The fifth place of Pierre Gasly and the points of Sauber but also the misfortunes of Lewis Hamilton and a race direction that is hazardous to say the least, find the tops and flops of the Qatar GP.
TOPS
Gasly finishes strong
Brilliant third in São Paulo, Pierre Gasly did not reach the podium in Lusail, during the Qatar Grand Prix won this Sunday by Max Verstappen, but he still did well. Starting eleventh, the Frenchman was solid in the first part of the race, 9th for a long time, and then took advantage of the racing incidents to stop at the right time. Sixth before the last restart, Gasly took advantage of the penalty imposed on Norris to move up one position. After several good defenses, he thus secured his fifth place which offers 10 points to Alpine, very valuable in the race for 6th place among manufacturers (the ranking here).
Sauber regains the points
It might even be the surprise of the day. It had been 14 months since Sauber (or formerly Alfa Romeo) had scored any points. The Swiss team was even the only one not to have scored this season. The anomaly was repaired since Guanyu Zhou finished 8th on Sunday in Qatar, taking advantage of five retirements and incidents. Sauber's first points since the 2023 Qatar GP.
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Formula 1: Max Verstappen extends his reign
Verstappen au sommet
He took pole on Saturday after a failed sprint race (8th), before being downgraded to second place for having hampered Russell. On Sunday, at the first corner, Max Verstappen had already regained his possession. Leader throughout the entire race, the now quadruple world champion resisted Norris and the various race restarts for many laps to glean a ninth victory this season and the 63rd of his career.
FLOPS
Hamilton in difficulty
Lewis Hamilton has been lacking motivation lately. Ferrari is waiting for him and he is also waiting for the Italians but he has to finish the season. His race on Sunday was chaotic with a false start, which cost him a five-second penalty, a puncture mid-race and above all a desire to give up eight laps from the goal to indicate his fed up. Twelfth at the finish, Sir Lewis has only one more race to complete with Mercedes before turning the page.
Race management abandoned
We were seriously bored in this race when Alex Albon lost one of the mirrors of his Williams mid-race. The object was then on the track in the start/finish straight, where the drivers were hurtling at more than 320 km/h but this did not really worry the race management, probably at the coffee machine. A Sauber driver then ended up driving over it and blowing it up sending carbon debris everywhere. In the process, Hamilton and Sainz punctured causing… a safety car which should surely have been released well before.
