@Max33Verstappen secures third title as @OscarPiastri clinches Qatar #F1 Sprint victory.
Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing - Honda-RBPT, RB19, celebrating after wrapping up his third World Driver's Championship after scoring second place in the F1 Sprint, Formula 1 Qatar Airways Qatar Grand Prix 2023, Losail International Circuit, Losail, Lusail City, Doha, Qatar. Image credit to Clive Rose/Getty Images. Piastri Qatar Sprint Victory, Verstappen World Champion Qatar, 2023 Qatar Sprint Results, Formula 1 Qatar Sprint Results.
Piastri Qatar Sprint Victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen secured his third World Driver’s title by taking second place in the Qatar F1 Sprint as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri clinched the victory in a heavily disrupted race.
The 19-lap race featured three safety cars and was characterised by drivers opting to run the C3 red side-walled softer compounds to make big gains earlier on and the safety car restarts, before falling back as the event went on and their tyres grained.
A three-way crash, which triggered the third safety car period eliminated Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and sealed Verstappen’s 2023 World Driver’s Championship crown.
When the 19-lap Qatar GP F1 Sprint began, pole-sitter Piastri made a comfortable getaway into the opening corner as McLaren’s Lando Norris had a poor start to drop back to fifth-place behind Verstappen.
Behind them, AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson was beached into the gravel out of turn one bringing out the safety car.
When the race returned to green on lap three, Piastri pulled clear with Russell second, Sainz third, Leclerc fourth and Verstappen completing the top five.
Russell made his way past into turn eight Piastri to take the lead after the latter ran too deep into the corner.
Behind the leaders, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon squeezed his way ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to grab seventh place whilst Sargeant spun off into the gravel, which brought out the safety car.
The order behind the safety car on lap five saw Russell leading with Piastri second, Sainz third, Leclerc fourth and championship leader Verstappen rounding out the top five.
When the race resumed on lap seven, Russell made a solid getaway as Piastri and Sainz ran wheel-to-wheel down the main-straight and Piastri managed to keep the Ferrari behind into turn one.
Behind the top six, Alonso reclaimed seventh place after diving up the inside of Ocon into turn one.
At the beginning of lap eight, Russell’s gap was up to 1.902 over second-placed Piastri with Sainz holding third, Leclerc fourth, Verstappen in fifth as Norris completed the top six runners.
Lap nine saw Verstappen tucked right behind the Ferrari of Leclerc and with DRS assistance down the main-straight made the move up the inside of the SF-23 and took fourth place and behind them, the Dutchman’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez found his way in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg.
A tour later, championship leader Verstappen made the same identical move as he done to Leclerc a lap earlier onto Sainz to snatch third place from the Ferrari driver.
On lap 11, Piastri reclaimed P1 with DRS assistance onto Russell and passed the Mercedes on the inside down the main-straight into turn one.
Behind them, Norris got into the slipstream of Leclerc’s SF-23 down the main-straight and passed the Monegasque around the outside into the opening corner to grab fifth place.
Hulkenberg and Ocon were duelling. The former was on the outside, Ocon squeezed ahead as Hulkenberg cut back in and under. But Perez opportunistically tried to do a double overtake on the inside himself, Ocon pushed in, and Hulkenberg became sandwiched as all three tangled and ended up in the gravel, which brought out the safety car for the third time in the race on lap 12.
Hulkenberg managed to travel slowly back into the pits to retire the car.
As the safety car in and the race went back to green on lap 15, Russell managed to keep up behind race leader Piastri as Leclerc managed to get ahead of Norris on the main straight to snatch back fifth place into turn one.
Lap 16 saw Verstappen breeze past the Mercedes of Russell down the main straight and dived up the inside to take second place.
The other with three tours remaining was Piastri with a 2.364 second lead over Verstappen with Russell third, Sainz fourth and Leclerc completing the top five.
On the 17th lap, Norris jumped both Ferraris to take fourth place, firstly snatching back fifth place from Leclerc into turn one and the second on Sainz into turn four.
Behind them Hamilton made his way ahead of Alonso to take seventh place.
On the final lap, Norris made his way around the outside of Russell into turn one to grab the final podium place whilst behind them Hamilton with DRS assistance overtook Leclerc into turn one to grab fifth and passed Sainz a few corners later to take fourth place.
Piastri crossed the line to take the Qatar F1 Sprint victory by 1.871 seconds ahead of Verstappen who finished second to secure his third World Driver’s Championship crown as Norris completed the top three in the other McLaren MCL60 entry.
Mercedes duo Russell and Hamilton settled for fourth and fifth respectively as the Ferrari pairing of Sainz and Leclerc took sixth and seventh in the classification.
Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon was eighth to take the final points place, in-front of ninth-placed Alonso as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas finished outside the top 10 in 11th place and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who was 12th and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who came home 13th.
Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu were the final runners bringing up the rear in 14th and 15th respectively.
*** Note – Leclerc and Stroll received five-second time penalties for leaving the track without justifiable reason multiple times. ***
2023 Qatar F1 Sprint – The Top Three
2023 Qatar GP F1 Sprint Winner – Oscar Piastri, #81, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL60:
“It was a very stressful race, when all the soft guys came through at the beginning, I thought we were in trouble, but then they fell away pretty quickly. I think we did a very good job. First Sprint win sounds pretty cool!”
(2023 World Driver’s Champion and Third Time World Driver’s Champion) Second Place – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19, +1.871s:
“A fantastic feeling, it’s been an incredible year. I feel super proud, but super proud of the job of the team. We’ll keep on pushing but of course I’m incredibly happy at the moment.”
Third Place – Lando Norris, #81, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL60, +8.497s:
“First of all congrats to Oscar, and congrats to Max. First win, before mine, so well done. It was a tough fight, not the best of beginnings but a good ending. I’ve been trying [to win] for a long time, but Oscar has done a better job, so hats off to him.”
Click here to see the full Formula 1 Qatar Airways Qatar Grand Prix 2023 F1 Sprint Results: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1221/qatar/sprint-results.html
Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
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