Official F1 Journal Sunday Race Round Up- Qatar

Pre Race Updates- 

After a weekend of Pirelli's concerns over damage to the tyre compounds and track changes on Friday night to try and negate the tyre wall seperation issues, just hour before the race the grid was informed by the FIA and the tyre supplier that they would be setting a maximum lap life of 18 laps on all of the 3 compounds meaning the Grand Prix would be a minimum 3 stop race for all drivers. Also announced with little time to go before lights out was the withdrawal Carlos Sainz' Ferrari with a fuel leak that could not be fixed before the race started and that Perez would be starting the race from the pit lane after needing to replace parts on his Redbull due to the crash with Ocon and Hulkenberg the day before in the Sprint.

Qatar Grand Prix 

As the the grid lined up to start the race (minus Carlos Sainz) all the car had chosen the Medium tyre with the exception of Hamilton, Bottas, Magnussen & Lawson who chose the Soft tyre and Perez starting from the pit lane on the Hard compound. 
Verstappen lined up on Pole with Mercedes to his right and rear but after the fomation lap Hamilton was already concerned that he would be ' a sitting duck' on his soft tyres to the cars around him on the Medium. As shown the day before when the soft tyre had been great off the start but quickly fell off as the medium was just getting going, handing Piastri, Verstappen & Norris the podium places over his team mate Russell.

Lights out and the Mercedes both got great starts and with max Verstappen moving to cover the inside line for turn 1 and Hamilton trying a move around the outside of his team mate, Russell found himself in a sandwich he couldn't escape from and Hamilton's rear right tyre hit Russells front left and sent the 7 time World Champion into the gravel and out of the race. In the confusion Alonso who started 4th got blocked by the incident ahead that leader Max Verstappen was lucky to escape unscathed and the track opened up for rookie and Sprint winner Piastri, who assumed 2nd place before the Safety car was deployed for the stranded car of Hamilton.

Russell had managed to keep his car going and after pitting for new tyres & to have the car checked, rejoined the race. Alonso had gained 1 place, Piastri had gone from 6th- 2nd, Norris who started 10th was upto 6th, Ocon 8th-5th, Gasly held 7th.
Lap 4 and we went racing again, Max went early and left the field behind, Alonso was very close to Piastri down the straight but the move just wasn't on and the Mclaren man started to pull out a gap on the Aston Martin, Tsunoda made a great move on Gasly, Albon and Hulkenberg had a great battle with the Williams man coming out on top, while Russell nearly left the track during  an intense corner for corner battle with the Redbull of Perez. Lap 6 and Russell was past Perez and Hulkenberg recieved a 10 second penalty for starting in the incorrct place on the grid after he accidentally pulled into the vacant spot previously occupied by Sainz. 

Lap 7 and Piastri had found is groove setting the fastest lap of the race so far, while next on the track Alonso had a big moment forcing him to make a great catch to carry on and retain his 3rd place blaming wind for the mistake. Stroll made a great move on Magnussen for 16th and Russel was up to 11th as he over took Zhou and Sargeant in quick succession
Lap 12 and Alonso was the first of the top 10 cars to pit for another set of mediums. He was forced to pit earlier than the the rest after starting on used Medium tyres with more laps on them than the cars around him but with the tyre run life restrictions it wasn't long before the others who also started on used tyres were forced to pit.

Ocon kept his lead over team mate Gasly after their stops and we saw Piastri and Leclerc make their stops with Leclerc trying to jump Alonso and very nearly managing it until the Aston Martin man took the place back with his up to temperature tyres. Norris and Hulkenberg were the next to pit while Russell continued his fight back to the front overtaking Hulkenberg fresh from the pits and Albon before pitting himself for the 2nd time on lap 15, while Perez was still trying to over take the Alfa Romeo of Zhou until Redbull double stacked their drivers. Pitting Max first with a big enough gap to Perez, to give both drivers fast stops. Max putting on a 2nd set of Mediums and Perez swapping from the hard on to the Mediums for his 2nd stint and leaving Alex Albon in the lead of the race until he and Zhou pitted on lap 18.

Lap 20 and Norris made a decisive move on leclerc for 6th into turn 1 as the Mclaren man hunted down his 2nd podium of the weekend, while team mate Piastri had passed all the out of sequence cars to be 2nd on the road again and was 7.431 seconds behind leader Max Verstappen. 
Lap 21 Bottas, Stroll & Magnessen made their 2nd stops after pitting under the safety car, Norris set the fastest lap of the race as he rapidly gained on Alonso for 3rd and Perez got his first of many Black & White flags of the day which was quickly followed by his first 5 second penalty as well. Lap 25 and Piastri was forced to make his 2nd stop as his tyres reached the allowed amount of laps and was followed in by Leclerc and Ocon as Alonso was radioing his team asking for a way to cool down his seat during his stop on the next lap. 

Lap 24 Norris pits for his 2nd stop again putting his 3rd set of mediums on in an effort to jump Alonso in the stops, which he did after the Mclaren pit crew gave his the fastest pit stop since the series switched to the 18inch rims, with Norris only stationary for 1.8 seconds, Mega from the Mclaren boys!!! Meanwhile team mate Oscar Piastri was finding his speed after his stop and set the fastest lap of the race.
The Mclarens were attempting to hunt down Max Verstappen and after his stop on lap 34 Piastri was +8.1 with team mate Norris 4.6 behind him.

Qatar is a tough race and we started to see the signs of that when we heard team radio between Sargeant and the William pit wall offering the American the chance to retire after he reported vomiting inside his helemt due to the heat. Bravely Sargeant carried on promising the team he could complete the race but on lap 42 he gave in and pit needing help from Mechanics to walk after exiting the car. and after seeing the other drivers post race its no shock the rookie struggled so much. 
Lap 35 Russell is starting to see the light after his turn 1 lap 1 incident with team mate Hamilton, over taking Zhou for 4th place as Piastri had the gap to Verstappen down from over 8 seconds to 5.7. Ocon continued his push forward followed by team mate Gasly at the same time as Perez incurred his 2nd track limits penalty of the race.  

Lap 44 Mclaren continue their run of brilliant pit stops with a 2.00 flat stop for Piastri's 3rd trip to the pit lane and a lap later a 2.1 stop for Norris put both Mclaren drivers on the same bit of track for the first time in the race and they momentarily had a close run into turns 1,2 & 3 till the already warm tyres on Piastri's car built a gap to Norris but both were now in good stead on their final run to the end of the race both on the Hard tyre. After that close moment the team chose to avoid any on track issues telling Norris to hold station behind Piastri to bring home the result for the team. Albon picked up his first 5 second penalty for track limits violation with 10 laps to go.

6 laps to go Russell and Verstappen make their last stops, with Verstappen choosing the Medium tyre to hold off the advancing Mclarens and Russell chose the soft tyre to make his final push of the race to regain some of the ground lost at turn 1. 
Gasly had an exciting end to his race, having some great battles with Stroll and Perez going off the track at turn 1 with both meaning he had to return the place for going off the track and gaining an advantage, Stroll  and Albon were given their 2nd 5 second penalty for track limits while Gasly and Perez received their 3rd totaling 15 seconds of time penalty each during the race. 

The last laps of the race we saw the Mclaren genuinely gain time on the almost untouchable Redbull of Max Verstappen with Piastri getting within 3.8 seconds of 1st position and Lando following close behind to bring home the 2nd double podium for the team in as many days. 
Russel fought his way to 4th in a very strong drive from the Mercedes man, Leclerc ened the race in a respectable 5th place followed by Alonso, Ocon, Bottas & Zhou with the Alfa Romeo drivers getting their first double points score of the season. Perez managed 1 single point after 15 seconds worth of penalties and starting from the pit lane. 
Max Verstappen took the triple crown by topping Qualifying, the race and setting the fastest lap of the race with Oscar Piastri picking up the well deserved Driver of the Day   award after a really well managed race from the rookie. 

It was a great race that saw another dominant weekend from the Number 1 Redbull and another step forward for the Mclaren team in their quest back to the top of the podium. After his penalties were applied Albon managed 13th, Gasly dropped to 12th after penalties which was disappointing as he was on for a points finish without the added time, Stroll finished 11th in his best race in some time but again minus the time added for track limits violations he could have scored some good points. 

Race Result 

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

On to Austin in 2 weeks time........

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @f1journal.co.uk