The Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix saw lots of on-track action under the lights and multiple Safety Cars.В?
Formula 1’s weekend in Qatar marked the final Sprint weekend of the season. Lando Norris achieved pole position in Sprint Qualifying and he let his teammate, Oscar Piastri, take the victory in the Sprint. However, for the Grand Prix, Max Verstappen took pole position, but the Dutchman received a grid place penalty due to driving unnecessarily slowly. Therefore, he started the race in P2.
The championship concluded last weekend in Las Vegas and Verstappen took his fourth world championship, beating Lando Norris. But this weekend, it was ??? who won the Grand Prix ahead of ??? ???
Let’s get into what happened during the Qatar Grand Prix.
Lights Out
Everyone other than Nico Hulkenberg, started the race on medium tyres; the Haas driver began on hard-compound tyres.
When the lights went out, Russell had a good start but Verstappen overtook the Mercedes driver on the inside. Lando Norris joined the fight, looking like he’d get into the lead, but he slotted in at P2.
Before the end of the opening lap, a Safety Car was deployed. Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon were both stranded at Turn 1 after making contact, marking crash number 16 for Williams. Also, Hulkenberg ended up with a puncture on his rear left, and was forced to come back into the pits.
The replay showed that Hulkenberg lost the rear of the car, made contact with Ocon and Colapinto was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Meanwhile, Albon in the other Williams got hit by Stroll and spun around.
LAP 2 / 57
вљ?пёЏ SC DEPLOYED вљ?пёЏ
Colapinto, Ocon and Hulkenberg collide at T1.
The Haas has a puncture, the others are out ?#F1 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/xKWIIWGov8
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 1, 2024
Safety Car Restart
Verstappen kept the lead on the restart. Piastri made a move on Charles Leclerc, getting ahead of the Ferrari. Lawson ended up going to the back of the pack after having a moment with Bottas and going into the run-off area.
Hamilton, who initially lost places on the original start, looked to have good race pace as he made up a move on the restart. Alonso, unfortunately, didn’t have much luck as he attempted a move on Hamilton, but ultimately fell to 12th.
Stroll fell to last and Ted Kravitz stated that Aston Martin mechanics came out into the pits for Stroll to retire. To make matters worse for the Canadian, he received a 10-second time penalty for his collision with Albon. However, when Stroll came into the pits, he served his penalty, came out for one more lap and then retired.
Alonso was noted for re-joining unsafely and Hamilton was noted for a false start. Bottas and Lawson’s incident was also noted. Lawson received a 10-second time penalty. Hamilton received a 5-second time penalty. However, Alonso didn’t receive a penalty.
Meanwhile, Zhou overtook Tsunoda for 12th A few laps later, Bottas replicated his teammate’s efforts, overtaking the RB driver. Leclerc radioed that Ferrari needed to check tyre pressures but the team confirmed things are fine and he doesn’t have a puncture.
Piastri was in pursuit of Russell, but couldn’t quite get passed.
Lap 24 marked the first mandatory pit stop. Russell came in and switched onto the hard tyres, but it was a very slow stop for Russell as Mercedes were slow with one of the tyres. As a result, Russell came back out onto track in 11th, costing him three places on the track.
Yellow flags and Safety Car
Yellow flags were brought out briefly and it was shown that a wing-mirror was on the track down the main straight. The replay showed that it was Albon’s.
No Safety Car or a Virtual Safety Car was brought out, but Verstappen radioed questioning Norris. The four-times world champion questioned whether or not Norris lifted during the yellow flags down the main straight. His race engineer said Norris did not lift, which Jenson Button confirmed.
After a few laps with the wing mirror still on track, Bottas drove over it when trying to get out of the way of Sainz. As a result, both Hamilton and Sainz got a puncture.
Piastri came into the pits at that point changing onto the hards. Sainz came in to fix the puncture and change tyres.
When Hamilton entered the pits, a Safety Car was finally called. Verstappen and Norris came in at that point too as well as Leclerc.
LAP 34 / 57
PUNCTURES FOR LEWIS HAMILTON AND CARLOS SAINZ! ?
? SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED ?#F1 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/jj8xDVxcm9
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 1, 2024
Everyone else then started coming into the pits, but there was no action on track to clear the debris.
With pit stops being completed, Russell complained to Mercedes about why they put the hard tyres back on. Back in the pits, Magnussen and Alonso had a close call with Alonso being released into his path; the two of them went side by side in the pits.
Safety Car Restart
Bottas and Hamilton unlapped themselves before the Safety Car came in.
Verstappen went but Norris was close behind and the two went side by side into Turn 1, but Norris was on the outside and didn’t make it past. Meanwhile, Sainz got ahead of Gasly, but the two switched positions and Gasly rounded out the top six.
A Virtual Safety Car was called on the first restart lap due to Hulkenberg and Perez. Hulkenberg ended up in the gravel whilst Perez lost drive. It then changed to a full Safety Car.
Both RB drivers came into the pits to swap onto the soft tyres. Albon also changed onto the soft tyres.
On lap 42, it was confirmed that Norris was under investigation for not slowing under yellows.
Another Restart
Verstappen went with a good advantage, whilst Leclerc put pressure on Norris for P2. The Ferrari stayed behind the McLaren. Further back, Hamilton fell back two places with Bottas and Tsunoda overtaking him.
Piastri complained about his front left tyre, whilst Norris received a 10-second stop/go penalty. This took him out of the race, and bumped him to the back of the pack. Norris didn’t deem the notification of his penalty with a reply initially, but then asked “For what?”.
Hamilton was also noted for speeding in the pit lane. The seven-time world champion received a drive through penalty for this. He asked to retire the car but Mercedes said no. After his penalty, he came out behind Norris in last.
Magnussen and Albon were then under investigation after having a close call in Turn 1. Albon received a 10-second penalty.
Bottas got into the points after overtaking Albon, but Norris was on a charge to get back into the top 10 himself. He already had the fastest lap and on lap 54, Norris overtook Bottas for the final points-paying position.
With two laps to go, Russell was noted for a Safety Car infringement. He was awarded a five-second time penalty once the race had finished.
Results
After 57 laps, Verstappen took the win after getting the lead on lap one. Norris took the fastest lap, but the Constructors’ Championship will go to Abu Dhabi between Ferrari and McLaren. Also, Kick Sauber scored their first points this season with Zhou’s points finish; he also won Driver of the Day.
1 – Max Verstappen
2 – Charles Leclerc
3 – Oscar Piastri
4 – George Russell
5 – Pierre Gasly
6 – Carlos Sainz
7 – Fernando Alonso
8 – Zhou Guanyu
9 – Kevin Magnussen
10 – Lando Norris
Headline image: X @F1