Max Verstappen is Formula 1 World Champion for the third time! Piastri dominated an exciting sprint in Qatar with three safety cars

Formula 1 is enjoying its fourth sprint weekend of the season in Qatar. After a dramatic show that delighted spectators with plenty of head-to-head battles during its 19 laps, Oscar Piastri took his maiden sprint win. With Lando Norris third, McLaren took two medals. Max Verstappen’s red bull slipped in between the orange cars, clinching his third world championship title with this notch.

McLaren had a mixed start. Piastri managed to pull away and hold on to the top spot, while teammate Norris dropped down the order. He wasn’t alone, Verstappen also lost several positions and settled into fifth after the opening corners.

On the other hand, not only the Ferrari cars had a great start to the sprint, but especially the Mercedes of George Russell, who had already gained two places on his starting position going into the first corner. Before the Safety Car took to the track due to Liam Lawson’s duck trip, the top five were in the order of Piastri – Russell – Sainz – Leclerc – Verstappen.

Piastri managed the restart and held on to the lead, but it didn’t take long for Russell to get the better of the Aussie. At the same time, it didn’t take long for the slowing car to return to the Lusail circuit. This time it was Logan Sargeant who tried out the depth of the duck, for whom another retirement from the race certainly doesn’t help in his quest to keep his seat at Williams.

By the end of the sixth lap of the nineteen laps, a second sprint restart had already occurred. Piastri misjudged Russell’s early retirement very badly and defended second position hard from Sainz on the home straight. However, the Spaniard was unable to humble the Formula One rookie despite his advantage of soft tyres over the average 22-year-old from Melbourne.

The reds were heating up under the boiler yellow

Heading into lap nine, Verstappen launched an attack on the sprint podium. First he humbled fourth-placed Leclerc using DRS and then a lap later he tackled third-placed Sainz in the same manner. In the middle of the field, poor qualifiers Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton were unable to work their way up. Both the Mexican and the Briton were holding off the points on the edge of the top ten.

Drivers who had opted for the softer specification of tyres marked in red began to be pressed by those with the harder alternative (yellow markings). This was confirmed not only by the progress of Verstappen, but also by Piastri, who moved back into first place ahead of Russell on lap 11.

A few seconds later there was a mass crash involving the trio of Pérez, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hülkenberg. The latter two overtook each other, which Pérez was keen to take advantage of. Hülkenberg found himself in a sandwich and a mutual collision ensued, reducing the number of surviving drivers to fifteen.

The third period behind the Safety Car ended at the end of lap fourteen. Piastri quickly managed to build a lead of more than one second, while Leclerc stole fifth place from Norris. With four laps to go, Russell conceded his second place to Verstappen, who was two seconds and one overtaking manoeuvre away from another sprint win.

World champion already on Saturday

A magnificent duel was offered to the spectators with three laps to go by the Ferrari and mclaren Norris drivers. Leclerc and Sainz began to struggle enormously with the red set of tyres, while Norris harnessed the power of the yellow-coloured tyres and quickly climbed to fourth place.

Fourth place suddenly became the last step on the small podium, leaving the also struggling Russell behind. Ferrari’s slump stopped at positions six and seven, with Hamilton entering the top five at the very end.

Piastri recorded a perfect Saturday, scoring his debut sprint win alongside his debut start from pole position. Second-placed Verstappen scored seven points, which was comfortably enough for him to win his third world championship title, without being decided in Sunday’s grand prix. Norris capped a phenomenal Saturday for McLaren with a final third place.

Leclerc and Albon still battled for the final point. At the finish line, they were separated by just four thousandths of a second.

Results of the Qatar Formula One Grand Prix sprint (19 laps = 102.961 km; top 10 only):

1. Oscar Piastri (Aus., McLaren) 35:01.297
2. Max Verstappen (Niz., Red Bull) +1.871
3. Lando Norris (Brit., McLaren) +8.497
4. George Russell (Brit., Mercedes) +11.036
5. Lewis Hamilton (Brit., Mercedes) +17.314
6. Carlos Sainz (Span., Ferrari) +18.806
7. Charles Leclerc (Mon., Ferrari) +19.860
8. Alexander Albon (Tha., Williams) +19.864
9. Fernando Alonso (Span., Aston Martin) +21.180
10. Pierre Gasly (Fra., Alpine) +21.742

2023 Formula One drivers’ standings (top 10 only):

1. Max Verstappen (Niz., Red Bull) 407 points
2. Sergio Pérez (Mex., Red Bull) 223
3. Lewis Hamilton (Brit., Mercedes) 194
4. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Aston Martin) 174
5. Carlos Sainz (Spa., Ferrari) 153
6. Charles Leclerc (Mon., Ferrari) 137
7. Lando Norris (Brit., McLaren) 121
8. George Russell (Brit., Mercedes) 120
9. Oscar Piastri (Aus., McLaren) 65
10. Lance Stroll (Can., Aston Martin) 47

Sources: F1, Twitter