Max Verstappen wins amid Qatar chaos as McLaren made to wait for F1 title
Max Verstappen claims ninth win of F1 2024 in crazy race, reports Lewis Larkam in Qatar.
Max Verstappen bounced back from being stripped of pole position to claim victory in an eventful F1 Qatar Grand Prix.
The race started dramatically, featured three full Safety Cars and descended into chaos at mid-distance when debris caused punctures for Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz.
Newly-crowned four-time world champion emerged from the madness to take his ninth win of the season - and second in three races - as he fought back from an unusual one-place grid penalty for impeding George Russell in qualifying.
Verstappen, who sealed his fourth consecutive world title last time out in Las Vegas, immediately passed Russell’s Mercedes to move into a lead he never relinquished.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished second ahead of Oscar Piastri, whose McLaren team could not seal the constructors’ championship at the first time of asking.
With Ferrari cutting the deficit to McLaren to 21 points, the battle for constructors’ title glory will go on to next weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Russell came home fourth ahead of Pierre Gasly, who secured another superb result for Alpine by taking fifth ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari to further boost their bid to claim P6.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was seventh, while Sauber scored their first points in a year courtesy of the outgoing Zhou Guanyu, who capitalised on the mayhem to finish a brilliant eighth.
Kevin Magnussen took ninth for Haas ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who ran second for much of the race before being hit with a 10-second stop/go penalty for failing to slow under yellow flags.
Chaos throughout
The race was just seconds old when the drama began, with Esteban Ocon and Franco Colapinto wiped out in an opening lap collision caused by Nico Hulkenberg. The incident brought out the first Safety Car.
Just when things appeared to be calming down, a loose wing mirror which detached itself from Alex Albon’s Williams caused carnage on the pit straight.
Race control’s decision not to use either a Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car to clear the debris will raise eyebrows after it was hit by Valtteri Bottas on Lap 34, causing it to obliterate.
Hamilton and Sainz both ran over the additional debris and picked up punctures before the Safety Car was deployed for a second time. A spin and stoppage for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez caused another Safety Car almost immediately after the restart.
While Sainz recovered to the points, Hamilton’s race was ruined by a five-second time penalty for a false start and drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The seven-time world champion finished 12th, capping off a miserable weekend on his penultimate outing for Mercedes.
Just 15 cars finished the race, with Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll also retiring.
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