Oscar Piastri did what he needed to keep his world championship hopes alive with a decisive Formula 1 sprint win at the Qatar Grand Prix. The McLaren driver beat George Russell by 4.951 seconds, but set a faster lap than any points scorer on the last tour, showing he was still in control of the pace.
Polesitter Piastri got away well to escape Turn 1 unchallenged, while fellow front row starter Russell faced an early challenge from Lando Norris which he was able to withstand.
Behind them, fourth-placed starter Fernando Alonso was beaten off the line by Yuki Tsunoda, while the other Red Bull of Max Verstappen also passed entering Turn 2. Verstappen continued to make progress, passing Tsunoda in Turn 3.
Those would be the positions the top five would remain in for the rest of the race, with Piastri shooting into the distance, while Norris stayed within DRS range of Russell for the opening laps, while also under pressure from Verstappen who stayed within a second of the McLaren man until lap 8.
Piastri’s victory comes after he failed to complete the final two sprints in Austin and Sao Paulo, and brings him within 22 points of Norris in the Drivers’ Championship.
“It’s obviously a very different track to what we’ve been to, much higher speeds, much more grip,” said Piastri. “I think things have just gone wrong over the last few weekends rather than a lack of pace, so to speak. Here so far everything has been smooth and the pace has been fast.
“Ideally if we can find more speed. I think everyone slowly finds a little bit more over the sprint weekend, so you have to try to get everything you can out of the car. I think our basic performance here seems very strong, so it’s more just fine-tuning, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.”
Norris’s third place keeps him on course to win his first world title, with the same result in the last two Grands Prix being enough to secure the crown regardless of Piastri and Verstappen’s results. And because he finished ahead of Verstappen in the sprint, it means that if the reigning champion finishes behind Norris again at Sunday’s Grand Prix, he will be out of contention at the final round in Abu Dhabi next week.
“I’ve actually never seen him,” Norris said about Verstappen in the sprint. “I just saw George ahead. I tried to go forward, we were quite close at first, but it was good.”
“It’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, but [it’s] not easy to walk around here – too difficult. So yeah, all about qualifying.
“George was almost on pole. He shows that the Mercedes is fast and he is doing very, very well. So I think it will be close. But the team also gave us a very good car again, as they always do this year, and it was fast. It’s a great lap here in qualifying, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Tsunoda finished fifth, but was briefly classified sixth after receiving a five-second time penalty for too many track limit violations. That moved Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli up one place – having finished sixth to Alonso at the start of lap 16 after the Aston Martin driver went wide at the final corner of the previous lap – but he himself was awarded a penalty. Antonelli’s final deleted lap was briefly reinstated, but was taken back after the race, giving him a penalty and his actual finishing position.
Alonso came home seventh after his poor start and second place gave Antonelli sixth, with Carlos Sainz resisting late pressure from Isack Hadjar to take the final points-paying position in eighth. Hadjar and Sainz’s Williams teammate Alexander Albon completed the top 10.
Gabriel Bortoletto finished 11th, meaning Sauber – along with Nico Hulkenberg’s 16th place – ends the year as the only team not to have scored in a sprint. Meanwhile, a 13th place for Leclerc – which came after Liam Lawson had given the place back at the start of lap 12 after the Racing Bulls driver had gone wide to pass him on the lap before – and a 17th for Lewis Hamilton after a pit lane start, the first time since Monza 2021 in which Ferrari had failed to score in a sprint.
Pierre Gasly set the fastest lap with a 1m23.188s after he, along with his Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, all ended up on soft tires late in the race after failing to make much progress during their pit lane start alongside Hamilton.
RESULTS
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