Qatar GP 2023
OCTOBER 9, 2023
Race Report - Verstappen sails to victory
© Red Bull
By Peter Habicht
Max Verstappen sailed to victory for Red Bull today at the Lusail circuit maintaining a comfortable lead after opening lap contact between Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and George Russell sent Hamilton into the gravel and Russell into the pitlane for a new nose.
The world champion attempted a move on the outside of his teammate at Turn 1 where they made contact, ending Hamiltons race.
With two rivals gone, it was Verstappen's race as he led from the restart, never looking back. The advancing McLaren team put together a strong race following their performance at yesterday's Sprint race with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris taking second and third for another podium finish together.
Russell's race showed outright pace as he came back from last to take fourth following the collision. Afterwards, he said, "It all happened so quick. I made a good start, Lewis made a good start, I was alongside Max and next thing, [I] just got completely sandwiched and there was nowhere else to go… I felt so disappointed for us both…It's very difficult in these F1 cars to see when there's certain blind spots in the car, of course this should never happen…"
Hamilton took responsibility and shared on social media his apologies to the team and Russell.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took fifth ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, who shared on team radio to ask what the team could do to manage the heat he was experiencing in the driver's seat mid race.
Shortly after on lap 33, he went wide at Turn 2, losing several places.
Alpine's Esteban Ocon took seventh ahead of the Alfa Romeos of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou, completing the team's first double points finish this year.
Red Bull's Sergio Perez finished in tenth after receiving three five-second penalties during the race for exceeding track limits.
Track limit violations plagued Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, who had finished in the points but was relegated to 11th, as well as Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Alex Albon to take 12th and 13th, respectively.
The Haas team's Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg took 14th and 15th ahead of AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson, who made up the final drivers to cross the finish line.
Williams' Logan Sargeant had been on course to complete the race until he said he'd been feeling ill just past the half distance mark. He retired the car safely less than ten laps from the end with apparent dehydration.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz did not start with a late discovery of a fuel system issue on his car prior to todays grid.
Formula 1 returns to the United States October 22nd for the USGP in Austin, Texas.