Max Verstappen has won the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix with a brilliant start-to-finish drive. A day after winning the 2023 F1 world championship for a third year in a row, he rounded off a captivating weekend by winning yet again in a drivers' championship that he has been firmly in control of all season. The Dutchman picked up his 14th win of the season, and there are still five races remaining as we are now into the closing stages of the 2023 season.
Verstappen has had an incredible season, and he can now celebrate his title victory a little bit more as the next grand prix is in two weeks in the US. The constructors' championship won last week, and the drivers' championship won this week. The only thing left for Red Bull is to make sure that Sergio Perez secures P2 in the drivers' championship and that would seal a perfect season for the team from Milton Keynes.
Joining him on the podium were the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Starting in P6 and P10, the rookie who won the sprint race yesterday has got back-to-back podiums for the first time in his F1 career. The Austrailian made his highest finish in an F1 race as Piastri finished P2 while Norris finished in P3 and bagged his fifth podium of the year.
It has been a remarkable turnaround for the team in papaya, since they have put their first set of upgrades on the cars, they have shot up the standings after a terrible first half of the season. They are finishing the season strong, taking podiums in the last three races and scoring a double podium last time out in Japan as well. It wraps up a fantastic weekend for McLaren, as they finished P1 and P3 in the F1 Sprint yesterday and finished P2 and P3 in the Grand Prix. That leaves McLaren just 11 points behind Aston Martin who are in fourth spot in the constructors championship.
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Story of the race
Before the race, the regulations changed as Pirelli discovered its tyres were susceptible to failure at high speed over the kerbs at the Lusail circuit, and the FIA made it a mandatory three-stop race and all the teams were limited to a maximum of 18 laps on each set of tyres as a result.
Also before the race, news broke that Carlos Sainz wouldn't start the Qatar Grand Prix because his Ferrari had a fuel system problem. The Spanish driver finished only 12th in qualifying, but he didn't even see the green flag for Sunday's race at the Lusail Circuit. Despite their best efforts, Ferrari mechanics were unable to resolve the problem, and just moments before the start of the race, the team announced that Sainz would not be racing.
The race got underway to a dramatic start as it was a nightmare start for Mercedes as teammates George Russell and Lewis Hamilton collided going into turn 1. With both cars spinning off the track. Russell who started P2 was able to get the car moving and limp back to the pits to his car mended, meanwhile Hamilton who started P3 ended up beached in the gravel with his race over after the first corner. Russell fought back incredibly well as he came out of the pit on lap 2 he was in last place so to claim P4 is an amazing effort from the Brit and was in contention for driver of the day.
Elsewhere drivers were struggling on track with Logan Sargeant retiring due to illness, Esteban Ocon reported throwing up in his helmet during the race, the heat was a factor with a few drivers going to the medical centre after the race due to dehydration. Verstappen, Piastri and Norris looked visibly shaken up due to conditions in the post-race interviews. Lando Norris reportedly told media in the paddock pen that some drivers fainted in the medical centre.
The rest of the top 10 saw Charles Leclerc finish 5th, Fernando Alonso finish 6th, Esteban Ocon finish 7th, it was double points for Alfa Romeo as Valtteri Bottas finished 8th and Zhou Guanyu came home in 9th and after struggling for most of the weekend Red Bull's Sergio Perez finished in 10th.
F1 is back in two weeks as the drivers head to COTA (The Circuit Of The Americas) in Texas on the 20th - 22nd of October.
