Verstappen surges to victory ahead of Leclerc and Piastri in action-packed Qatar Grand Prix amid three Safety Cars

Max Verstappen took a masterful victory in a hugely eventful Qatar Grand Prix, a race that featured three Safety Car appearances, numerous incidents and a penalty for Lando Norris that dropped the Briton down the order after earlier battling for the lead.

Having lost pole position following a one-place penalty for an incident in qualifying, Verstappen looked to be in fighting mode from the off, the Dutchman winning a battle for the lead against George Russell and Norris into Turn 1.

It was not necessarily a straightforward drive from there, however, with the Safety Car appearing on the first lap after Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon were both casualties in an incident with Nico Hulkenberg.

This proved to be the first of three Safety Car outings during the 57-lap encounter – and while the second restart saw Norris run close to Verstappen in a fight for the lead, the world champion ultimately held on and remained in the position through to the chequered flag.

Norris, meanwhile, saw what looked to be a certain podium result slip away after being handed a 10-second stop/go penalty for failing to slow under yellow flags, dropping him down the field and leaving him with a battle on his hands to claim points.

Charles Leclerc took second place, the Ferrari driver crossing the line six seconds back from Verstappen, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri completed the podium in third. Russell was Mercedes’ sole points-scorer in fourth, ahead of Pierre Gasly who held off Carlos Sainz to take a solid fifth for Alpine.

Sainz had to settle for sixth in the Ferrari – recovering well from an earlier puncture – with fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso taking home points for Aston Martin in seventh. Zhou Guanyu, meanwhile, scored Kick Sauber’s long-awaited debut points of the season by claiming a popular eighth place, also earning him the Driver of the Day accolade.

Kevin Magnussen was ninth for Haas, while Norris’s recovery drive following that aforementioned penalty saw him claim the final point in 10th. Valtteri Bottas just missed out on adding to Kick Sauber’s celebrations in 11th, with former team mate Lewis Hamilton cutting a dejected figure in 12th after receiving two penalties during the event.

The RB pair of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson were P13 and P14 respectively, with Alex Albon the last classified runner in P15 for Williams. Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg was one of five retirees, the Haas spinning out and becoming beached in the gravel, while Sergio Perez also found himself out of the running after suffering a spin of his own in the Red Bull.

Lance Stroll recorded a DNF early on, having sustained damage to his Aston Martin following contact with Albon on the opening lap. Colapinto and Ocon also saw their races end before they had begun following that first corner incident with Hulkenberg.

AS IT HAPPENED

After an eventful Saturday at the Lusail International Circuit – which saw McLaren triumph in the final Sprint of the year, while a busy qualifying followed a few hours later – attentions turned to race day as the drivers and teams prepared for the 57-lap Qatar Grand Prix.

One key change had been made to the starting order since qualifying, with Verstappen – who had initially clinched pole position – being demoted down to second after being handed a penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly on his cooldown lap in the session, an incident that forced Russell to take evading action.

This promoted second-placed Russell up into P1, with Verstappen alongside him on the front row. And as the cars assembled on the grid when the start of the penultimate race of the season approached, it was revealed that all of the field had bolted on the medium tyre – with just Hulkenberg bucking the trend by sporting the hard compound.

As the lights went out in Qatar, Verstappen and Russell both got away well – but it was Verstappen who held the racing line and initially looked to have the lead. Meanwhile Norris was also keen to get involved and tried to make a move on Verstappen, but the Dutchman ultimately stayed in front, leading the way from Norris and Russell into the opening lap.

There was trouble further back, however, with Hulkenberg going wide and making contact with Ocon, which then caused the Alpine to hit Colapinto. This immediately put Ocon and Colapinto out of the running – triggering the Safety Car to come out as their stricken cars were recovered – while Hulkenberg visited the pits and managed to continue, though the German was noted by Race Control for allegedly causing a collision.

Elsewhere, Colapinto’s team mate Albon suffered a spin after receiving a tap from Stroll but both were also able to stay in the running, despite the Aston Martin having to make a pit stop. The start had been better for some, though, with Perez moving up from ninth to seventh while Tsunoda had made gains, having moved from 14th to 10th.

After the Safety Car peeled in just as Lap 5 began, Verstappen executed a solid restart to hold the lead while Piastri picked off Leclerc for fourth and Lawson spun off the track into Turn 1, dropping the RB to the back of the pack in P18. Alonso, meanwhile, fell into the clutches of Hamilton and Tsunoda, leading the Spaniard to report that his lack of pace on the straight was “worrying”.

There was further trouble for Aston Martin when Stroll headed to the pits, seemingly to retire the car, on Lap 8 – just as he was hit with a 10-second time penalty for his collision with Albon. This then prompted the Canadian to return to action but the team’s problems weren’t over, with Alonso noted for rejoining the track unsafely.

The stewards were certainly being kept busy, as the next incident noted was a potential false start by Hamilton. Replays showed the Mercedes seemingly moving early before stopping and then going again, with Hamilton heard remarking over the radio: “Sorry, guys.” Stroll, meanwhile, had now retired from the running after serving that penalty.

As plenty of action played out across the field – including a feisty battle between Magnussen and Tsunoda as they fought over P9, a scrap won by the Haas – Verstappen remained in the lead up ahead by two seconds from Norris, while Piastri looked to be closing in on Russell in a potential fight for third and the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz followed in fifth and sixth.

With Haas, Alpine and RB all still vying for sixth in the constructors’ standings, Gasly bolstered Alpine’s bid by overtaking Tsunoda, who then lost another position to Alonso. The Japanese driver’s team mate Lawson, meanwhile, had been handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Bottas, while Hamilton was given a five-second penalty for that false start.

Norris had set the fastest tour of the race on Lap 17 – but Verstappen was still leading by 1.7 seconds. A little further back, Leclerc asked his team to “check the pressures”, with the Ferrari man remaining some two seconds off Piastri in the fight for fourth while Russell was still running in third.

As Lap 22 ticked down, there were hints that the pit stop window may soon be open, with Verstappen and Norris both pushing rather than continuing to manage their tyres. As the gap between them still stood at around two seconds, an undercut looked to be out of the question for McLaren.

Piastri, meanwhile, was hot on the tail of Russell, the Australian having closed the gap to less than one second – before then being released after the Briton became the first of the front-runners to pit on Lap 24, with a slow stop for the hard tyres dropping him down to P11 in the order amidst a bit of traffic.

While nobody else at the front immediately followed suit, Piastri was now making the most of the clean air. The same could not be said for Russell, who found himself unable to find a way past Alonso in a battle for P10.

Those hard tyres did not seem to be working out well for Russell, with the Mercedes remaining stuck behind Alonso as Lap 30 arrived. Elsewhere the yellow flags were thrown when a wing mirror looked to have been shed on the main straight, with replays showing that it had dropped off Albon’s Williams.

Verstappen, meanwhile, asked his engineer if Norris had lifted in the yellow flag zone, with the response from his team being that the McLaren did not. The gap between the former title rivals now stood at around two seconds.

Just as replays showed Bottas running over the wing mirror – seemingly scattering it into small pieces of debris – both Hamilton and Sainz suffered a puncture and had to limp back to the pits, with Sainz’s slow stop dropping him down to 10th while Hamilton ended up down in 16th.

The Safety Car was soon deployed, resulting in the rest of the pack making their respective pit stops, with Verstappen remaining in the lead from Norris and Leclerc while Piastri had dropped a place to fourth after making his own stop just before the Safety Car.

Russell made a second stop amidst all of this but was left audibly furious about the tyres that had been bolted onto his W15, with the race’s pole-sitter shouting: “Why have we put the ******* hards on again?”

With the Safety Car leading the pack through the pit lane while the debris on the straight was cleared, Norris stated that he believed he had been brake-tested by Hamilton after the Mercedes appeared to hit the brakes late on entry. Alonso, meanwhile, pitted twice during all of this, having first received the hard tyres before returning to have the mediums fitted.

Racing resumed on Lap 39 and a thrilling restart followed, with Norris going side-by-side with Verstappen before having to back out, while Leclerc and Piastri also enjoyed some wheel-to-wheel action which ultimately saw the Ferrari stay ahead.

There was trouble for Perez, though, who suffered a spin and ended up out of the running – just as Hulkenberg also became beached in the gravel after experiencing a snap in his Haas, with all of this bringing the Safety Car back out for its third appearance of the day

Norris, meanwhile, had found himself under investigation for failing to slow under the yellow flags during that earlier incident. The Safety Car then headed back into the pits on Lap 43 – but could Norris make a move at the restart? This time the answer was no, with Verstappen going early while the McLaren faced pressure from a chasing Leclerc.

Behind that trio, Piastri, Russell, Gasly, Sainz, Alonso, Zhou and Albon completed the top-10 order. But there was bad news for Norris, with the Briton being hit with a 10-second stop/go penalty for that yellow flag offence – a punishment that he subsequently dived into the pit lane to serve.

This dropped Norris down to the back of the field in P15, a result that could have big implications on McLaren’s bid for the constructors’ title. Another man in trouble was Hamilton, with the seven-time world champion receiving a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

After heading in to serve his punishment, Hamilton asked if he could retire the car but was encouraged by the team to stay out, with the Briton now running behind Norris at the rear of the pack.

Numerous fights were playing out as the remaining runners looked to score some all-important points, with Albon having to defend against Bottas as the Kick Sauber man battled to join his team mate in the top 10. The Finn succeeded in getting through on Lap 54, but soon Norris was on his tail after also overtaking the Williams.

The Thai driver’s woes were added to when he received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Magnussen at the earlier restart. His future team mate Sainz, meanwhile, was busy trying to catch Gasly for fifth.

As the race headed towards its close, there was further work for the stewards as Russell was noted for a Safety Car infringement. But there were no worries up ahead for Verstappen, who crossed the line to take his ninth win of the season by six seconds from Leclerc.

Piastri was just behind the Ferrari in third, while Russell took fourth – his subsequent five-second penalty for the Safety Car infringement not affecting his position – and Gasly held off Sainz to claim fifth in what would be a welcome result for Alpine in that constructors’ fight for P6. Sainz was followed by Alonso in P7 – ahead of Zhou, scoring Kick Sauber’s first points of the campaign with a solid drive to P8.

Magnussen sealed two points for Haas in ninth, with Norris recovering one point in 10th, meaning that McLaren’s bid for the constructors’ title will now go down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.

Bottas just missed out on a top-10 result in P11, ahead of Hamilton in what had been a challenging day for the Mercedes man in his penultimate race for the Silver Arrows.

Tsunoda, Lawson and Albon were the final classified runners from 13th to 15th respectively, with Hulkenberg, Perez, Stroll, Colapinto and Ocon the five retirees from the event.

Key quote

"It was a very good race," said Verstappen. "Of course already yesterday in qualifying the car was a lot better. Today, that first stint was very, very fast. Lando and I were just within 1.8s of each other the whole time, pushing each other and honestly it was a lot of fun out there.

"This track has a lot of grip and this year the tyres were really holding on so that was honestly a lot of fun to be really pushing the tyre. We went really long on that first stint. After that of course there were a few Safety Car moments that you had to take care, but very happy. It’s been a while in the dry to be this competitive and very proud of everyone within the team to turn it around within a day. They definitely also deserve this victory." 

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