Official F1 Journal Saturday Sprint Round Up- Qatar

Its our first Sprint Saturday in Qatar and i don't think any team or driver felt truly assured of Pole for the Sprint race later in the day especially who just  hours before the Sprint Shoot out the Fia announced they had made changes to th track over night due to concerns Pirelli had with the tyres after for the Sunday Grand Prix. When analyzing the tyres Pirreli found 'separation in the side walls' of the tyres which was caused by 'high frequency' stress running over the Pyramid kerbs of turns 11, 12 & 13. It was because of this the kerbs and run off area of those corners was altered prior to the shoot out, which triggered the FIA to add a 10 minute Practice session before the Shoot out for the drivers to adjust to the new lay out.
This 10 minute session was largely uneventful, with noone damaging the cars before the sprint qualifying but we did see lots of cars take to the run off areas of the track including Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon.

Sprint Shootout - Daylight

Q1

Sainz lead the pack out all choosing to start the Sprint Shoot out on the Medium tyres, Sainz set the first time and was quickly beaten by team mate Leclerc who held the top spot till Russell set his first lap but all were blow away by a mighty lap from Max Verstappen going 0.849 faster than the Mercedes in 2nd, but as soon as the lap started to hit the board we started to see them disappear as track limits started to play its part much the same as Qualifying yesterday. and after the first round of flying laps it was Norris who was closest to Max setting a time just 0.162 off the Redbull's fastest while Hamilton, Leclerc, Gasly, Sargeant and Hulkenberg all had their times deleted and Stroll found himself 0.9 off team mate Alonso. 

All the cars left it late to make their final run, trying to be the last man on track to get the best track conditions and with 1 minutes to go their final Q1 runs started and it was Norris lighting up the timing screens in purple but he bails into the pit lane happy with his first run time and to save tyres, Verstappen and Piastri did the same and we saw a tight battle to get through to Q2.
Russell set a mega lap to go top beating Verstappens time, Alonso jumped out of the drop zone to 4th and Zhou going 11th dropped Leclerc into bottom 5 until he managed a time good enough for 10th and went through to the next round. Yuki Tsunoda sadly had 2 laps deleted for track limits and despite initially making it through to Q2 he was dropped out and Zhou was promoted to safety.

Q1 Result 

1 RUS     2 VER
3 NOR    4 GAS
5 SAI      6 ALO
7 PIA      8 OCO
9 PER    10 LAW
11 LEC   12 HAM
13 BOT   14 HUL
15 ZHO   16 STR
17 ALB    18 TSU
19 MAG   20 SAR

Q2

Q2 started and again the Medium was the tyre of choice. Hamilton had his first flying lap deleted for track limits at turn 13 and it was Max on top after his first run with Piastri 2nd, perez 3rd and Rusell 4th, the Mercedes man having a very strong qualifying so far. Norris was the only man to go faster than Max in the first part of the session beating his time by 0.252 on his first run and beating his team mate by 0.745 while Leclerc had his time deleted for track limits sighting the wind as having a big effect on the Ferrari this weekend for his numerous visits to the generous run off areas. 
Russell with another strong lap jumped to 3rd ahead of Piastri till the rookie Australian took the 3rd spot back with another quick lap but still 0.5 off his team mate. 

Leclerc stole 4th from Russell, while team mate Sainz could only manage a time good enough for 9th, dangerously close to the drop zone. As the final runs began again Norris and Verstappen stayed in the pits feeling safe with their times, while Russell on his last lap went 2nd fastest, Perez 3rd and when Sainz saved himself from relegation it dropped  Hamilton who had, had his last lap deleted out of Q3 and starting 12th for the Sprint and gasly narrowly missed out on Q3 being just beaten by team mate Esteban Ocon. . . 

Q2 Result

1 NOR     2 RUS
3 PER      4 VER
5 ALO      6 LEC
7 SAI       8 PIA
9 HUL     10 OCO
11 GAS   12 HAM
13 BOT   14 LAW
​15 ZHO

Q3 

Unlike the previous 2 sessions were we saw all the car come out almost immediately we didn't see most of the cars leave their garages till 6 minutes to go other than Alonso and Hulkenberg who waited even longer to come out and set their times. Verstappen set a blistering lap of 1.24.543 but it was quickly deleted for track limits violations at turn 5. His 2nd lap was only good enough for 6th after Leclerc, Piastri and Norris all went faster with the later holding the top spot by just 0.039 over team mate Piastri who had found his form in this last round of the Sprint shoot out.

2 minutes to go and we saw Alonso and Hukenberg out for their 1 and only flying lap, Alonso set a respectable time to go 6th for the Sprint later in the day and Hulkenberg 8th ahead of a disppointed Perez hoping to redeem himself after yesterdays Qualifying but had his last lap deleted for track limits and the Alpine of Ocon finished up the top 10.
The fight for the top 5 was a tight one with the 2 Mclarens looking mega fast but the track limits issues from Qualifying the day before echoing in their heads. Russell's time was 3rd fastest till Verstappen beat him only setting a time good enough to complete the top 3 and when lerclerc went only 5th fastest it was certain to be a Mclaren on pole but which one would it be? Both drivers were setting purple sectors and as Oscar Piastri crossed the line beating Norris's time, his team mate came into view around the last corner and off the track, gifting the Pole to Rookie Oscar Piastri! His first in formula 1. 

Q3 Result

1 PIA    2 NOR 
3 VER  4 RUS
5 ALO   6 SAI
7 LEC   8 HUL
9 PER  10 OCO

It was a brilliant Qualifying and a well deserved front row lock out for the whole Woking based team and what is arguably the most talented line up in F1 currently.

Sprint 'Race'

As the cars lined up for the first Sprint race since Belgium earlier in the year the majority of the field chose to start on the medium tyre compound with the exception of Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, Alonso, Ocon, Gasly Stroll and Sargeant who were running the soft tyre hoping to gain a large advantage off the start and hold out till the end to win, but the soft degradation was high and it was a big chance to take knowing the Medium tyre would come back later in the race.

Piastri lined up next to team mate Lando Norris and as the lights went out the young Australian got a great start and was first into turn 1 but Norris hadn't started so well and after bogging down in the 2nd phase of the clutch release had dropped back 5th taking Verstappen with him till Max also over took him on the first lap leaving the sister Mclaren in 6th with a very feisty Alonso on his rear wing. Russell and the 2 Ferarri's made a brilliant starts on the Soft tyre jumping up to 3rd, 4th and 5th and began hunting down Piastri- the lone car in the top 4 on Mediums when a brief Safety car was brought out for the car of Lawson who had dropped the rear and ended stuck in the gravel in need of rescue. Lap 3 racing resumed and Russell makes the move on Piastri with his medium tyres just no match for the Mercedes on the Softs, but the team reassured Oscar the Softs would go off and the race would come to him. Piastri held on to the back of Russell and the Ferrari's had a brief battle before when on lap 4 Sargeant had a massive off and beached his Williams racing car in the gravel trap bringing out the 2nd Safety car of the day. ​

On the restart the Ferrari's had their sights set on the podium and were on the rear of Piastri but the Mclaren rookie is brilliant on the brakes and no matter how close Sainz got Oscar was always ahead exiting turn 1, Alonso who had been over taken by Ocon during his attack on Norris got the spot back as we started to see the medium tyres come to life with Piastri setting the fastest laps and Verstappen making his way forward almost close enough to make the overtake on the first Ferrari in front of him of Leclerc  as Perez made a great move on Gasly for 10th.

Lap 9/19 and the ferrari's soft tyres were dying and worse they were being hunted down by Verstappen, Norris and Hamilton behind them, Verstappen was the first to over take the Scuderia duo with Norris soon following by passing Leclerc in a BRILLIANT move around the outside of turn 1 as his team mate Piastri was within the DRS window of Russell and closing fast. The tyre pendulum had swung and Russell had nothing to fight with when the Mclaren man can steaming past him to re take 1st position. Piastri started to pull out a decent gap on Russell when that was all dissolved by a 3rd Safety car brought out by a collision between Ocon, Hulkenberg & Perez that saw the HAAS of Hulkenberg sandwiched by the Alpine & Redbull, who both hit him and ended all 3 of their races on lap 11/19. (after the race it was deemed a racing incident.)

When the racing restarted on lap 14 Piastri had a great restart and after the first lap had a 1.6 lead over the 2nd place man Russell who himself had Max Verstappen closing on him. Leclerc and Norris had a great battle that saw Leclerc try and take back 5th place from Lando but the difference in their tyres meant it was short lived effort as Lando set off to try and get the 2nd Mclaren on the podium as well. Lap 16 and Max caught and passed Russell and it seem it would be inevitable he would do the same to Piastri who had just a 2.6 second lead on the World Champion. 

Lap 17 and Norris over takes Sainz and has just 2 laps to catch and past the ailing George Russell in 3rd, which as it turned out only took 3 corners as before the lap had ended Norris was in 3rd and earned his place on the Sprint 'race' Podium. But would his team mate be on top of that Podium. Much to the delight of this writer yes he did and Max despite his best efforts never got within 1.8 seconds of Piastri and he had won his first Formula 1 'race' just weeks after resigning with Mclaren.
Hamilton pipped Sainz to 5th with overtakes on Gasly, Alonso and Sainz in the closing 2 laps. We can't not mention Alex Albons brilliant drive from 17-7th either, well done that man!!!
​ Post race Leclerc and Stroll were handed 5 second penalties for 'leaving track limits multiple times with out good reason' dropping Leclerc to 12th and Stroll to last. 
But despite Piastri's first win being big news the bigger headline was that Max Verstappen had done enough to clinch his 3rd FIA Formula 1 World Drivers Championship and joined names like Senna and Fittipaldi to have 3 championships to their name.

Sprint 'Race' Results 

1 PIA      2 VER
3 NOR    4 RUS
5 HAM    6 SAI
7 ALB     8 ALO
9 GAS    10 BOT
11 TSU   12 LEC
13 MAG  14 ZHO
15 STR
DNF'S
HUL
PER
OCO
SAR
​LAW 

What a cracking race! Well done to Oscar and the whole Mclaren team, from last to 1st in 2023 and scoring their 500th( & 501st) podiums here in Qatar on their 60th anniversary year.
But the credit really does go to Max Verstappen and the Redbull team what a season, the first people to surpass the 1988 Season for Mclaren, Senna & Prost in the MP4/4 in 35 years!!!
Lets see if Max can get the winning trophy on Sunday to replace the absent WDC trophy.

Joanna Blackmore
Writer @f1journal.co.uk