Oscar Piastri stormed to a commanding victory in the Qatar Sprint, comprehensively beating George Russell and the second McLaren of Lando Norris in the 19-lap event.
Piastri led the field away confidently from pole position and came under little threat, with the exception of the tyre performance dropping off in the later laps, while the lead Mercedes kept Norris at bay to maintain second place.
The third title contender Max Verstappen could only improve from sixth to fourth as he continued to experience a frustrating issue with porpoising, while Kimi Antonelli initially took fifth place after Yuki Tsunoda was handed a time penalty for exceeding track limits.
However, Antonelli was also dealt a five-second penalty after the chequered flag, dropping the Mercedes rookie back to sixth and leaving Tsunoda with four points. Alonso and Carlos Sainz rounded out the points-paying positions in a Sprint dictated by tyre management and staying cleanly on the track.
There was just one hour of practice on offer on Friday, increasing the pressure to put together a perfect lap in Sprint Qualifying to dictate the order for the 19-lap event. Piastri stormed to pole position on his final attempt, putting him in the best position to claim the maximum eight points for a win.
The Australian edged out the lead Mercedes of Russell by just 0.032s, while an error saw Norris find the gravel at the final corner, dropping him out of contention for the top spot. Alonso was an impressive fourth for Aston Martin, with Tsunoda taking P5, unexpectedly outqualifying his Red Bull team mate Verstappen.
The Dutchman typically excels in Sprint Qualifying, having secured 10 pole positions in this format, but he settled for sixth on the grid on this occasion.
It was an even trickier day for Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, whose performance was summarised by his 10-word response in the post-session interview as he was knocked out of SQ1 in P18. As a result, the team elected to make changes to the car overnight under parc ferme conditions, leaving him to start from the pit lane – Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto found themselves in the same situation.
As the other 16 contenders lined up on the grid and the tyre blankets were removed, it was revealed that the medium compound was the tyre of choice for the majority, with a mix of used and fresh for the frontrunners.
The lights went out at the Lusail International Circuit and Piastri got the launch he needed to charge away from Russell, who immediately had to defend against Norris as they headed down to Turn 1. Just behind, Alonso lost out the most as he was passed by both Red Bulls, with Verstappen improving to P4 within what was a dream couple of corners for him.
It was a less than ideal opening lap for Charles Leclerc, who went wide at Turn 2 and dropped from ninth to 13th, landing him in a midfield DRS train. Things didn’t look much better for his team mate Hamilton, who was still lingering in P18 after failing to improve on his pit lane start.
As Piastri sped up the road, establishing a gap of over a second on the first few laps, Verstappen unsuccessfully attempted to overtake Norris for third place before reporting that “the bouncing is still very bad” – he struggled with porpoising throughout Friday’s running and it was evident that the problem had not been fully resolved.
As he continued relaying issues with both the radio quality and the car “jumping”, a chunk of Carlos Sainz’s Williams was thrown onto the circuit while he was running in P8, but with Isack Hadjar 1.7s behind, he could afford to manage the damage.
Back at the front of the field, Piastri appeared to be in a league of his own having extended his lead to two seconds over Russell by Lap 11. The Mercedes driver was warned that tyre degradation could begin to come into play, but the top three were in little danger of changing order.
There was more action outside of the points-paying positions as Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson battled with Leclerc, veering off track while trying to pass the Ferrari. He quickly gave the position back and was not the only one finding difficulty staying within track limits – Tsunoda was revealed to be under investigation for going over the white line too many times, and he was subsequently handed a five-second time penalty.
That proved to be good news for Kimi Antonelli, who improved to P6 when Alonso drifted wide at the final corner and looked to gain another position from the Red Bull driver’s penalty if he could stay within the track limits himself.
However, the Italian youngster ended up being handed a time penalty for identical reasons to Tsunoda, ultimately leaving him in sixth place. He nevertheless had a much better Sprint than the Ferrari pair, who scored zero points as Leclerc and Hamilton crossed the line in P13 and P17 respectively.
Others who failed to score were Hadjar in P9 and Alex Albon in P10, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto and Ollie Bearman, meaning that Kick Sauber is still the only team without a point from a Sprint this season.
Lawson was 14th ahead of Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg, with the remaining pit lane starters treating the session as a testing event and pitting for fresh tyres at various stages.
Key Quote
“I mean it’s been a good weekend so far,” said Piastri. “I think everything went smoothly in the Sprint. I’m happy with how it’s been so far, just need to keep it rolling.”
What’s Next
Following the Sprint, the drivers will return to the track for Qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix at 1800 local time. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action.
