Shocking collisions at the start, wildness in the pits, track limits back on the scene! What did the crazy Qatar Grand Prix bring?

It was indeed a challenging big prize. Formula One has completed its seventeenth race of the season, with five races remaining. The Qatar Grand Prix was dominated by Max Verstappen, with both McLaren drivers completing the podium. A crazy race in terms of the choice of strategies also offered a mutual collision of Mercedes drivers and many great duels on the track.

Before all five lights went out at the Lusail International Circuit, F1 made two confirmed announcements during the course of Sunday as to the make-up of the grid. The first was that Red Bull had broken Parc fermé rules when working on a new chassis for Sergio Pérez following yesterday’s accident.

The Mexican driver had to start from pit lane. Carlos Sainz, however, did not start the Qatar Grand Prix at all, having developed a problem with the fuel system on his car. So what did the grid look like at the start of the Qatar Grand Prix?

REVISED STARTING GRID

Carlos Sainz will NOT start the race due to a fuel system issue on his car, and it's a pit lane start for Sergio Perez 👀 #F1 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/C1YU7HqnWF

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 8, 2023

Home Qatar Grand Prix

The seventeenth round of this year’s F1 season offered drama at the very first corner when both Mercedes drivers crashed into each other after the start. Lewis Hamilton closed the inside track too much in an attempt to overtake his teammate and George Russell shot him off the track as a result.

While Russell pitted and was able to continue, it was an immediate end for Hamilton. Needless to say, the seven-time champion was one of only four drivers to go into the Qatar Grand Prix on the softest set of tyres.

In addition to Hamilton, those drivers included Valtteri Bottas, Liam Lawson and Kevin Magnussen. All the others wore the medium set marked in yellow. These drivers, including Lance Stroll, then took advantage of the safety car exit and went to their mechanics for a yellow set of tyres.

Checo Pérez, starting from the pit lane, moved up to thirteenth place, while Oscar Piastri climbed up to number two. Fernando Alonso (3rd) and Esteban Ocon, who moved up to fifth, also benefited from the dramatic start.

The safety car pitted back at the end of lap four, so the order of the top ten points after the Qatar Grand Prix opener looked as follows. Verstappen led the starting field, with Piastri second, Alonso third, Charles Leclerc fourth, Ocon fifth, Lando Norris sixth, Pierre Gasly seventh, Júki Cunoda eighth, Nico Hülkenberg ninth and Alexander Albon tenth.

Tire confusion, mandatory stops

At this point, almost everyone (apart from Pérez and Lawson) was wearing a medium set of tyres. It should be noted that the FIA, in conjunction with Pirelli, had confirmed before the race that for safety reasons the drivers would only run 18 laps on one set of tyres.

This is because the F1 tyre supplier did not have its product in such a state that teams could be allowed to run a standard grand prix. Individual sets of tyres, depending on how worn they were by individual drivers, then had a set maximum number of laps that drivers could complete on them.

The vast majority of the drivers in the starting field therefore completed three pit stops, with teams naturally trying to spread out each stop to best suit their chosen race strategy.

Verstappen, for example, didn’t make his third pit stop until six laps from the end, as did Zhou Guangyu (5) and Briton Russell (7). But it worked out perfectly for the McLaren drivers, who had 13 and 14 laps on their tyres respectively at the end of the race.

The same could be said of several other drivers, such as Alonso, Leclerc and Ocon. But others, such as Bottas and Stroll, crossed the line with the third set of tyres on the maximum 18 laps. The right race strategy is always the key to success, but in Qatar this was doubly true.

Qatar Grand Prix highlights, track limits back in action

Apart from the start itself, there were a large number of really interesting battles to watch on the track. Russell, for example, made a great pass on Pérez on lap 6.

On lap 33, Cunoda performed a beautiful manoeuvre to get ahead of Albon. These two drivers were battling it out on the track throughout the Qatar Grand Prix. Norris then won a close battle with Leclerc midway through the race, with Russell notching up a couple of good manoeuvres on his way up the grid.

Fans were also entertained by the battle between the three drivers – Stroll, Gasly and Pérez. Gasly lost two positions at once, but then made a beautiful pass around Pérez to move up to tenth place.

In addition to the on-track battles and the wildness in the pits, track limits also intervened in the Qatar Grand Prix. Pérez, Stroll and Gasly all received two penalties of five seconds each for exceeding the track limits, with Albon collecting five seconds once.

Then, after a few laps, a penalty was confirmed for Hülkenberg, who collected ten seconds for a bad start.

At the end…

The Qatar Grand Prix was a very difficult affair for the drivers, as evidenced by the behaviour of the top three drivers after the end of the race or the complaints of the Spaniard Alonso on lap 34. The drivers were simply too hot in their monoblocks.

Logan Sargeant even pulled into the garage on lap 41 as he was not feeling well and ended his Qatar Grand Prix early due to health reasons.

The final results of the 17th race of the season can be seen below. Verstappen set the fastest lap (1:24.319), while Australian Piastri was named driver of the day.

RACE CLASSIFICATION (LAP 57/57)

Majestic from the three-time world champ #F1 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/XlTNyGFpXx

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 8, 2023

Source: F1