DOHA: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, a day after being stripped of pole position, as McLaren and Ferrari took their constructors’ title duel down to next weekend’s last race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

The win was the Dutch driver’s ninth of the Formula One season, second in a row in Qatar and the first since he wrapped up his fourth successive title in Las Vegas a week earlier.

“Karma is a wonderful thing. You definitely did not drive unnecessarily slowly today. Great job,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner over the radio after Verstappen took the chequered flag.

Stewards had handed the champion a one-place grid drop on Saturday for driving too slowly, with Mercedes’ George Russell the beneficiary but making a poor start from the top slot and finishing fourth.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished runner-up, 6.031 seconds behind, after McLaren’s Lando Norris was handed a surprisingly tough 10 second stop/go penalty for speeding during yellow warning flags.

That dropped the Briton from second, a position seized at the start, and challenging for the lead to 10th at the chequered flag with the consolation of fastest lap for a bonus point to double his meagre score.

Saturday sprint winner Oscar Piastri finished third for McLaren in a race punctuated by crashes and three safety car periods.

McLaren’s lead was trimmed to 21 points with 44 remaining to be won, and a first constructors’ title since 1998 beckoning, while reigning champions Red Bull were mathematically out of contention.

“Lando and I were within 1.8s of each other the whole time, pushing each other and honestly, it was a lot of fun out there,” said Verstappen.

Norris, now only eight points clear of Leclerc, saw a missed opportunity as others questioned the harshness of the penalty.

“I don’t know if Ive missed it or just been dumb, but the rule is, if you don’t slow down under the yellow that’s the penalty, so its fair penalty,” he said.

“I’ve made the job of the team much harder than it needs to be. The team are doing a great job but Ive let them down.”

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was also slowed by a puncture and long pitstop, finishing sixth with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly an impressive fifth to send the Renault-owned team back up to sixth overall.

Fernando Alonso was seventh for Aston Martin and China’s Zhou Guanyu scored Sauber’s first points of the season with eighth.

Kevin Magnussen was ninth for Haas, who dro­pped back behind Alpine.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton collected a five second penalty for a false start, then a puncture and finished only 12th in his penultimate race for Mercedes before moving to Ferrari.

As a final blow of the night, he was also handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

“The car and I don’t get along really that well,” said the Briton, who at one point asked to retire.

“We were very far off at the beginning. We didn’t have enough wing to start with, the cars were quite different and it wasn’t really great to drive. But it’s my fault so apologies to the team for the false start and the pit lane incident.”

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez also had a dismal time, failing to finish.

The safety car was deployed initially when Alpine’s Esteban Ocon collided with Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas, with the Frenchman then taking out the Williams of Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto on the rebound.

Hulkenberg made it back to the pits with the remains of the rear left tyre flailing but eventually retired.

Williams’ Alex Albon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also clashed, with the latter pitting for fresh tyres before being told to retire.

Albon’s wing mirror flew off his car at the halfway point and landed on the track, where it lay until Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas ran over it and scattered sharp debris across the track that may have caused Sainz and Hamilton’s punctures.

Race control reacted with the yellow flags that were to catch out Norris, waiting seven laps before then deploying the safety car again.

Bottas, who finished 11th, and RB’s Liam Lawson also tangled on lap five after the safety car came in.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2024