What a world! F1 continues to offer an exciting end to the season: Lewis Hamilton wins the Qatar GP at night and reduces the gap in the drivers’ championship standings from Max Verstappen who clung to the fastest lap conquered on the last lap with a train to eight points of soft tires to grab a point that could have a weight at the end of a duel that will remain engraved in history.
Hamilton only had to worry about the start after yesterday’s amazing pole position with Mercedes: at his side was Pierre Gasly with the AlphaTauri equipped with soft tires and the Spaniard could have played some tricks on him, after Max Verstappen was relegated to the grid by five positions due to non-compliance with the yellow flags in the last lap of the qualifying. But Lewis had no hesitation in sprinting with middleweight and took the lead by leading from start to finish, while behind the Dutchman it takes only four laps to become the shadow behind the W12.
The two contenders in the world championship have an unsustainable pace for everyone else and this time Mercedes has marked Red Bull’s strategies without looking for too creative tactics, so it was not difficult for the Englishman to control the race, keeping due distance Max.
Red Bull, after the problems at the DRS, was forced to mount a more loaded wing which reduced the maximum speed: this limitation did not prevent Verstappen from taking the fastest lap, sought on the last lap with a train of soft in 1’23 “196.
The W12, as happened in Brazil, demonstrated technical superiority over Red Bull, even if Hamilton gave up the Interlalos super-engine to preserve it for the Saudi Arabian GP where it could prove decisive. Mercedes, however, reduces the gap of the hepta-champion in the drivers’ classification, but must collect the retirement of Valtteri Bottas, who was also relegated to the grid by three positions.
The Finn had returned to the podium area aiming only for a stop, but on the 33rd lap with the medium he suffered a puncture in the front left that forced him to the pits before what seemed like a mysterious retirement: it seems that Bottas accused of draft problems that had already manifested themselves at the beginning of the race, slowing down the comeback of the Nordic. Valtteri was not the only one to deal with the tire that sagged due to the deadly curbs of the Losail track: Norris, Russell and Latifi also had the same problem.
Mercedes maintains a five-point lead over Red Bull, but the team result was better than that of Red Bull, who added fourth place from Sergio Perez to Max’s place of honor.
The hero of the day, however, is Fernando Alonso who returns to the podium after seven years: he had not won third place since the 2014 Hungarian GP. The Spaniard was perfect in qualifying and the Asturian didn’t miss the big chance by leading a perfect race to a return that seemed unsustainable for his A521. In reality, Enstone’s car found an ideal terrain in Doha, so much so that Esteban Ocon also collected a precious fifth place that allows the French brand to break the balance with the Alpha Tauri that had lasted for two GPs: now the Alpine has a 25-point lead after Pierre Gasly sprinted from the front row. The transalpine did not have the pace and even ended up outside the points area, lapped.
More than honest the performance of Lance Stroll able to place the Aston Martin sixth ahead of the two Ferraris that did not shine. Carlos Sainz closes seventh, ahead of Charles Leclerc: the Spaniard was almost grabbed by his teammate who started 13th with a car which had been replaced with the chassis. The red girl knew she was suffering from tire management so the team forced the drivers to keep a safe pace, avoiding exaggerating on the curbs to close the race with just one pit stop. The operation was successful, confirming the reliability of the machine, avoiding the punctures that stopped others.
certainly the SF21s did not shine, but in the end they count the 39.5 points that the Scuderia has margin on McLaren with two races to go. Lando Norris would have been easily ahead of the reds if he hadn’t suffered a puncture: the Englishman had to settle for a ninth place ahead of Sebastian Vettel who closed the points with the other “verdona”.
The world championship is very open, but we hope that the climate in the paddock and the threat of complaints and protests will ease. It will come to the end and the story is far from written. Let’s enjoy it …
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