TLDR: Safety Car, Penalty, Safety Car, Penalty, Safety Car, Penalty, Max Wins

Sprint

Sprint qualifying, we saw the McLaren of Norris and the Mercedes of Russell have a great margin on the pack. Piastri was in third and looked like it was going to be a Mclaren weekend.

Norris had an excellent start And Piastri managed to overtake Russell on the first lap. We saw some good racing from Hamilton and LeClerc however the rest of the sprint pretty much stayed as is. On the very last lap of the race, Lando Norris gave Piastri back his sprint win, repaying the favour from Brazil sprint.

Qualifying

For the first time in awhile, Sergio Perez managed to make it Q3 however his teammate was the one to take poll position after just beating out George Russell. Max and George were miles ahead of the pack being over 0.250 quicker than 3rd.

The controversy came after Max was awarded a one place grid penalty after impeding George Russell on a warm up lap. This was actually because he was going below the minimum speed limit. A bit hard however the FIA shenanigans is only just beginning.

Start of the Race

Russell got a great start of the line, but also so did Verstappen. Entering turn 1, Russell ended up losing 1st to max and then also 2nd to Norris. This is not start Mercedes had in mind.

Unfortunately, on the first lap, the safety car was deployed due to a collision with Colapinto and Esteban Ocon. This is a painful season for us Williams fans but we are putting all of our prayers into 2026. I believe in James Vowels. This isn’t great in Colapinto’s search for an F1 seat next season. Hulkenberg also suffered a rear puncture after causing the incident however managed to make it back to the pit and continue.

Safety car ended on lap 4 And we were back to racing. Verstappen got great restart however Norris was under pressure from George Russell. Further down the pack, there was another collision on the first corner with Lawson and Bottas. Luckily this didn’t result in anything but a yellow flag. Turn 1 was the only part of the track that was interesting this race.

On lap 9 we saw that Hamilton was noted and then given a penalty for a false start. This really wasn’t Lewis Hamilton‘s weekend. Last week success did not carry on let’s just put it that way.

Lap 10 Stroll retired the car I think Aston Martin are of the point of view. The quicker the season is over the better. They are just waiting for Adrian.

George Russell came in for his pitstop on lap 24 as he was experiencing more degradation than the McLaren and Redbull. Unfortunately there was an issue with the pitstop which meant it was a seven second pit. A lot of the other front runners decided to stay out a lot longer as the medium tired seem to be less degradation than expected for the most part.

That was a loose wing mirror on track on that 34 which was basically trying his best to be a Mario kart weapon. Bottas hit it causing several shards to scatter across the track and cause two punctures on other drivers as a result. Sainz and Hamilton. This ultimately ruined both of their races. Hamilton came onto the radio saying just retire the car at a later point in the race. Sadly for him he was refused by his engineers.

Due to the debris on track, we had another safety car come out on lap 35. This safety car definitely came out way too late. It was identified on track and all they did was put out yellow flag. There should’ve been at least a virtual safety car so the Marshall could get the debris instead it ruined two races and caused unnecessary damage. Ferrari could’ve massively closed at gap to McLaren in the constructors and Hamilton could’ve ended with a points finish. So many questionable decision from the FIA.

However, at the same time as the mirrors were hit Lando Norris is going down the straight with his DRS open under double waved yellows. This did definitely come back to bite him with a 10 second stop go penalty. I think this is a bit excessive. The most severe apart from a DQ. Essentially this ruined McLaren chances of securing the constructors this week and also puts massive pressure on Lando Norris‘s second place in WDC. He served this on lap 46

The safety car didn’t start till lap 39 where Max is still ahead of the pack. Lando Norris had a great slipstream on Verstappen however he couldn’t quite execute the move and Verstappen kept the leader of the race.

Just after the restart there was a virtual safety car as Sergio Perez lost drive and then span the car. Almost instantly after Nico Hulkenberg beached his car. This gave us another full safety car and we wouldn’t restart until lap 42. It was getting boring at this point.

On lap 57 Max Verstappen took the checkered flag and won the Qatar Grand Prix.

Summary

Overall this was a hectic race. We had crashes, safety cars, FIA over involvement. The thing that lacked was actual racing. Hopefully the season finale has more to show.

Watch Highlights Here

Standings

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