A Formula One title race for the ages is set to go down to the wire after Lewis Hamilton’s dominant victory at the inaugural Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday. The Brit was untouchable in his Mercedes around the lightning Losail International Circuit as he closed the gap on title rival Max Verstappen.
Red Bull’s Verstappen finished second and also claimed the fastest lap bonus point, overcoming a five-place grid penalty for failing to respect warning flags in Saturday's qualifying which had dropped him down to seventh at the start.
With two races remaining in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, Hamilton has narrowed down Verstappen’s lead to eight points. Former two-time world champion Fernando Alonso took the final podium position in Alpine, his first in seven years.
It would be an understatement to say the maiden Qatar F1 Grand Prix was just a blockbuster hit. True to its anticipation, the motorsports fans in Qatar thronged the Losail Circuit on all three days, with a packed crowd yesterday enjoying a dazzling evening which was sprinkled with spectacular race, glamour and sporting icons from F1 and football.
The race day coincided with one year countdown for FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, as the spectators in the main grandstand lapped up the trophy on display and some of the game's finest – with David Beckham, Andrea Pirlo, Ronaldinho and John Terry all making an appearance on the grid before the race. After a year’s break, the F1 will return to Qatar in 2023 with the country having signed a 10-year deal.
On the track though, it was Hamilton all the way. The seven-time world champion was coming into the Qatar GP after one of his greatest victories in Brazil and he made sure he cashed in on the momentum, to stay afloat in the title race.
After his clinical win, Hamilton was not in a celebratory mood, turning his focus to the final two Grand Prix of the season. “The last two weeks have been fantastic, just amazing,” said Hamilton. “But there’s no time for celebrations; I’ll be back in with the team already again next week and just back in training tomorrow,” he said.
“Today, of course the race was made a lot easier with the penalties that the guys obviously got for the mistake they made yesterday, so that made it a lot more straightforward,” added Hamilton. “I was just managing the gap at the front, keeping the car safe and trying to maximise and bring the car home. I generally felt I wasn't massively under threat. I managed to cover the ground just off the start and after that it was just kind of head down and focused on trying to [keep] the gap,” he said.
Once Hamilton made a clinical start from pole position, his newly fitted engine in Sao Paulo last week proved too hot to handle for Verstappen and the rest of the chasing pack. The Brit was able to control the pace at the front of the field, with his Mercedes flying around the fast-flowing circuit.
Verstappen too was not the one to give up easily as he made an impressive start from seventh to fourth. The Dutchman soon climbed to third by lap four after charging past Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri and a lap later moved to second after overtaking Alonso, with only Hamilton around four seconds up the road from him.
But with Hamilton steadily increasing his lead, Red Bull decided to pit Verstappen at the end of lap 17 after a possible damage to the front wing. Mercedes followed suit in the next lap with Hamilton also moving to the hard tyre as his team mirrored Verstappen’s strategy.
From there, the pair traded fastest laps across the next phase of the race. But as the race entered the final stages, Hamilton’s lead over Verstappen only widened. The Red Bull called in Verstappen for the third time, only to make sure he used the softs to seal the fastest lap with a time of 1m23.196s as Hamilton took the chequered flag 25.7 seconds ahead of his title rival.
Verstappen later said he is relishing the title battle with Hamilton. “I feel good. It’s going to be a tight battle to the end. I know it’s going to be difficult to the end, but I think that’s nice – it keeps it exciting,” he said.
“We just didn’t have the pace this weekend to match them [Mercedes]. I did the fastest lap – at the end of the day it was still one extra point and everything counts at the moment – but this weekend wasn’t the best for us,” the Dutchman added.
Meanwhile, there was joy down at Alpine as Alonso returned to the podium for the first time since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix, the Spaniard having executed an aggressive drive to survive late-race pressure from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to take third.
Perez’s fourth place was a decent recovery considering he’d started P11, while he finished ahead of the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, with Lance Stroll taking P6 for Aston Martin.
The Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were P7 and P8. Lando Norris took P9 after a late stop for the McLaren driver, as Sebastian Vettel took the final points-paying position for P10 – with Pierre Gasly failing to make a two-stop strategy work, dropping from P2 on the grid to P11, allowing Alpine to move clear of AlphaTauri in P5 in the standings.
Meanwhile, it was a day to forget for Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who took his own grid drop, dropping from P3 to P6, before falling to 11th at the start and then suffering mid-race tyre issues before Mercedes retired him. Bottas' misery left the Silver Arrows with only a five-point lead over Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.
Red Bull’s Verstappen finished second and also claimed the fastest lap bonus point, overcoming a five-place grid penalty for failing to respect warning flags in Saturday's qualifying which had dropped him down to seventh at the start.
With two races remaining in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, Hamilton has narrowed down Verstappen’s lead to eight points. Former two-time world champion Fernando Alonso took the final podium position in Alpine, his first in seven years.
It would be an understatement to say the maiden Qatar F1 Grand Prix was just a blockbuster hit. True to its anticipation, the motorsports fans in Qatar thronged the Losail Circuit on all three days, with a packed crowd yesterday enjoying a dazzling evening which was sprinkled with spectacular race, glamour and sporting icons from F1 and football.
The race day coincided with one year countdown for FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, as the spectators in the main grandstand lapped up the trophy on display and some of the game's finest – with David Beckham, Andrea Pirlo, Ronaldinho and John Terry all making an appearance on the grid before the race. After a year’s break, the F1 will return to Qatar in 2023 with the country having signed a 10-year deal.
On the track though, it was Hamilton all the way. The seven-time world champion was coming into the Qatar GP after one of his greatest victories in Brazil and he made sure he cashed in on the momentum, to stay afloat in the title race.
After his clinical win, Hamilton was not in a celebratory mood, turning his focus to the final two Grand Prix of the season. “The last two weeks have been fantastic, just amazing,” said Hamilton. “But there’s no time for celebrations; I’ll be back in with the team already again next week and just back in training tomorrow,” he said.
“Today, of course the race was made a lot easier with the penalties that the guys obviously got for the mistake they made yesterday, so that made it a lot more straightforward,” added Hamilton. “I was just managing the gap at the front, keeping the car safe and trying to maximise and bring the car home. I generally felt I wasn't massively under threat. I managed to cover the ground just off the start and after that it was just kind of head down and focused on trying to [keep] the gap,” he said.
Once Hamilton made a clinical start from pole position, his newly fitted engine in Sao Paulo last week proved too hot to handle for Verstappen and the rest of the chasing pack. The Brit was able to control the pace at the front of the field, with his Mercedes flying around the fast-flowing circuit.
Verstappen too was not the one to give up easily as he made an impressive start from seventh to fourth. The Dutchman soon climbed to third by lap four after charging past Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri and a lap later moved to second after overtaking Alonso, with only Hamilton around four seconds up the road from him.
But with Hamilton steadily increasing his lead, Red Bull decided to pit Verstappen at the end of lap 17 after a possible damage to the front wing. Mercedes followed suit in the next lap with Hamilton also moving to the hard tyre as his team mirrored Verstappen’s strategy.
From there, the pair traded fastest laps across the next phase of the race. But as the race entered the final stages, Hamilton’s lead over Verstappen only widened. The Red Bull called in Verstappen for the third time, only to make sure he used the softs to seal the fastest lap with a time of 1m23.196s as Hamilton took the chequered flag 25.7 seconds ahead of his title rival.
Verstappen later said he is relishing the title battle with Hamilton. “I feel good. It’s going to be a tight battle to the end. I know it’s going to be difficult to the end, but I think that’s nice – it keeps it exciting,” he said.
“We just didn’t have the pace this weekend to match them [Mercedes]. I did the fastest lap – at the end of the day it was still one extra point and everything counts at the moment – but this weekend wasn’t the best for us,” the Dutchman added.
Meanwhile, there was joy down at Alpine as Alonso returned to the podium for the first time since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix, the Spaniard having executed an aggressive drive to survive late-race pressure from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to take third.
Perez’s fourth place was a decent recovery considering he’d started P11, while he finished ahead of the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, with Lance Stroll taking P6 for Aston Martin.
The Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were P7 and P8. Lando Norris took P9 after a late stop for the McLaren driver, as Sebastian Vettel took the final points-paying position for P10 – with Pierre Gasly failing to make a two-stop strategy work, dropping from P2 on the grid to P11, allowing Alpine to move clear of AlphaTauri in P5 in the standings.
Meanwhile, it was a day to forget for Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who took his own grid drop, dropping from P3 to P6, before falling to 11th at the start and then suffering mid-race tyre issues before Mercedes retired him. Bottas' misery left the Silver Arrows with only a five-point lead over Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.