The battle for the title continues, and the duels in the Constructors’ Cup are also coming to a head! The Qatar Grand Prix offered us a lot

Twentieth race overall, third race since the end of this season – it was the Qatar Grand Prix. And we have to admit that it has already given a significant hint, especially about the standings in the Constructors’ Cup. A very bad result for the McLaren team, a great success for Fernando Alonso after all these years!

Lewis Hamilton takes the victory from the Qatar Grand Prix, given the expected predictions it is also not surprising. The Brazilian semi-world champion put on his sixth combustion engine, and when you add in the improved DRS, the performance of his Mercedes is absolutely breathtaking.

He never lost the lead throughout the race, even during the pit stops. He was able to reduce Max Verstappen’s lead at the front of the championship once again, this time to a difference of eight points. In fact, Verstappen set the fastest lap of the race, for which one extra championship point is awarded. The Red Bull driver takes 19 points from the Qatar Grand Prix, Hamilton 25.

It’s also very close between the two teams in the team standings – Mercedes are at the top of the table, but they have only a five-point lead over second-placed Red Bull.

The same cannot be said for the battle for third place, in which McLaren is pulling the much shorter end of the rope. The Woking-based team has performed poorly in the last three races – in Mexico and then in Brazil McLaren took one point for Lando Norris’ tenth place, this time the 22-year-old Briton finished ninth.

Four points for the last three Grands Prix is a very poor result. In a battle for such an important position, it is almost reprehensible that Daniel Ricciardo, in a McLaren, has failed to score three points in a row.

Ferrari, of course, are taking advantage of this, scoring a respectable 46 points over the same time period (Leclerc 24, Sainz 22).

Alpine and Alpha Tauri are also locked in a fierce battle for a better position. Here again, the battle is for fifth place in the final standings, and Alpine seems to be much better positioned to finish fifth.

Fernando Alonso even drove to third place in Qatar, and for the first time in seven years, we got to see the legendary Spaniard on the podium! His last podium finish was in the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.

So this is the final standings of the Qatar Grand Prix. Two drivers did not make it to the finish line – Nicholas Latifi and Valtteri Bottas.

It was the end of the race that proved just how demanding the Losail circuit is in terms of speed. George Russell and the aforementioned drivers had tyre failure and were forced to pit for a new set. This forced Norris in the McLaren to stop with just a few laps to go.

For what the initial predictions were, the Qatar Grand Prix offered us a lot. We saw a lot of overtaking and especially drama in the final laps of the race. It also shows how great and exciting this season has been.

In any case, we’ll see its continuation in two weeks’ time when we’ll see the Formula 1 cars in Saudi Arabia.

Source: F1 Live