Red Bull driver Max Verstappen continued his title celebrations with a dominant performance during Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix, leading home the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris following a first-lap collision between Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. (Sprint Report can be viewed here).
There was drama before lap 1 as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz could not start the race as a result of a fuel leak discovered in the garage an hour before the race.
Hamilton and Russell went wheel-to-wheel moments after the lights went out at the Lusail International Circuit, the seven-time world champion attempting to go around the outside of his young team mate into Turn 1, only for the duo to dramatically make contact.
With Hamilton out of the race on the spot, and Russell forced to pit for a new front wing at the end of the opening lap, two of Verstappen’s main rivals had already fallen by the wayside and the now triple world champion never looked back, romping to win number 14 of 2023.
All the teams were restricted to a maximum of 18 laps on each set of tyres after Pirelli discovered its product was vulnerable to failure at high speed over the kerbs at the Lusail circuit.
That led to a staccato race in which it took time for the order to settle down, all drivers forced to make at least three pit stops by the tyre-mileage limits.
Russell made a steady recovery back up the field to finish 4th with Leclerc capitalised on an error by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to take 5th.
Alonso, struggling with a seat that was burning him, held on for sixth ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez finished ninth on the road after starting from the pit lane following a crash in Saturday’s spring, his race hampered by two five-second penalties for exceeding track limits.
But the Mexican’s race was hampered by two five-second penalties for exceeding track limits, the first served at a pit stop and the second imposed at the end, demoting him to 10th behind Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.
