Chaotic Sprint Race Sees First Time Winner, and Verstappen Crowned World Champion
Credit: Michael Potts/RN365
The anticipation for Saturday’s sprint race from the Losail International Circuit was sky-high, with an unpredictable track surface, a papaya front-row lockout, and a world champion to be crowned all adding to the excitement. The sprint shootout from earlier in the day had seen Oscar Piastri take the top spot, less than a tenth of a second ahead of his McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Championship-elect Max Verstappen could only manage a third place, although heading into the weekend he only needed to score three total points to officially lock up the championship, meaning that his result in the shootout put him in a great position to be crowned following the sprint. With minimal running on a surface that is known to get very dusty very quickly, as well as tires that Pirelli feared would struggle with degradation, no one knew what would happen in the impending sprint race.
When running did get under way, Piastri held the lead off the line, but Norris and Verstappen suffered poor getaways. It was clear that the soft compound tire fired off much better than the medium, as George Russell used his red sidewall rubber to shoot up into second place from fourth at the start. All throughout the pack, drivers were slipping and sliding through corners that seemingly had no grip at all. Those on the softs were able to cope with the tricky conditions much better than those on mediums though, and there were scraps for position all throughout the field. Sooner or later, someone was going to make a mistake, and when Liam Lawson spun off and beached his AlphaTauri in a gravel trap, the safety car was deployed for the first (but not the last) time.
A similar fate would befall Logan Sargeant on the following restart, as he also lost control of his car and went off-course. Much like his fellow rookie Lawson, the American was not able to get going again, and the safety car was put out for the second time in four laps. Before this happened however, Russell had managed to pull off a late dive-bomb maneuver on Piastri who had left the door open going into one of the heavier breaking zones. The Brit held the inside line through the corner, and emerged with the top spot just moments before the yellow lights began flashing. This put him in control of the ensuing restart, and after he caught Piastri napping and quickly pulled away from the Australian, it looked as though he might earn Mercedes their first race victory of the year.
Unfortunately for Russell, Pirelli’s concerns were real, and tire degradation was at an all-time high. After just a few laps of running, the softs were showing signs of graining, and as the race continued, the pace of the soft runners dropped off a cliff. All of a sudden, drivers like Verstappen, Norris, and Lewis Hamilton, who were all on mediums, began running nearly a second a lap quicker than everyone else. The pace delta was staggering, and those with the harder rubber desperately began to try and make up the places they had lost at the start. This culminated with a three-wide overtaking maneuver by Esteban Ocon on Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. However, the Alpine driver seemingly did not realize they were three wide, and drifted up the track entering a tight corner, causing all three cars to collide and go off the track. Ocon and Perez were stuck in the gravel, and Hulkenberg was forced to retire due to damage. The Mexican’s unfortunate DNF sealed up the drivers championship for Verstappen, and leaves Perez with some work to do if he wants to secure P2 in the championship himself.
In the meantime, Piastri had retaken the lead from Russell, and Verstappen had gotten back up to third. This meant that the restart order would be Piastri from Russell and Verstappen, followed by Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton. Russell was initially able to put a bit of pressure on the McLaren for the top spot, but he quickly fell back into the clutches of Verstappen on the mediums, who dispacted of him easily. Further back, Norris was overtaken by Leclerc in the Ferrari despite being on the better tire, and had to fight hard to clear both scarlet cars and get back into the top four. Hamilton was on the charge, having to re-overtake Pierre Gasly before clearing Alonso and catching back up to the Ferraris. A handful of clean, decisive moves saw the seven-time champion move up into fifth place when all was said and done.
Verstappen had a few laps to close down a 2.0+ second deficit if he wanted to take the win and the drivers championship at the same time, but young Osacr Piastri was having none of it. Cool, calm and collected under pressure like always, the rookie managed the gap to the RB19 behind him, and came home to win the sprint race, collecting his first ever Formula One checkered flag. Verstappen and Norris rounded out the podium places, with Russell falling to fourth after an extremely promising start. His Mercedes teammate Hamilton was fifth, with the Ferrari duo of Sainz and Leclerc right behind. Alex Albon in the Williams had a fantastic drive, going from P17 on lap one to P8 in the end, and getting by Fernando Alonso on the final lap to secure a single world championship point. On the other hand, Aston Martin scored no points in the sprint, putting them even more at risk of losing fourth place in the constructors standings to McLaren.
While most everyone was excited to see Piastri take top honors for the first time in his career, the focus was understandably on the new three-time world champion Max Verstappen. While not able to win the sprint, Verstappen’s performance was good enough to lock up the championship with a staggering six grand prix still to be run. Thus far, the Dutchman has collected 13 wins and 11 poles in just 16 races, and is yet to finish outside the top five this year. Just a few weeks ago, he broke Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive grand prix victories with his effort in Monza. This season has been complete and utter domination by Verstappen, the likes of which we haven’t seen since Hamilton, Vettel, and Schumacher. As he and his team celebrated under the lights in Qatar, the entire sport tipped their caps to the all-mighty Red Bull Racing.
All-in-all, today’s racing made for what was probably the best sprint race thus far in Formula One, and one of the best races of the 2023 season. The slick surface and treacherous tires tested each and every driver’s ability out on the track, and made for some fantastic side-by-side action with a few overtakes that simply took one’s breath away. While the championship was essentially a forgone conclusion coming in, Verstappen still put in a great performance, topped only by Oscar Piastri, whose first grand prix victory doesn’t look to be far away at all. While the main race is tomorrow, the Saturday sprint at Losail absolutely delivered in the eyes of both the drivers, and the fans alike.
EDIT: This was written before post-race penalties were assessed. Charles Leclerc was given a five second penalty for track limits, dropping him down to twelfth place, meaning that Albon has been promoted to seventh, and Alonso to eighth.
