Piastri secures Qatar GP Sprint Race as Verstappen crowned champion
8th October 2023McLaren’s rookie Oscar Piastri now stands as a race-winner after the Australian young gun secured the sprint race win as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was crowned the world champion.
Piastri led the race early on before he was overtaken by Mercedes’ George Russell early on but the Australian soon regained the lead to become a first-time race winner, in a sprint race, in F1.
A couple of safety car interventions helped the soft tyre runners extend their life but the quicker, less durable tyre, fell away late on and the race returned to those on the mediums.
As Red Bulls’ Sergio Perez crashed out of the race on the 11th lap, Verstappen had to finish the race with a minimum of three points to be crowned as a three-time world champion – and that he did.
How the race unfolded…
When the lights went out, Piastri edged ahead down towards turn one as his teammate, Lando Norris, was eaten up by a handful of drivers which included the two Ferraris and Mercedes’ George Russell. At the same time, Verstappen slipped down the order.
It wasn’t long before the safety car was deployed as Alpha Tauri’s Liam Lawson, who looks set to have his last F1 race weekend ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s return from injury, beached himself in the gravel. Replays showed the Kiwi had a snap of oversteer from a mix of dust on the track and dirty air which sent Lawson onto the Gravel.
On the restart, at the end of lap two, Russell was not caught napping and remained on the gearbox of Piastri and down into turn six the Briton dove down the inside to snatch the lead. However, the safety car was deployed once more as Sargeant spun out on the exit of turn seven.
Unlike Piastri’s restart, on lap six, Russell bolted early which allowed the Mercedes driver to have some breathing space over Piastri.
At the mid-way point of the race, the tyre strategy started to come into play. Those on the soft tyres started to lose performance while those on the mediums had the better pace. As such this allowed Piastri, who started on the mediums, to cut down the gap to Russell on the softs.
On lap 10, Piastri remained under the exhaust of Russell with better tyres and made light work of the Mercedes driver down the pit straight to regain the race lead.
The safety car made its final appearance in the sprint after a three-car collision, on lap 12. On the entry to turn two, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was on the inside line alongside Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Perez but three did not go into one.
Contact was inevitable as Ocon made contact with Hulkenberg and then collected Perez into turn two. Ocon and Perez were left stranded in the gravel trap while the Haas was able to gingerly get back to the pit lane to retire.
At the end of lap 15, the safety car returned to the pit lane and Piastri attempted a carbon copy of Russell’s restart. However, the Briton was not caught out and remained on the rear wing of the #81 McLaren.
Equipped with dying soft compound, Russell was soon demoted to third as Verstappen – on the mediums – took second away from the Mercedes down the pit lane. The Mercedes driver was soon demoted to fourth after Norris completed a double overtake on, the soft-running, Ferraris then snatched the final podium position from Russell.
While Piastri secured his first-ever race win in F1, eyes turned to Verstappen who finished second to claim his third consecutive title.
Top three:
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Lando Norris, McLaren
That’s all for the article: Piastri secures Qatar GP Sprint Race as Verstappen crowned champion!
Read more Formula 1 here:
- Max Verstappen is crowned 2023 Formula 1 world champion
- F1 Sprint Qatar GP: Piastri heads McLaren 1-2 ahead of Sprint
- F1 2023 Qatar GP: Verstappen on pole as Perez falls to 13th
- 2023 F1 Qatar GP: Can Verstappen be crowned champion on Saturday?
- Red Bull Racing crowned 2023 F1 Constructors World Champions
- LIVE: 2023 F1 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
