Only a week after Brazil it was time for the inaugural Qatar GP. Qatar became the 33rd country to host an F1 weekend. Losail circuit is a combination of high and medium speed corners with one DRS zone only. Qatar GP took place under thousands of artificial lights, which made the atmosphere magical.
Qualifying got underway in the darkening night of Qatar. Bottas had been the fastest man in the second and third free practices, but Hamilton took in charge in the qualifying. Four top teams -Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren- all sent their drivers out on the medium compound in Q2. In spite of the tyre choice Hamilton went fastest, and AlphaTauri's Gasly was a surprise second, having set his time on the soft Pirellis. Verstappen was the underdog, being third. Perez in the sister Red Bull and Leclerc in his SF21 faced a confusing situation; both of them were eliminated from the last session, although both drivers had made his last attempt on the soft rubber! Ricciardo in his McLaren was third big name casualty in the second session. Sainz gambled and made his second run on the mediums as well; the risk paid off, as the Spaniard was the last driver to make it among the top ten.
Pole was for only one driver to take. Hamilton claimed provisional pole by 0.162s to his main rival Verstappen, but this was only a warm-up lap for the 7-time world champion. On his last flyer the Briton improved his own benchmark by four tenths, which raised him to a majestic masterclass of his own. Verstappen did make it second, but he was almost half a second off the pace! Bottas in third was six and a half tenths down on his teammate in spite of his impressive performance in the free practices. Gasly at the wheel of his AlphaTauri made it stunning fourth, with Alpine's Alonso impressive fifth. Norris qualified 6th for McLaren and Sainz 7th for the Scuderia. Tsunoda in the sister AlphaTauri made an excellent job as well by qualifying 8th, and the Japanese was followed by Ocon in the sister Alpine and Aston Martin's Vettel.
There were breaking news only an hour before the race start. Bottas and Verstappen had been handed a grid penalty for not slowing down under the yellow flags in yesterday's qualifying. Bottas was penalised by 3 grid slots, whilst Verstappen got a 5-place penalty. The grid suddenly looked extremely interesting. AlphaTauri's Gasly was to start to the race from P2, which was the Frenchman's career best grid slot. Alonso in his Alpine was promoted to P3 and McLaren's Norris to P4. Bottas had been dropped down to P5 and Verstappen down to P7, with Ferrari's Sainz in P6.
The start was an eventful one. Pole-setter Hamilton took a firm lead, but behind him it happened a lot. Bottas got an extremely poor start from P5, and the Finn dropped down to P11 after Turn 1. Verstappen on the other hand took a phenomenal start from P7, gaining three places right at the start. After the opening lap Hamilton was leading the race, Alonso was second, Gasly third, Verstappen fourth and Norris fifth. On lap four Gasly ended up a bit wide, and aggressive Verstappen punished the Frenchman for his mistake right away. The Dutchman had literally unleashed the lion, as only a lap later he stormed past Alonso, jumping to second. After a temporary setback (the 5-place grid penalty) the fierce battle for both championships was on again! Behind the top two Perez was making his way through the field, and by lap 16 the Mexican had made his way up to P4. Also Bottas had struggled his way through to P6.
Verstappen opened the pit stop roulette on lap 18 by switching to the white-marked hard compound. Mercedes reacted immediately and called Hamilton in on the sequential lap for similar tyre strategy. In spite of Verstappen's undercut Hamilton's lead wasn't jeopardised. Alonso's pit stop on lap 24 made Bottas already third in the race. Bottas stayed out and he was the only driver, who still hadn't done his first pit stop.
All of a sudden the Finn faced drama on lap 34; without any warning Valtteri's front-left tyre blew out! He had a handful of work to keep his car between the white lines and nurse it to the pits with sparks flying. It took 11 seconds to fit the Finn's Mercedes a new nose, and Valtteri rejoined the track in P14, far behind the top drivers.
On lap 42 Verstappen pitted for the second time, this time for another set of medium tyres. Hamilton followed his title rival's example and pitted for medium Pirellis as well. After the second pit stops Hamilton still had an 8-second gap to his Red Bull rival. Perez had an intense battle with Alpine's Ocon after his second pit stop, and the battle continued through several corners. Perez finally took the upper hand and moved to fifth.
With only six laps to go, Bottas was asked to box and retire the car. It was a huge disappointment for the team, as the Finn failed to bring any points for the team in the battle against Red Bull. A moment later there was more drama to come. In just two laps both Williams drivers had a front wing failure, which caused a front-left puncture. In both cases the left-side end plate of the front wing hit the track, which caused huge spray of sparks. Russell managed to nurture his Williams into the pits, but Latifi's car stopped on track. With three laps to go, virtual safety car was deployed.
As Verstappen had it hard to take the battle to Hamilton, he decided to do his utmost to minimise the damage. Under the virtual safety car Max pitted for the soft tyres to make sure he gets the extra point for the fastest lap time. With only the final lap to go, virtual safety car ended and the race was back on. Hamilton cruised to victory under the floodlights of Qatar. Verstappen had outstandingly pushed his way through from P7 up to P2, and in addition to this, he nailed the fastest lap time on the very final lap. Alonso, who had pitted only once, was a surprise third in the race, leaving Perez in P4. Ocon, Stroll, Sainz and Leclerc were on a one-stopper as well, and they crossed the finish line within DRS distance from each other. Had there not been the virtual safety car, the race would have seen an intense battle for P5. On the second stint McLaren's Norris was ahead of the Ferrari duo, but the two-stop strategy dropped the Briton down to P9. Vettel scored the last point for Aston Martin.
The situation in terms of both drivers' and constructors' championship standings couldn't be any more thrilling. Hamilton decreased his gap to Verstappen into 8 points only, and Red Bull are only five points off Mercedes. There are only two rounds to go, with 52 points available! Who will win the title? Hamilton or Verstappen? Mercedes or Red Bull? It will be a breathtaking season finale!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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