December 1, 2024
Max Verstappen takes the checkered flag in Qatar
The penultimate race of the season got underway on the night course of Qatar, with the Constructors title still on the line for both Ferrari and McLaren. Max Verstappen has already been crowned world champion – but that doesn’t mean the flying Dutchman was about to take a weekend off.
The grand prix got off to a thunderous start, especially for George Russell who leap out of the gate from poll but was instantly challenged by Max Verstappen, which left them both vulnerable to attack from Lando Norris on the right side, and had Norris have held on to his fight instead of easing off the way he did, Norris would have taken the early lead of the race from Verstappen.
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There hasn’t yet been a Formula One race in Qatar where the safety car wasn’t needed on the opening lap, and tonight wasn’t going to be any different. The track is notoriously difficult to get heat into the cars tires to start the race, which normally creates a slippery and chaotic start.
Nico Hulkenberg found out how cold his tires where while losing control of his rear, slamming into Esteban Ocon who in turn collided with Colapinto for the sixteenth Williams crash of the season – the seventeenth for a split second later when Lance Stroll clipped the rear wheel of Alex Albon, sending them both spinning off track.
The safety car came in briefly on lap 5 but was almost needed again when Valtteri Botas and Liam Lawson came together, but a yellow flag was enough to keep traffic flowing this time around. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso was struggling with straight-line speed, as was passed by a slew on competitors.
On lap forty or fifty-seven, Sergio Perez seemingly suffered a hydraulic issue that spun him off track and out of the race, and lead to Nico Hulkenburg going off track and beaching his car in the gravel trap, effectively ending his face as well.
Max Verstappen took the lead from Russell on the first corner of the race and held onto it the rest of the way, despite some strong challenges form Lando Norris, winning his ninth race of the 2024 season.
Things weren’t so cut and dry for Norris, however, who thought he had taken second place only to discover that he had earned a ten-second time penalty for failing to reduce speed under a double waived yellow flag. With added time, Norris dropped all the way down to tenth position, which prevented McLaren from claiming their first Constructors title since 1998.
The penalty came after the race stewards botched an incident that saw a mirror come off a car sit on the track. Instead of removing the obstacle, they took no action other than to have the race run under a yellow flag. Eventually, Bottas ran over the mirror, shattering it and sending debris all over the course that then lead to Lewis Hamilton picking a puncture to a his tire.
Amidst the chaos, Norris picked up his time penalty – and only after Hamilton had punctured his tire did race control issue a safety car to clear away the debris. All of this could have been so easily avoided, by releasing the safety car sooner. Instead, the on-track debris was left to affect the races of several drivers.
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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc eagerly took second place and kept his teams hopes for a Constructors title alive, while Oscar Piastri finished third and on the podium. George Russell had to settle for fourth place after a terrible pit stop cost him time and places, while Pierre Gasly’s fifth place put Alpine back ahead of Haas in the Constructors title chase.
McLaren will need to secure a victory in next weekend’s final race to take the Constructors title, while Ferrari can still mathematically snatch it from the papaya still.
