In the heat of the Qatari nights, it was Max Verstappen who took a rather inevitable Third World Championship in Saturday’s Sprint Race, but there was another driver who shone under the lights, whilst some experienced drivers had weekends to forget. Here are the report cards from Round 16:
Top of the class:
Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 1st | Shootout: 3rd | Sprint: 2nd | Race: 1st (+FL)
The Dutch driver needed just 3 points to clinch the title, so he took 33 instead. He was able to celebrate on Saturday following his Sprint Race podium, as it was already secured on lap 11 when his teammate crashed out. That incident certainly wasn’t the sole reason why Max won the Championship, his pure dominance across the season is what has taken him level with Jim Clark for Driver’s titles.
His dominant pole on Friday put half a second over the field, followed by a Saturday podium, and a lights-to-flag victory on Sunday very much summarised his season. What was so surprising this weekend in particular, was that I’d argue that both McLaren and Mercedes had stronger cars in race pace than the Red Bull. Verstappen simply didn’t have an answer for Sprint winner Oscar Piastri’s pace on Saturday.
Now it’s a question of how many more races Max can win before the season finishes, to set eyes on smashing the 10-consecutive victory streak into 2024. If I was a betting man, I would back him to beat it.
Oscar Piastri – Qualifying: 6th | Shootout: 1st | Sprint: 1st | Race: 2nd
The Aussie has settled in quite well in his rookie season, and he was looking to carry on the momentum from the breakthrough weekend at Suzuka. Oscar achieved that and more in Qatar.
Friday’s qualifying saw Piastri outqualify teammate Lando Norris for the second successive race, with the Brit making errors in Q3 whilst Piastri extracted the maximum he could.
Saturday was where Oscar shone. With Max losing laps to track limits, it was the McLaren driver who took advantage, securing a 1-2 and once again outqualifying Norris.
The Sprint race was a well-executed run on the medium tyres. He kept hold of the lead at the start, but dropped behind the fast-starting George Russell on the first Safety Car restart.
A critical defence from the soft-tyre running Sainz after the second of three Safety Cars meant Piastri kept hold of second place, and with four laps to go he breezed past Russell on the pit straight to retake the lead and bettered the pace of the chasing pack.
The haul of 8 points on Saturday was followed by a second podium in as many days on Sunday. This time, he had some work to do from P6 on the grid, but Mercedes’ collision made that slightly easier. He pulled off a one-stop and held off a late charge from Lando to finish P2, his best Grand Prix result to date and also the team’s 500th podium in F1.
Piastri wasn’t in a position to challenge for the race victory on Sunday, but to come within 5 seconds of Max shows the considerable progress McLaren have made this season. This was also the first time that Piastri had the measure of Norris across an entire race weekend, and to do it at a track he’d never raced at before was a phenomenal achievement.
Alfa Romeo
Valtteri Bottas – Qualifying: 10th | Shootout: 13th | Sprint: 10th (promoted from 11th | Race: 8th
Zhou Guanyu – Qualifying: 20th (started 19th) | Shootout: 15th | Sprint: 14th (promoted from 15th) | Race: 9th (promoted from 12th)
At a similar profile track, the team had a promising Saturday with both cars ending up inside the top 7 before colliding at turn 1 at Budapest. This time round Alfa Romeo had a disappointing Saturday followed by their best result of the season on Sunday.
P11 & P15 were where they finished in the Sprint, with both moving up a place following track limits penalties for Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll. Though with five retirements in the 17-lap race the team should have been eyeing an important point or two.
Nonetheless, Friday’s qualifying put Bottas in prime position for Sunday’s race with the Finn lining up P10. With Sainz not starting and the Mercedes-induced chaos at turn 1, Valtteri was comfortably running in the points.
He would come home in P8, the team’s best result of the season with a well-executed strategy in the heat, whilst Zhou finished 12th but was promoted to 9th following numerous track limit penalties. The haul of six points lifts Alfa Romeo up to eighth in the standings ahead of Haas and feels like a breakthrough moment in their battle.
Honourable mention goes to George Russell, a strong weekend saw him claim a pair of 4th place finishes and saw him lead the Sprint race after an excellent start from P4 on the grid. In a season that hasn’t met his expectations, Russell showed great pace all weekend and put on a determined fightback after being blameless in a lap 1 collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton
The struggle bus:
Sergio Pérez – Qualifying: 13th (started from pits) | Shootout: 8th | Sprint: DNF | Race: 10th (promoted from 11th)
I wouldn’t have expected Sergio to overhaul Max’s lead. What I did expect was for Sergio to make Max work for the celebrations, unfortunately, he failed that rather spectacularly.
A woeful Friday saw him qualify a lowly 13th. This is the 7th time he’d fail to make Q3. Saturday’s Sprint shootout wasn’t much better as he only wound up eighth, nearly seven-tenths off Max.
His Sprint race was going poorly, dropping to as low as 11th whilst struggling for grip on the medium tyres, having got back up to 10th he would soon discover that 3-in-to-1 does not go. Having decided to try and go around the outside of the battling Ocon & Hulkenberg, Pérez made contact with the Haas who was avoiding Ocon’s defensive move into turn 2. The three of them ended up in the gravel and that was curtains for Sergio’s Saturday.
Though the crash was deemed a racing incident, you can’t help but question Sergio battling Alpine’s and Haas’ when his teammate is at the top of his game. With no Championship battle pressure, Sergio should have been free to put on an overtaking show from his pit lane start. A show he did not put on.
Pérez came home a lowly 11th, despite 15 seconds worth of time penalties for track limit violations he actually was promoted to 10th as Stroll and Gasly in front received heavier punishments. What makes this performance so dire, is that Pérez was actually in front of Russell after the first Safety Car and the Brit was able to finish 4th.
Lewis Hamilton – Qualifying: 3rd | Shootout: 12th | Sprint: 5th | Race: DNF
Who knows if Lewis’ gamble to start on softs would have seen him break his winless streak, as his race came to a crashing end at turn 1 when he collided with his own teammate and became beached in the gravel. Though Lewis blamed Russell, he ultimately took responsibility for the incident that saw him retire on lap 1 for just the seventh time in his career.
With George’s recovery from 18th to 4th in the race following the crash, one would think without their incident Mercedes would have been a challenge to Max in the race. Even Saturday’s Sprint result would have been a missed opportunity due to a poor shootout session that saw Lewis only qualify 12th.
His medium tyre pace was excellent as he skated through from 11th to 5th in the final five laps, but arguably this pace showed that he should have been finishing much higher.
Just the three points to walk away from Qatar, though he does close the gap to Sergio for P2 in the standings to 30 points. With 6 races and two sprints to go Hamilton is poised to pounce if the Red Bull driver continues to struggle.
Dishonourable mentions go to Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari for the fuel issue that prevented him from taking part in Sunday’s race which gave Charles a free hit to close the gap in their team battle.
The second one goes to Liam Lawson. The Kiwi has exceeded expectations in his substitute appearances for Ricciardo, unfortunately, his last one is the worst of them all after spinning out on lap 1 of the Sprint and coming home last of the classified runners on Sunday. To his credit thoug,h Losail is a new track to him and was battling the exceedingly warm conditions.
With many drivers suffering heat exhaustion, the grid will be grateful for the race taking place in the slightly cooler month of November when they return in 2024.
Next up is a stretch of 5 races in 6 weeks starting with a return to the Lone Star State. Austin, Texas hosts round 17 of the season and it will be another Sprint round on the 17th-18th October.
