Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won the Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship on Saturday at Qatar’s sprint race, but that wasn’t going to slow him down on Sunday when the actual race came around.
Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix, giving him his staggering 14th victory in the 2023 season. Verstappen and Red Bull will officially head into the rest of the season having secured both of F1’s championships.
The race started down a driver when Ferrari had a fuel system issue with Carlos Sainz’ car, making him unable to start the race. It also had a different caveat for an F1 race, as tire manufacturer Pirelli enforced a rule that each team must make at least three stops due to tire degradation in Qatar.
The race started out with a safety car when Mercedes teammates Geroge Russell and Lewis Hamilton collided at the start of the race — Hamilton squeezed Russell and later admitted fault after he had retired the car. After that, it was a standard affair for Verstappen, who managed to separate time between himself and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in second place. In the end, Verstappen managed his race well and the McLarens followed suit, with Verstappen winning the race, Piastri coming in second and Lando Norris coming in third.
The race was marred by numerous drivers facing issues with the heat. Williams driver Logan Sargeant had to retire from the race due to heat exhaustion, and other drivers — including Alex Albon and Lance Stroll — had trouble getting out of their cars after the race was concluded.
Here’s how the Qatar Grand Prix turned out on Sunday:
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- George Russell (Mercedes)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
- Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
- Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
- Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing)
- Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
- Alexander Albon (Williams)
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
- Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
- Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
- Liam Lawson (AlphaTauri)
- Logan Sargeant (Williams) [DNF]
- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) [DNF]
- Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) [DNS]
