Lando Norris gifts Qatar sprint win to Oscar Piastri as McLaren boost title hopes
Lando Norris gives up sprint win to McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, writes Lewis Larkam in Qatar.
Lando Norris handed victory to teammate Oscar Piastri as McLaren claimed an important 1-2 in the F1 Qatar Grand Prix sprint race.
Having dominated qualifying, Norris was in complete control and looked set to convert pole position into victory in the final sprint race of the season in Qatar.
However, in a late twist, Norris slowed out of the final corner to allow Piastri to take the win as payback for when the Australian gifted his teammate a sprint win in Brazil to help his championship aspirations.
Piastri got the better of George Russell at the start and managed to keep the Mercedes driver at bay thanks to some aggressive defending, much to Russell’s frustration.
The result is a crucial one in McLaren’s bid to win the constructors’ championship for the first time since 1998 as they secured a maximum points haul.
Carlos Sainz took fourth ahead of Charles Leclerc, who passed future Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages after a superb bit of hard, but clean, wheel-to-wheel racing.
Nico Hulkenberg claimed points for Haas in seventh, while four-time world champion Max Verstappen lost positions on the opening lap as he battled understeer in his Red Bull.
The Dutchman, who sealed his fourth consecutive drivers’ world title last weekend in Las Vegas, could only finish eighth to bag the final point on offer ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
After a dreadful qualifying in which he suffered an SQ1 elimination, Sergio Perez endured a miserable sprint race, finishing 20th and last.
The under-pressure Mexican ended up starting from the pitlane after making set-up changes to his Red Bull but appeared to be caught off guard when the green light signalled, enabling the Williams of Franco Colapinto to shoot past.
Perez made a pit stop for a front wing changed and finished three seconds adrift of Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu, who also pitted for new tyres after being the only driver to start on softs.
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