Sprint weekend for Formula 1 in Qatar with the drivers championship just closed and the constructors still up for contendings between McLaren and Ferrari.
Lando Norris will be starting from pole position in what will be the last Sprint of the year, before the season finale next weekend.
Sergio Perez and Franco Colapinto are starting from the pit lane for making unauthorized changes to their single seaters under parc fermé.
And so let’s have a look at how things went down in what was the very last Sprint race of the 2024 season.
Quite a good start for Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton who goes up to P5 after making it past Charles Leclerc at Turn 2.
Same for Oscar Piastri who quickly takes P2 from George Russell.
Not the luckiest start, instead, for the Monégasque, as he has to be careful with Carlos Sainz ahead of him who has a slip.
A poor start also for world champion Max Verstappen who came out of the first lap in P9.
Out of lap 1 the top spot is McLaren’s with Norris ahead of Piastri and the Mercedes of George Russell following behind, then Sainz, Hamilton and Leclerc.
A few laps later Norris is starting to gain advantage from his teammate, but slows down to give the Australian DRS to help him defend from Russell.
“I’m trying to give Oscar DRS every lap,” he confirms himself to his race engineer.
Teamwork to extend the lead on Ferrari for the constructors championship.
On lap four, in fact, the Mercedes came level with Piastri, who had to pull off quite an aggressive move in order to keep him behind, leaving Russell rather unpleased as he showed on the radio.
Meanwhile Verstappen, who is struggling with oversteer, is stuck behind Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.
He manages to overtake him a few laps later with the help of DRS and is gaining some pace as he sets fastest lap in 1m25.224s.
Who has just entered DRS zone from the top 3 is Carlos Sainz, with Hamilton and Leclerc close behind.
Faster times for Norris as he snatches the fastest lap, while Piastri is still struggling to keep Russell behind and makes a direction change very on the limit to defend his P2.
Hamilont and Leclerc go through the first two corners side to side, until the Ferrari makes a move and takes P5.
Pit stop for Sergio Perez to change his front wing as he really doesn’t have much to lose not having moved far up the back of the grid.
Both Russell and Leclerc are pushing fairly hard but it’s no use as no one of them manages to gain another position.
Ultimately Oscar Piastri is let past by his teammate to take the win in this Qatar Grand Prix Sprint race.
Behind it’s an impressive P7 for Nico Hulkenberg and a disappointing P8 for Max Verstappen.
