After a strong race, Max Verstappen takes the win at Qatar to overtake Oscar Piastri in the WDC with 396 points! 

Lap 1 

Oscar Piastri starts strong by taking the lead into the first corner. However, Lando Norris is outmatched by Max Verstappen’s fast reaction time; he used this fast reaction time to his advantage to take P2 from Norris.  

Lap 6 

On Lap 6, Pierre Gasly was shown a black and white flag due to rejoining the track unsafely after a long investigation period from the stewards. 

Verstappen was faced with some car troubles, which he spoke about on the radio: 

“I have quite extreme balance shifts from left to right hand corners.” 

Lap 7 

Nico Hulkenberg was faced with disappointment after clipping tyres with Gasly. This clip of tyres found Hulkenberg stuck in the gravel on Turn 2, which brought out the Safety Car.  

Hulkenberg shared his frustrations about the situation over his radio: 

“I can’t believe this… Unbelievable! I gave him loads of space!” 

While under Safety Car conditions, every other driver pitted except Norris, Piastri and Esteban Ocon, which would later have repercussions for the McLaren drivers.  

On the same lap, Ocon was noted and later penalised for moving before the signal, which resulted in a five-second time penalty. Which forced Ocon to pit.  

Lap 9 

Norris shared his confusion and frustration over the radio at the fact McLaren didn’t pit him when Verstappen did: 

“We should have just followed him in, no?” 

“Should’ve went in if the car in front (Piastri) was staying out.”  

“He has now lost all strategic flexibility for the race.” – W. Joseph  

Lap 10 

The Safety Car period ended, and it was all on Piastri to restart the race. Before Piastri took off, Norris was reminded to stay close over the radio. 

Lap 22 

On lap 22, Piastri started to struggle with his front left tyre. He reported his struggles on the radio before continuing in the race. Later in Lap 24, Piastri pitted for medium tyres as he rejoined P5.  

Lap 25 

Norris was called into the pits after Piastri, where he changed onto medium tyres. Norris rejoined ahead of Fernando Alonso, which saved him from the stress of entering traffic, but it meant he would be stuck behind Kimi Antonelli for a long time.  

Lap 28 

Lance Stroll was noted, under investigation and then penalised for speeding in the pitlane, which was a 10-second penalty. 

Piastri, after pitting, wanted to make sure how long he could go for before he would have to pit again, which he asked on the radio and got an answer of “until Lap 35.” Later in the lap, this answer was changed to “Lap 45”. 

Lap 30 

Verstappen made his second pit stop of the race, where he pitted for hard tyres and rejoined in P3. The fresh tyres helping his pace, which Norris’s engineer told him to watch out for on Lap 35: 

“This is the part of the race where we need to be quicker than Max.” 

Laps 36, 37, 38 and 40  

These four laps have seen a lot of communication between the McLaren drivers and their engineers. Norris’ engineer first made him aware of his throttle shape with this radio message during Lap 36: 

“Lando, reminder on Turn 7 throttle shape. You’ve gone back to what you were doing before.” – W. Joseph 

“Yeah, I’m trying… I just… I need more help then because I can’t do it.” 

Later, on Lap 38, Norris continued to struggle with the throttle shape. It even saw Norris go off track, where he asked his engineer to check the car for damage.  

Piastri was having a different conversation with his engineer, and it was about when he should pit and what their overall plan was. It started with this conversation on Lap 37: 

“We need to weigh up our options here. In terms of trying to get a Safety Car or just beating him on pace.” 

“So, Oscar, let’s go to target minus 1. Best pace to target minus 1.” – Stallard  

Later, on Lap 40, Piastri was asked if he was happy to keep his medium tyres for 10 more laps: 

“Accept 10?” – Stallard 

“There’s no way not to accept that without boxing now.” 

Lap 43 

The plan of holding on for another 10 laps was scratched as Piastri headed to the pit for hard tyres. McLaren pulled together a fast pit stop for the Australian, which allowed him to rejoin P5.  

Red Bull was quick to make Verstappen aware of Piastri’s pit stop: 

“Okay, Max. For this race, it was Piastri who pitted early. He is now chasing after you.” – Lambiase  

Lap 44 

After being served a 10-second stop-and-go penalty due to an unsafe release, Oliver Bearman carried out his penalty before retiring from the race, which made him the second retirement.  

Lap 45 

Norris headed to the pit after Piastri’s fast stop; Norris put on new hard tyres and later rejoined the race in P5 behind Antonelli once again. Which Carlos Sainz took notice of from his position in P3. 

Laps 46, 47, 48 and 50 

After taking notice of Norris in P5, Sainz was quick to talk to his engineer over the radio: 

“I think Norris will struggle to get past Antonelli with the pace we’re doing.” (L46) 

“Yeah, guys. I think we need to go push for this, flat out.” (L47) 

“I think the key is to open the gap now to Norris as much as possible.” (L48) 

On Lap 50, Sainz and Williams were faced with a small scare: 

“Oh no! I have understeer in right-hand corners. Check the car; I think something fell off!” This was luckily a false alarm, and Sainz’s car was confirmed to be ok to continue.  

Lap 56 

Isack Hadjar was faced with disappointment as he got a puncture in his tyre. Hadjar limped round the track and sadly saw him moving from P6 all the way down to P19.  

On the same lap, after being stuck behind Antonelli since Lap 45, Antonelli went wide. This allowed Norris to breeze past and take P4 from the young driver. Verstappen’s engineer was quick to report on this: 

“Antonelli seems to have given the place to Norris. I’m not sure what happened there.” – Lambiase 

Lap 57 

Verstappen crossed the finish line with Piastri following behind in P2 and Sainz in P3, after an amazing drive! Norris, however, finished the race in P4.  

With this win, Verstappen takes second place from Piastri in the Driver’s Championship. Which leaves the standings with Norris in the lead with 404 points, Verstappen second with 396 and Piastri with 392.  

With how close the gaps in the championship are, it leaves all eyes on Abu Dhabi to see who can take the win…