Verstappen Wins in Race of Twists
Crazy Qatar Controversies
After the first few laps, I though the Qatar Grand Prix might be one of the more boring races of this stellar season. And then fate, and the stewards/race director, intervened to make it a controversial event of twists, turns, and unexpected outcomes.
Here’s my main takeaways from the penultimate race of 2024.
Verstappen’s 1 Place Penalty
Even before the race began there was an unusual twist. After the sprint, Red Bull had made setup changes to very good effect and Verstappen went from looking like an also-ran to a contender. He was fast all through qualifying and snatched a brilliant pole, beating Russell by half a tenth.
Until he got a bizarre penalty. He impeded Russell in qualifying. You might think: “Fair enough, a driver on his hot lap can’t be impeded. Easy 3 or 5 place grid penalty.” But Russell wasn’t on a hot lap. Verstappen was driving slowly, but that happens all the time, by everyone, when they’re on an out lap, an in lap, or a cooling off lap. As far as I can remember this hasn’t happened before. And the penalty was just a single place, swapping around the front two. Bloody weird.
Smashed Mirror, Pair of Punctures
F1 wing mirrors are of limited use because they’re pretty dinky, but better than nothing. Unfortunately, one fell off Albon’s car and was on the main straight. And this was the sole place where passing seemed possible. It was off-line and double waved yellows soon came out.
Yet it needed a man to run out and grab it. That cannot be done with cars screaming down the straight at 200mph. Which means a virtual or actual safety car.
Instead, nothing happened.
Going off-line isn’t ideal but if you’re attempting a pass or letting a car through it happens. And it happened to Bottas. His Sauber annihilated the mirror, spreading debris all over the straight (including a bit of the pit exit).
As a result, both Sainz and Hamilton ended up with punctures, plunging the Briton further down into despair and costing the Spaniard points. This matters a lot because the title battle between Ferrari and McLaren is going to the final race and a few more for the Prancing Horse could have made the difference.
It was also entirely unnecessary, as there were a few laps when a safety car or VSC could’ve been thrown to give someone time to run out and grab the mirror. And these punctures weren’t the only consequence of the failure to act.
Eventually a safety car was put out, but rather too late for Sainz and Hamilton.
Norris’ Stop-and-go Penalty
During the first time the yellow flags were out, Norris failed to slow and gained half a second on Verstappen (who was just over a second ahead). The eagle-eyed Dutchman duly informed his team over the radio, and a penalty was dished out to Norris. This was fair enough. It was surprising, however, to see it was a stop-and-go penalty.
I quite like this as a concept, and likewise the drive-through penalty (both far more severe than a 5 or 10 second time penalty) yet neither make regular appearances. I can’t actually remember the last time there was a stop-and-go or drive-through penalty (unless you count when Alpine gave Ocon one in Las Vegas).
So for Norris to get one seemed a shade excessive. It punted him to the back of the field because the safety car was out, and while he still eked out a few points by getting into 10th and nabbing fastest lap it did rob us of a promising battle between him and Verstappen. Instead, the champion just drove away from Leclerc. In the McLaren-Ferrari battle, this lost a huge number of points for the papaya team, and gives a slender hope to Ferrari of winning the title this year.
Zhou Scores!
The Sauber has been looking a little better lately, and perhaps benefited (as did Mercedes) from lower temperatures and less grip than expected in Qatar. Both drivers got into Q2 and had been looking more midfield than backmarker. And kudos to anyone who bet on Zhou Guanyu to score because that was not on my radar.
Taking advantage of multiple DNFs (including Hulkenberg and Stroll) and his own consistent pace, Zhou ended up in 8th, scoring 4 points and finishing over a pit stop ahead of his team mate Bottas (who finished agonisingly close to the points in 11th).
It’s a shame the car’s finally coming good as the season ends, with both drivers out of a seat for next year. But it’s also nice that Zhou Guanyu got himself some more points before the probable end of his F1 career.
Victorious Verstappen, Glorious Gasly
At the front, Verstappen seized the lead on the opening lap and never looked like relinquishing it. For a time, Norris was in close contention but the yellow flag penalty put paid to that threat and thereafter the Dutchman was serenely cruising to yet another victory. In the sprint, he’d seemed so-so (finishing 8th, behind Hulkenberg) but the setup changes yielded huge results for Verstappen’s Red Bull.
Somebody should remind Gasly that his Alpine’s not a frontrunner because he seems to have forgotten. Yes, he was aided by the weird shenanigans on-track, but he finished 5th, narrowly staying ahead of Sainz (who was unable to pass despite clearly being faster). He was only 2.6s behind Russell in the end, making this another fantastic performance by the talented Frenchman.
Those 10 points for Alpine shove them back into 6th, ahead of Haas (with 59 and 54 points respectively). While not a done deal, the odds are the Alpine team, which has struggled for so much of this year, will end up staying in that place. Such a result is worth a lot of cash, and will be quite remarkable if it happens.
We have just one race left in this highly entertaining season. Let’s hope it’s a good one in Abu Dhabi this coming weekend.
Richard
