Automobile quantity 63 began the Qatar Grand Prix from pole place however Max Verstappen instantly seized the lead on his strategy to victory quantity 63.
He and the opposite two a number of champions on the grid – Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso – now have 200 grand prix victories between them. Hamilton scored his one hundred and fifth win earlier this 12 months however over a decade has handed since Alonso’s thirty second profession win on the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.
Talking of centuries, Alonso formally recorded his four-hundredth grand prix begin final weekend, and marked it with a robust run to seventh, Aston Martin’s greatest end result because the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Verstappen led Sunday’s race from begin to end. It’s the second time this 12 months he’s held the lead all through a race, together with the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, which was additionally 57 laps. The one different drivers to do the identical this 12 months had been Charles Leclerc in Monaco and Lando Norris in Singapore.
This was the third Qatar Grand Prix, none of which have seen a change in chief after the primary lap. Usually solely road circuits produce races with so few adjustments of lead. The final change of lead in Monaco got here within the rain-affected 2022 race.
The one different monitor on the calendar with no lead adjustments in its final three occasions is Singapore. Nonetheless the final race earlier than that, in 2019, had 4 totally different leaders (the 2020 and 2021 races had been cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic).
At the very least on this event the Qatar Grand Prix wasn’t gained by the pole-winner, although Verstappen would little doubt have one thing to say about who was the rightful occupant of the pole place spot final weekend. He instantly handed George Russell, who claimed pole attributable to Verstappen’s grid penalty for holding the Mercedes driver up in qualifying.
This was Verstappen’s second penalty in three qualifying classes in Qatar. He picked up a five-place grid penalty for failing to sluggish for double waved yellow flags in 2021: The identical infraction he noticed Norris committing throughout final weekend’s race.
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Russell due to this fact began from pole place for the sixth time in his grand prix profession. This was additionally the primary time he has taken pole in back-to-back races. He now has as many pole positions as rival Carlos Sainz Jnr, in addition to Phil Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi, Alan Jones, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Carlos Reutemann and Ralf Schumacher.
Zhou Guanyu introduced delight to Sauber in his penultimate drive for the staff by scoring their first factors for greater than a 12 months. Their final factors additionally got here in Qatar, the place Zhou completed ninth, one place behind staff mate Valtteri Bottas, when the staff nonetheless competed as Alfa Romeo.
With Sauber on the board, all 10 groups will rating factors this 12 months, for the third season in a row. Bottas stays the one driver to have began each race with out scoring a degree, although he a minimum of moved up from final place within the championship final weekend, overtaking Logan Sargeant due to his Eleventh-place end.
Norris recovered to complete tenth after his penalty. He additionally picked up the bonus level for quickest lap, which is just paid out to drivers who end within the prime 10. The final time the tenth place finisher scored the quickest lap level was additionally within the penultimate spherical, at Las Vegas final 12 months, and the recipient was Norris’s staff mate Oscar Piastri. The bonus level for quickest lap gained’t be awarded after this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, ending its return after six seasons.
That was the twelfth quickest lap of Norris’s profession, giving him as many as rival Sergio Perez, together with Alberto Ascari, Jack Brabham, Rene Arnoux and Juan Pablo Montoya. Norris set half of his quickest laps this 12 months, and has twice as many as another driver in 2024.
The ten-second stop-go penalty he obtained within the race is unusual in F1, however has been seen earlier this 12 months: Alexander Albon collected one at Imola after his staff failed to suit his front-right wheel appropriately. However Verstappen’s one-place grid drop is far more uncommon: The final driver to obtain that was his present staff mate Perez on the Tuscan Grand Prix 4 years in the past.
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