Ocon finished in the top 10 with seventh place. His compatriot Pierre Gasly received several penalties for not respecting track limits and he dropped back to 12th.