Official F1 Journal Saturday Round Up - Qatar Grand Prix

28/11/2024

George Russell inherited Pole Position for the Qatar Grand Prix, after Max Verstappen received a one-place grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slow on his cool-down lap in qualifying. Max will line up second on the grid with Lando Norris in third.

Oscar Piastri will start fourth after his Sprint race win, followed by Leclerc, Hamilton, Sainz, Alonso, Perez, and Magnussen, rounding out the top ten.

Earlier, Oscar Piastri won the Qatar Sprint race, followed by Lando Norris in second place and George Russell in third.

Drivers Championship winner Max Verstappen finished the Sprint race in 8th position. In a race that saw McLaren play the team game, Lando Norris kept Oscar Piastri in DRS range for the whole 19 laps to keep George Russell behind them both.

Sprint Race

Lando Norris started on pole for the Qatar Sprint race, while further back, Franco Colapinto and Sergio Perez both started from the pit lane after setup changes during Parc Ferme.

The Sprint race was 19 laps with no mandatory pit stops and eight points up for grabs. All the drivers started on the medium compound tyres except Zhou who started on soft tyres.

Lando Norris retained the lead into Turn 1 as Oscar Piastri overtook George Russell at the race start. Lewis Hamilton managed to overtake Charles Leclerc.

Further behind, Max Verstappen dropped back to ninth, and Liam Lawson dropped back from 10th to 16th.

Franco Colapinto overtook Sergio Perez out of the pit lane at the race start after Sergio had a slow start out of the pit lane, in which it seemed he failed to react to the green light.

By lap two, Lando Norris had pulled ahead of his teammate by 1.2s, with George Russell in third, Carlos Sainz in fourth and Lewis Hamilton in fifth.

George Russell closed down and tried to go down the inside of Oscar Piastri in Turn 1, but Piastri retained second place. George Russell stayed with Oscar Piastri, and Lando Norris slowed down to help Piastri stay ahead, giving him DRS.

Behind the top three, Carlos Sainz was under threat from Lewis Hamilton, who had DRS behind him with 2.5s covering the top five.

Further behind, Verstappen was within DRS range of Pierre Gasly for eight place, but Verstappen managed to overtake Pierre Gasly into Turn 1 on lap eight.

Zhou on soft tyres was running 3.5s slower than the rest of the field running in 20th and had to pit on lap 11 for medium tyres.

With ten laps to go, the top four were stuck in a DRS train. Hamilton was not that far behind the top four, and Charles Leclerc was within the DRS range of Hamilton in sixth.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton go wheel to wheel for a number of corners, but Leclerc managed to get past Hamilton after finding a way through after some great racing from the both of them.

Piastri found himself under pressure from Russell after losing DRS from Norris, with Sainz closing in on the back of the both of them.

Lando Norris continued to help Oscar with five laps to go but Norris complained about his front tyres.

Sergio Perez pitted on lap 15 to change his front wing and play with his setup in preparation for tomorrow's race after failing to overtake a single car in the race. His teammate Verstappen struggled to close the 1.6-second gap to Hulkenberg in seventh place.

On the final corner, Lando Norris pulled to the inside and slowed out of the final corner, allowing Oscar Piastri to win the Qatar Sprint race by 0.136 seconds as he came past.

Top Eight Finishers
1) Oscar Piastri
2) Lando Norris +0.136
3) George Russell +0.410
4) Carlos Sainz +1.326
5) Charles Leclerc +5.073
6) Lewis Hamilton +5.650
7) Nico Hulkenberg +8.508
8) Max Verstappen +10.368

Qualifying

Q1

Out In Q1
16) Alex Albon
17) Liam Lawson
18) Nico Hulkenberg
19) Franco Colapinto
20) Esteban Ocon

George Russell was first out on track on a set of medium tyres, scrubbing them for tomorrow's race before changing to soft tyres.

The drivers quickly headed out onto the track in the first qualifying session.

Stroll and Alonso set the fastest laps of the session, followed by Bottas, Colapinto, and Zhou with 13 minutes left in the session, as other drivers had yet to set lap times.

Colapinto, Albon and Magnussen all have track times deleted for track limits as Verstappen sets a lap time of 1m 21.713s, followed by Norris 0.3s behind.

With ten minutes to go, Zhou, Lawson, Colapinto, Gasly, and Ocon were in the bottom five, with George Russell topping the timesheets ahead of Lando Norris by 0.059s.

Oscar took a little dip into the gravel with one of his tyres, as the times were so close at the bottom of the timesheet.

Norris's lap time was deleted for track limits, but he had the fourth fastest time, so he was safely through to Q2.

George Russell tops the timesheet with a 1m 21.241, with Alex Albon, Liam Lawson, Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon were out of qualifying.

Q2

Out in Q2
11) Pierre Gasly
12) Zhou Guanyu
13) Valtteri Bottas
14) Yuki Tsunoda
15) Lance Stroll

The drivers lined up at the end of the pit lane for Q2, eager to get out on track and avoid traffic.

George Russell was the first driver to set a lap time in Q2, with a time of 1m 21.161, one-tenth faster than his time from Q1. Piastri went into second place, followed by Leclerc, Sainz, and Hamilton - the only drivers to set a lap time with over 11 minutes to go.

With ten minutes to go, Magnussen, Gasly, Alonso, Stroll, and Tsunoda were in the bottom five, with Verstappen at the top with a lap time of 1m 21.085.

Perez took a trip into the gravel on a flying lap and remained in fifth place.

Sainz was noted and investigated after the session for an unsafe release too close to Hamilton in the pit lane.

With five minutes to go, Bottas, Zhou, Tsunoda, Stroll, and Alonso were in the bottom five. Alonso had no lap time set, as Verstappen went fastest with a 1m 21.049 lap time.

Verstappen goes quickest in Q2 with a 1m 20.687, with Gasly, Zhou, Bottas, Tsunoda and Stroll out in Q2.

Q3

Starting Top 10
1) Max Verstappen 1m 20.520
2) George Russell +0.055
3) Lando Norris +0.252
4) Oscar Piastri +0.309
5) Charles Leclerc +0.332
6) Lewis Hamilton +0.491
7) Carlos Sainz +0.521
8) Fernando Alonso +0.731
9) Sergio Perez +0.905
10) Kevin Magnussen +0.980

Red Bull found some pace from the Sprint race, with both Verstappen and Perez making it into Q3.

All drivers except Verstappen and Norris were out at the start of the session.
Perez, Alonso, and Magnussen only had one set of new tyres available for the session, but they were all out on used tyres at the start of the session.

Magnussen was the first to set a lap time on a set of used soft tyres. Alonso's first lap time, which was third on the timesheet, was deleted for track limits.

George Russell set a lap time of 1m 20.575 to top the timesheet, with Norris heading slightly into the gravel on his first flying lap.

With five minutes to go, Verstappen goes second fastest behind George Russell, with Leclerc in third place.

Norris had yet to set a lap time with just over three minutes to go in the session.

Carlos Sainz was the first to cross the line with the checkered flag but only managed fourth. Leclerc went fifth, Lando Norris only managed third, and Verstappen went fastest with a lap time of 1m 20.520.

An incident between Max Verstappen and George Russell was investigated after the race and Max received a one-place grid penalty for driving too slowly around the track, giving pole position to George Russell.

Anny Wooldridge
Writer at F1 Journal

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