Piastri won the sprint, Verstappen the title

Dark. Dry. Air +32…31С, highway +36…35С

Saturday’s sprint in Qatar was expected with particular interest. In the history of motorsport, it has happened that the fate of the championship title was not decided in the race, but this time everything could be decided in the know-how of Liberty Media: the Saturday sprint. This format was criticized by many, including Max Verstappen, who only had to finish sixth to win the title early.

There were some unexpected problems with the tires during the weekend, but they could not affect the short sprint race.

The results of the qualifying for the sprint – Sprint Shootout – were influenced by other factors, namely the strictness of the race management regarding the racers’ adherence to the track limits. Almost everyone had one or more laps cancelled, with the result that McLaren drivers Piastri and Norris started from the front row, Verstappen and Russell from the second row, Sainz and Leclerc from the third row. The drivers had to drive 19 laps.

Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, Alonso, Ocon, Gasly and Stroll started on soft tyres, the rest started on medium. The softer compound provided an advantage early in the race, but quickly lost effectiveness.

At the start, Piastri kept the lead, Verstappen let three cars pass, Norris rolled back, Lawson got stuck in the gravel after take-off. The safety car came out.

A lap later they announced a restart. Russell defeated Piastri.

Top ten in round 4: Russell – Piastri – Sainz – Leclerc – Verstappen – Norris – Ocon – Alonso – Hulkenberg – Gasly.

Sargent flew into the gravel and retired from the race. The safety car came out again.

A restart was announced on the eighth lap. Russell retained the lead. Sainz attacked Piastri for second place, but Oscar stayed ahead.

On the 9th lap, Verstappen overtook Leclerc in the battle for fourth place, and on the 10th lap he overtook Sainz and moved up to third place.
The Soft tires quickly became ineffective and on lap 11 Piastri overtook Russell for the lead. Hamilton moved ahead of Gasly to eighth place.

Perez and Ocon, after making contact with Hulkenberg, who tried to overtake them both, flew into the gravel and fell out of the fight. The safety car came out again. After his partner retired, Max Verstappen became a three-time world champion earlier than planned.

Top ten in round 13: Piastri – Russell – Verstappen – Sainz – Norris – Leclerc – Alonso – Hamilton – Gasly – Bottas.

Russell asked to go to the pits – the tires were losing grip, but there were still a few laps to go before the finish, and the engineer told him to stay on the track – Perez’s car couldn’t get out of the gravel drawn. Hulkenberg turned into the pits and retired.

A restart was announced on the 15th lap. There were still four laps to go until the finish. Piastri retained the lead.

On lap 16, Verstappen overtook Russell for second place.

Hamilton outpaced Gasly, then Alonso and Leclerc, to climb to sixth.

On lap 18, Norris passed Russell for third place.

On lap 19, Hamilton overtook Sainz and moved up to fifth place.

Oscar Piastri won the sprint in Qatar and scored his first victory in Formula 1. Max Verstappen finished second and thus became a three-time world champion. Lando Norris finished the race in third.

Tomorrow the battle will continue in Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Sprint results

* – Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll were penalized with an increase in their sprint times by 5 seconds for exceeding the track boundaries

Best round: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) – 1:25.604 (lap 17, 227.891 km/h)

Reasons for the meetings

Championship Position: Individual Competition

Championship position: Constructors’ Championship