Evening walk for champion Verstappen at the Qatar GP

Max Verstappen celebrated his third successive F1 championship – winning yesterday’s sprint – with another tour de force this evening at the Qatar GP, the 17th of the season at the Losail circuit. It was the Dutchman’s 14th win of the year, in a season of dominance rarely seen in the past.

Completing the podium were Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the two McLarens ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso, on a night when Ferrari and Aston Martin were not at their best.

The battle for the podium was largely decided by the collision between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the first corner of the race. Mercedes had the pace to fight with McLaren for the two podium places, but Lewis retired in the first corner sand trap – while Russell had to pit for a front wing change.

Despite this, Russell had the pace to move up to fourth place in the standings by the middle of the race – evidence that without the turn one incident we would have had an interesting battle between Mercedes and McLaren for the two adjacent podium places this evening. Russell’s initial delay never allowed him to close the gap on the two McLarens.

Even before the start of the race, we knew that there would be consecutive pit stops: the FIA ​​​​decided in advance that no driver would be allowed to complete more than 18 laps on each set of tires. With 57 laps to go, that meant everyone had to make three pit stops from the start to the checkered flag.

Piastri started from sixth place, but after the annihilation between Hamilton and Russell in the first corner, Alonso had to avoid Russell and the Australian took the opportunity and moved up to second – behind Verstappen, who escaped the accident behind him. Norris also gained two places and ended up in the pits of Alonso’s Aston.

Over the next 56 laps, the rankings constantly changed through a series of pit stops, but not much changed in the top positions. Verstappen was one of the last to make each pit stop and the entire time he was in the lead and in control of the race. The same went for Piastri for second place.

However, in the battle for third place, Alonso appeared to be taking the title in his first two stints on the medium tire. However, when he hit hard during his second pit stop, the Spaniard and Aston’s pace dropped rapidly. The 42-year-old soon lost out to Norris, was then overtaken by the fast Russell and then came an exit that confirmed his problems with those tires – and cost him another place from Leclerc.

In the battle for the top ten, Apline once again looked competitive, finishing 7th with Esteban Ocon ahead of the two Alfa Romeos Valtteri Bottas and Guanyue Chow, while Sergio Perez finished last in the top ten after two 5” races . Punish. for exceeding the track limits – and of course after starting from the pits, because of an engine change after his accident in yesterday’s sprint.

We would like to remind you that Carlos Sainz did not start this evening because the Ferrari SF-23 had a fuel leak problem just before the race. After today’s race in Qatar, Formula 1 travels to the Americas for four consecutive GPs: in Texas, Mexico, Brazil and Las Vegas. The first of these will take place in two weeks, on the three days from October 20th to 22nd.