Oscar Piastri confidently held onto the lead of the Qatar Grand Prix on the opening lap, while his McLaren team mate Lando Norris lost a position to title rival Max Verstappen.
The three frontrunners all seemed to execute a good launch at lights out, but the Red Bull driver’s determination to pass Norris saw him improve to P2 as they reached Turn 1, demoting the Briton to third place on a day when he needs to win in order to seal the championship.
Norris unsuccessfully tried to come back at Verstappen, allowing Piastri to charge away from their battle and open up a gap over Verstappen. Just behind, the Mercedes of George Russell had a similarly poor start at the first corner as he dropped back three places to P7, promoting Kimi Antonelli to fourth.
While everyone in the top 10 bolted on the medium tyres for the first stint, Lewis Hamilton made the most of a set of the soft compound to surge from P17 to P13 as he sought to return to the points-paying positions.
To watch the action from the opening lap in Qatar, click go on the video player above.
