Race Review: Qatar GP

Sparks flew at Formula 1’s first visit to the Losail International Circuit in Doha, Qatar, with Lewis Hamilton taking the inaugural win in what is looking to be a tense end to the season. Penalties and punctures made the second twilight race of the season an exciting one, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso taking his first podium since Hungary in 2014.

Free Practice

Nikita Mazepin and Sergio Perez came to Qatar with a slight advantage over the rest of the grid, with both drivers having previously raced here before. Former F1 driver Nico Hülkenberg held the lap record from his time in GP2 Asia, which was swiftly broken as Free Practice 1 got underway.

Hamilton suffered a power unit issue during the session, with Mercedes making the decision to retire the car. And he wasn’t the only retiree; Stroll’s Aston Martin had a hydraulics issue and with just a few minutes left of FP1, retired as well.

Norris caused minor damage to his undercarriage after running over the sausage kerbs, and Schumacher found the gravel but was swiftly back out. Honda were the front runners for this session, with Verstappen and Gasly being the first and second fastest, Bottas coming in behind them.

Mazepin sat out FP2, as his Haas garnered a severely damaged chassis, making him unable to get out on track for the second practice session as they had to replace it. Vettel was caught up in lots of traffic, as Leclerc ran into the gravel trap.

Although the AlphaTauri’s were quick on pace once again, it was Bottas who pipped the top spot, Gasly two tenths behind and Verstappen taking third spot.

As Mazepin headed out of the pits for FP3, engine problems caused him to park at the pitlane exit, not even making it out on track and subsequently missing the whole of another session.

Turn 2 saw Gasly, Leclerc and Schumacher take spins as the whole field started their qualifying simulations, despite the fact the conditions would be very different to Practice 3. The Silver Arrows took the top two spots; Bottas topping the timesheets, followed by Hamilton and Verstappen.

Qualifying

With the news that Antonio Giovinazzi would be leaving Formula 1 at the end of the season earlier in the week, and Formula 2’s Guanyu Zhou (the first Chinese F1 driver) taking his seat, the Italian couldn’t make much of an impression as he was knocked out in Q1.

George Russell made a Q2 appearance after being out-qualified by his teammate for the first time in 51 starts last weekend at Interlagos. However, he couldn’t capitalise and stayed P15.

Perhaps most surprising was seeing Leclerc, Ricciardo and Perez also out in Q2, finishing P13, P14 and P11 respectively. Once back in the garage, Leclerc said he had ‘no idea,’ what had happened, and said he was pushing to the limit. It was later revealed he had a crack in his chassis which was able to be replaced without incurring any penalties.

Hamilton was flying under the lights in Q3, going purple in Sectors 1, 2 and 3 on his final hot lap, and posting a 1:20.827. Just as Bottas and Verstappen began their final flying laps, a yellow flag was waved in Sector 3, caused by a puncture sustained by Pierre Gasly to his front right tyre. After running over the kerb at Turn 15, the Frenchman’s front wing came off and tore into his tyre, causing him to hobble across the line but still finishing in a very respectable P4.

Qualifying ended as follows:

P1 Hamilton P2 Verstappen P3 Bottas P4 Gasly P5 Alonso P6 Norris P7 Sainz P8 Tsunoda P9 Ocon P10 Vettel P11 Perez P12 Stroll P13 Leclerc P14 Ricciardo P15 Russell P16 Räikkönen P17 Latifi P18 Giovinazzi P19 Schumacher P20 Mazepin

After the session, Verstappen, Bottas and Sainz were called to the stewards for failing to lift under the yellow flag caused by Gasly’s puncture. Verstappen received a 5-place grid penalty, demoting him from P2 to P7 for failing to lift under double waved yellows, Bottas taking a 3-place grid penalty for single waved yellows. Sainz took no further action, causing a shake up to the starting grid, with Gasly starting on the front row for the first time in his F1 career:

P1 Hamilton P2 Gasly P3 Alonso P4 Norris P5 Sainz P6 Bottas P7 Verstappen P8 Tsunoda P9 Ocon P10 Vettel P11 Perez P12 Stroll P13 Leclerc P14 Ricciardo P15 Russell P16 Räikkönen P17 Latifi P18 Giovinazzi P19 Schumacher P20 Mazepin

The Race

At lights out, Gasly held onto P2, but with Alonso following closely, he made the pass for second before the end of the first lap. Verstappen, eager to get back to the front of the field, made up 3 places almost instantly, and taking P4. Bottas slipped from P6 to P11 and Vettel from P10 to P17.

Verstappen’s run up the field didn’t stop there; on lap 4 he passed Gasly who ran wide as he was told ‘Max is not or race,’ before getting up to P2 on the net lap. His teammate was up to P4 on lap 16, and it was advantage Red Bull for the moment.

On lap 17, Verstappen pitted, with Hamilton copying a lap later to cover him off and regain a 10 second lead. Bottas, who was yet to pit, had made a great recovery drive and was up to third on lap 29.

Alonso was looking on form, battling with the Red Bulls and Mercedes and showing no signs of backing off. He was P5 behind the top two teams, before a front left puncture from Bottas saw him showered with sparks as the Finn went into the gravel at Turn 7, causing a yellow flag.

Bottas went over the recommended amount of laps for the C2 medium tyre, and he emerged from the pits on the hard, slipping down to P14 with both Red Bulls now behind Hamilton.

On lap 41, both Verstappen and Perez pitted, Hamilton once again copying a lap later. The two championship contenders regained P1 and P2, but Perez slipped down to P7, promoting Alonso to the podium positions.

Keen to keep this position, the Spaniard came on the radio to his team; ‘tell Esteban to defend like a lion.’ It was reminiscent of Hungary this year, where Fernando defended against Hamilton to allow Ocon to win the race.

Despite keeping him behind for 6 laps, Perez got past Ocon on lap 47, with Perez on fresher medium tyres and Ocon on older hard tyres. The Frenchman didn’t leave without a fight, and tried to go back for the overtake but couldn’t quite make the pass.

And it wasn’t just Bottas suffering with tyre issues. Laps 50 and 52 saw Russell and Latifi both succumb to front left punctures, with Latifi retiring and a Virtual Safety Car being called on lap 55. The Finn retired on lap 50 to end another unlucky race stint.

Taking advantage of the VSC, Verstappen pitted for softs, subsequently taking fastest lap and P2, but it was Hamilton who took the win in Qatar, meaning he has now won at 30 different circuits out of the 35 he has raced on. Following this finish, Verstappen’s points lead has dropped from 14 to just 8, with 2 races to go.

Fernando Alonso came home in P3, taking his 98th podium in F1 and his first podium since 2014 with Ferrari. His teammate, Ocon, finished in an impressive fifth, with Alpine’s strong weekend putting them 25 points ahead of AlphaTauri.

Lando Norris, who was sat in P4, had to pit a few laps before the end due to a puncture, meaning he came back out in P11. However, the McLaren driver fought back to P9 to take a couple of points. Ricciardo was suffering with a fuel warning on his car from the first lap, meaning he had to save fuel. It was then realised near the end of the race that it was a software glitch and he had enough fuel - McLaren’s 900th race weekend may be one to forget.

The race finished:

P1 Hamilton, P2 Verstappen, P3 Alonso, P4 Perex. P5 Ocon, P6 Stroll, P7 Sainz, P8 Leclerc, P9 Norris, P10 Vettel, P11 Gasly, P12 Ricciardo, P13 Tsunoda, P14 Räikkönen, P15 Giovinazzi, P16 Schumacher, P17 Russell, P18 Mazepin, DNF Latifi & Bottas

Driver of the Day: Alonso

What a drive from Fernando Alonso! The Alpines had looked quick all weekend, but Alonso was out for a fight on Sunday. His tyre management was impeccable, and after tussling with the Red Bulls, took home a well-deserved P3.

Biggest Crash: Bottas

It was a lucky weekend in terms of crashes, with a decent amount of chassis damage due to the curbs being the biggest issues. There were quite a few punctures in the race though with Valtteri Bottas’ puncture caused him to head off into the gravel trap at Turn 7, throwing up sparks as he did. He had to make the rest of the lap with sparks flying behind as he crawled back to the pits. And it didn’t look to be the smoothest of rides either!

Overtake of the Day: Verstappen

There were some brilliant overtakes and battles on the track this weekend. But this has to go to Verstappen who made his way up to P2 so rapidly. Verstappen’s lunge on the opening lap saw him pass Bottas, Sainz and Norris for P4. Taking three cars on the first lap whilst avoiding contact is no mean feat, but Verstappen cleared them with no problems at all.

Biggest Heartbreak: Norris

Sailing in P4, Norris looked to be on for a great finish in Qatar, but his suspected puncture caused him to pit with just a few laps to go. Through no fault of his or the team, his position was lost, to end an unfortunate triple header for McLaren.

Notable mentions to Ricciardo and Gasly too; Ricciardo’s fuel glitch left him trundling along for much of the race to finish P12 and Gasly’s pace just seemed to slip away, despite being so quick all weekend. He finished just ahead of the Aussie in P11, after starting on the front row.

Best Radio Comment: Alonso

Ocon certainly put up a defence against Perez after being told to ‘defend like a lion.’ I suppose it’s not every day you help your two-time world champion teammate get a podium.

You can watch the full video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7q7Oy58DJM

Takeaways

The Qatar GP did not disappoint. With no one knowing what to expect going in to the weekend, there was plenty of on track action and overtaking.

There were also solid performances across the field, particularly not going to Lance Stroll. His underrated drive saw him go from P12 to P6, finishing ahead of the two Ferraris!

During the course of the triple header, Ferrari have taken P3 from McLaren in the Constructors and now sit 39.5 points ahead of them. Also, throughout the races in Mexico, Brazil and Qatar, McLaren only scored 4 points, the same as Alfa Romeo. If McLaren have any hopes to take back P3, they need to regroup and re-find their pace for the final two races.

Verstappen now has the chance to win the title in Saudi Arabia. If he wins, Hamilton must finish 6th or lower, and if he finishes P2, Hamilton must not score points. But if Lewis wins and takes fastest lap in Saudi Arabia, and Max finishes second, they’ll head to the season finale in Abu Dhabi equal on points. Could the end of the season get any more dramatic?