Qatar Grand Prix: Max Verstappen relentless in Losail, Oscar Piastri breaks through, toughest F1 race ever?

Max Verstappen became a three-time world champion on a weekend dominated by tyres and Lewis Hamilton’s collision with George Russell, so there is plenty to discuss after the Qatar Grand Prix.

Relentless Verstappen seals hat-trick of titles

Looking back at a weekend packed full of action at the Losail International Circuit, there is only one place to start, and that’s with newly crowned world champion Max Verstappen.

Not only has he joined an elite club of three-time title winners, but also the extra exclusive group of drivers to have won three in a row.

It was largely a case of more of the same from the sport’s undisputed top dog as he made light work of limited practice time to take pole in Friday Qualifying.

There was a rare blip as he was outpaced by the McLarens in the Sprint Shootout, but he may well have made up for it had three Safety Car interruptions not reduced the time he had to claw his way back in the 19-lap contest later on Saturday.

As it was, the fact that his struggling Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez crashed out on lap 11 meant that the title was sealed, regardless of where Verstappen finished.

The fact he boldly attempted to chase down victory, before having to settle for second, offered some insight into his burning desire to win on every occasion.

He only had to wait 24 hours to quench that thirst for victory, with a typically composed display enabling him to overcome Sunday’s tyre madness to cruise to a 14th victory of the season.

With the title wrapped up with five races to go, two of which are Sprints, Verstappen now has the opportunity to set win and points totals for a season that are likely to stand for a very long time.

The Dutchman, who turned 26 a week before sealing the title, insists he isn’t overly interested in records, but he’s going to have to put up with breaking several of them over the coming weeks.

Piastri’s breakthrough goes under the radar

The driver to deny Verstappen a perfect weekend was McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, as he claimed a maiden F1 Sprint pole and backed it up with a first victory.

There were several impressive elements to Australian rookie’s Saturday showing, but perhaps most striking was his calmness in the closing stages as Verstappen attempted to chase him down.

The 22-year-old backed up the victory by once more finishing ahead of Norris on Sunday as McLaren sealed a second successive double podium behind Verstappen.

Piastri naturally took a bit of time to get up to speed at the start of his debut campaign, but after starting to challenge Lando Norris over one lap, appears to be working out how to compete with his highly rated team-mate over race distance.

Norris does appear to maintain an edge on Sunday, and was chasing Piastri down in the closing stages before the team intervened to instruct him to hold station, but the gap – or what’s left of it – appears to be gradually closing.

Given Norris remains without an F1 win of any sort, which is something of an anomaly given his clear talent, the Brit admitted he was particularly stung by missing out on a win that could have been his but for an error on his final flying lap in the Sprint Shootout.

While Norris’ winning moment will surely come soon, Piastri appears to be on a rapid ascent to stardom that leaves little doubt McLaren have two future world champions in the MCL60.

If it weren’t for Verstappen’s crowning as champion, more may have been made of the Australian rookie’s breakthrough performance, but one suspects the understated Aussie won’t mind continuing to fly under the radar for a little longer.

Mercedes sparring boils over in disastrous collision

If McLaren team principal Andrea Stella needed a reminder of the risks of having two fast and evenly matched drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell offered it up at the start of Sunday’s race.

Having engaged in some eye-catching sparring during the previous two races in Singapore and Japan, the pair came together in dramatic fashion at the first corner, throwing away a potentially significant points haul having started from second and third.

Hamilton, who suffered race-ending damage in the incident, ultimately took “100 per cent” responsibility for the collision, accepting his attempted pass around the outside had left Russell with nowhere to go.

While they both understandably let out frustration over team radio in the immediate aftermath of the crash, both the Brits said all the right things after the race, insisting their relationship remains strong.

Although Hamilton accepted the blame, his attempt to make the move was understandable given he had got the better getaway.

There is also an argument that given Hamilton was starting the race on soft tyres that he would undoubtedly need to shed earlier than Russell would his mediums, it might have been a smart play for Mercedes to free the seven-time world champion in the early stages.

One can imagine it would be tough to convince Russell this was a good idea, but given the mandated three pit stops each driver needed to make (more on that in a moment), they would have ultimately been on completely different strategies, and letting Hamilton go would have provided the team with two different methods of upsetting Verstappen.

It should also be noted that the recent on-track escalation between the pair has taken place in the absence of team principal Toto Wolff, who continues his recovery from knee surgery away from the paddock.

There is a little doubt that Wolff will be laying down the law ahead of the United States Grand Prix later this month, and we are unlikely to see a repeat of the collision any time soon.

Teething issues as F1 returns to Qatar

F1 was returning to Qatar for the first time since the Losail International Circuit hosted its first Grand Prix in 2021, and to say there were teething issues would be an understatement.

The most simple issue was the 40 degrees Celsius heat and extreme humidity, which forced Logan Sargeant to retire from Sunday’s race, and left several drivers unwell at its conclusion.

This event should never – and likely won’t ever – be held at this time of year again. It was in late November in 2021 and will be held even later than that in 2024, which is good news for both the drivers and the hundreds of others attempting to do their jobs in the paddock. The consensus was Sunday’s race was one of the toughest for the drivers, if not the toughest race ever.

F1 can count themselves fortunate the conditions didn’t lead to anything more than dehydration and discomfort for the drivers, and must bear the experience in mind with future scheduling.

Slightly more complex than the weather was unexpected concern over tyre wear following Friday’s practice session, which led to unprecedented rule changes midway through the weekend.

The track’s ‘pyramid’ style kerbs are allowed under FIA regulations, but the high-speed nature of the circuit clearly pushed the tyres harder than manufacturer Pirelli were comfortable with.

As a result, track limits were changed in attempt to keep cars off the kerbs on a section of the track that was considered to be particularly stressful for the tyres, and an 18-lap limit for each stint was brought in for Sunday’s race, and consequently the requirement of at least three pit stops being made by each driver.

The FIA and Pirelli ultimately made the best of a bad situation, rightly protecting the safety of the drivers, but also having to implement changes that left some drivers at a disadvantage through no particular fault of their own.

The leaderboard changed almost constantly during the race with all the pit stops going on, and while it was certainly an interesting spectacle, it was tricky to keep track of who stood where – aside from the dominant Verstappen.

Finally, Qatar became the latest Grand Prix to be heavily impacted by track limits violations. They played a crucial role in both qualifying and the Sprint Shootout, while several penalties were handed out during Sunday’s race for the 51 breaches that occurred.

While some will say the best drivers in the world should be capable of keeping a wheel inside the white lines, the deletion of lap times and penalties – often coming after a session – are not a good look for the sport.

This isn’t an issue that is exclusive to the Losail International Circuit and is certainly one for the FIA to think about during the winter, but it only added to a feeling that Qatar can and will do better when next year it continues a 10-year deal to host F1.

Andretti saga set to roll on

It’s right that the action on the track should dominate, and it ultimately did, but on Thursday the hot topic was the continued ‘political storm’ surrounding Andretti’s prospective entry to F1 as the sport’s 11th team.

The FIA have approved the American team’s bid to join the grid, but commercial rights holder Formula One Management (FOM) – and the 10 current teams – still need to agree on terms, which they appear highly unlikely to do any time soon.

The teams have set out their position that they do not want their one-tenth of F1’s financial pie to become one-eleventh, unless they feel the new team is bringing clear additional value.

Many would argue that it is very tricky for Andretti – or any other prospective new team – to fully prove their value until they are a part of the sport, which is leaving the current teams facing accusations of greed.

A Sky Sports poll during the weekend saw more than 80 per cent of voters indicate they would like to see Andretti join the grid, but that doesn’t appear to be of major concern to those opposing the entry.

Whatever the financial implications, the situation is once more pitting the sport’s governing body against the owners of its commercial rights.

The official word from F1 is that they are assessing Andretti’s entry following the FIA’s approval of it, but what appears to be an inevitable rejection – at some point in the next few months – is likely to trigger a strong reaction from Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

The sometimes-outspoken FIA president told Sky Sports on Saturday that there is “no way” there will be a rift, but in the same exclusive interview insisted that his organisation “cannot be weaker than the teams of FOM”.

Andretti’s prospective entry is likely to be an even bigger talking point later this month when F1 returns to Texas for the second of three races this season in the United States… Watch this space.

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