THE QATAR GP IN 3 KEY MOMENTS
1 Hamilton dominates to leave Red Bull reeling
Lewis Hamilton’s second straight victory cut Max Verstappen’s points lead to eight, putting the title battle on a knife’s edge heading into the final two races – but it’s the dominance of Hamilton’s recent displays that must concern Red Bull.
Christian Horner described Hamilton as “unraceable” in Brazil, where Lewis won from 10th on the grid after starting the sprint race from the back of the field, and Hamilton was on similarly untouchable form as F1 made its first visit to Qatar.
The Losail circuit has hosted motorcycle grands prix since 2004, but nothing of a higher level than GP2 on four wheels since 2009. This 3.3-mile desert venue turned out to be a frenetic blast through rapid sequences of medium and highspeed corners; the drivers never dropping below third gear (and then only momentarily), front left tyres protesting sustained abuse, invitingly smooth kerbs counterintuitively damaging the cars at such speed.
Hamilton was off the pace on Friday, as Mercedes trialled alternate set-ups on its cars, but Lewis was less than a tenth behind Friday pacesetter Valtteri Bottas in FP3, before topping every segment of qualifying. Verstappen was less than a tenth adrift in Q1, but that gap grew to 0.3s in Q2 and almost six tenths in Q3, as Hamilton set two laps good enough for pole.
“We thought we’d be good here, but this is a track that of the three that remained we were most concerned about,” said Mercedes engineering director Andrew Shovlin. “We can do all our simulation, but nothing explains why he was that far ahead of Max. Fundamentally, it is just down to him digging deep and doing what needs to be done.”
Hamilton’s performance was more remarkable for the fact he didn’t use the new engine fitted for Brazil, a unit Mercedes said would be brought back into play for what is expected to be another extremely high-speed race in Saudi Arabia.
“They have woken up the lion on the Saturday at Interlagos,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff of Hamilton’s display. “He’s absolutely on it.
Brutal. And cold-blooded. When adversity happens, it takes him to a place where he’s able to mobilise superhero powers.”
Red Bull made more noise about extra flexibility in the Mercedes rear wing, but Horner admitted straightline speeds were “virtually line on line” between RB16B and W12 in Qatar, and said Red Bull had been shipping “two tenths a lap every lap from Friday to Sunday through Turn 6, the slowest corner on the track.”
Horner was formally warned by the FIA for criticising a “rogue marshal” in a TV interview ahead of the race, after Verstappen received a five-place grid penalty for failing to respect double waved yellow flags in Q3.
Verstappen easily overcame that setback within the first five laps by going inside Bottas (who was also penalised for a similar offence) and Carlos Sainz at the start, sweeping bravely around Lando Norris through Turn 2, then Drs-ing past Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso.
But Hamilton remained ‘unraceable’…
2
Pirelli problems boost Alonso to podium
Fernando Alonso claimed his first F1 podium since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix, after Valtteri Bottas suffered a left-front tyre blowout and Red Bull elected to pit Sergio Pérez as a precaution against a similar outcome.
Bottas “couldn’t build enough tyre temperature” on the formation lap and made heavy weather of recovering from his own three-place grid drop for failing to respect a single yellow flag in Q3, dropping from sixth to 11th on the first lap then receiving a hurry-up from Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff having made no progress through the first eight laps.
Valtteri grew into the race and recovered to third after running a mammoth 32-lap stint on medium Pirellis when his front left suddenly deflated “maybe three laps” before his planned pitstop.
Pérez was planning to go to the end after stopping for hard tyres on lap 19 of 57, but Red Bull stopped him again on lap 41 as a precaution. Without the Virtual Safety Car called after Nicholas Latifi stopped on track with his own puncture three laps from the end, Red Bull felt Pérez would have beaten Alonso to third – but the Alpine driver made his own one-stop strategy work to cling on by less than three seconds.
“We managed these tyres quite early, but also we understood that avoiding the kerbs was key and we instructed our drivers to do that,” said Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski. “Honestly it was a question of a few corners whether we would make it or not…”
After Bottas, Latifi, George Russell and Lando Norris (who was running a few seconds behind Alonso in fourth) all suffered similar sudden front-left failures, Pirelli’s investigation into the issue concluded excessive kerb striking at high speed to be the cause.
3
Gasly starts second but no-scores
Pierre Gasly was second fastest in both Friday practice sessions, fourth in FP3, second in
Q2, qualified fourth and started second after Verstappen’s and Bottas’s penalties, but finished out of the points after a disastrous race.
It was Gasly whose damaged car caused the yellow flags that tripped up Bottas and Verstappen in Q3, and Pierre wondered if repairs to his Alphatauri contributed to his Sunday downfall. Even committing to an “aggressive” two-stop strategy made no difference.
“It was very, very frustrating, our pace was shocking,” Gasly said. “Even with fresher tyres than Fernando I was miles away when he was on used tyres. We could have done five stops, it doesn’t matter. I don’t understand how both cars can qualify in the top 10 and go backwards during the race.”
Gasly later revealed that the team had identified why he and Tsunoda struggled so badly, but the only detail he alluded to was excessive tyre wear.