The Qatar Grand Prix ended with the victory of Lewis Hamilton, immediately followed on the podium by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen; the Dutchman, author of a comeback from seventh place after the penalty suffered a few hours before the start – thanks to the violation of the double yellow flag regime in qualifying – thus ensured the leadership of the drivers’ world championship, while retaining an advantage from the rival of Mercedes now reduced to 8 points. Furthermore, his signature on the fastest lap of the race allowed him not to lose further ground, maintaining this gap with two tests to go to the end of the season.
However, even before the start on the Losail circuit, the Race Direction had suffered heavy criticism from the Austrian team principal, Christian Horner; the British manager, immediately after the sanction imposed on Mad Max, had in fact accused the FIA and the stewards a Sky Sports UK to have “Made a big gift to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes”. For this reason, once the race was over, Horner himself was summoned by the commissioners, thanks to the failure to comply with two articles in the sporting code.
In this regard, the team principal later publicly apologized for his statements: “If anyone has interpreted my sentences as an offense – He admitted – I apologize for this. It was a frustrating situation for us and Max was phenomenal to recover in the race. During my interview before the start, I was asked for an opinion on the race marshals; I want to reiterate firmly that all of them do an incredible job, and my anger was not directed at one of them, but only a particular circumstance. We all need your input and we really believe you do a great job. I apologize if my words were offensive. I felt that what happened on the track was inconsistent, with one rider who did not have the yellow flag, another had it, while yet another had double it ”.
Regarding the race, which ended with Perez’s 4th place, which allowed Red Bull to shorten the gap in the constructors’ standings by 5 points, Horner also commented on the performance of Verstappen and the car on the Losail track: “The penalty on the grid was a low blow – he analyzed – but in the race we experienced great emotions. We handled them well, without cursing the camera. The speed was in line with that of the opponents, and only in turn 6 did we lose something like two tenths on each lap at that point. Max’s first corners after the start were phenomenal. Today was a great performance: Mercedes was faster, but Max was amazing. We need to analyze our pace for the next two races; Jeddah is comparable to a much faster Azerbaijan, and Abu Dhabi’s layout itself has changed. We will go home to try to improve the performance of the car – he concluded – also because now the advantage in both classifications is very limited “.
Horner apologized directly to the stewards as well and it was ‘pardoned’ by the judged commissioners. In fact, his case was resolved by the FIA with a simple ‘warning’ and with his participation in the FIA International Stewards Program next February.
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