A weird officiating sequence throughout Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix may result in McLaren dropping the constructor’s championship.
Max Verstappen received the race as Lando Norris needed to pit from second place to serve a 10-second drive-through penalty for failing to sluggish underneath a yellow flag. In the midst of the race, a wing mirror from somebody’s automotive had fallen off and sat in the course of the principle straight for quite a few laps.
Race officers merely waived yellow flags on the finish of the straight as a substitute of summoning a security automotive or calling for a digital security automotive to select the mirror up. As officers waited to do one thing in regards to the mirror, Valtteri Bottas ran it over and the mirror broke into myriad items.
These items then appeared to trigger entrance tire punctures for each Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz. After the 2 drivers had tire failures, F1 lastly summoned a security automotive.
Norris’ penalty occurred within the laps the place the intact mirror sat on monitor. He was pressured to pit with 12 laps to go and tenth whereas posting the quickest lap.
As Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed second and his teammate Carlos Sainz was sixth and Norris’ McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri was third, Ferrari gained 9 factors on McLaren and now trails by 21 factors heading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 8.
The victory is Verstappen’s ninth of the season. He clinched the 2024 title every week in the past in Las Vegas.
Polesitter George Russell completed fourth forward of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in fifth.
The race featured three security automotive durations together with one on lap one when Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon collided behind the pack. The crash ended the day for each Colapinto and Ocon.
The second security automotive got here after the mirror fiasco and the third occurred as Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez each had issues because the race restarted. Perez mentioned hs automotive misplaced drive and easily stopped shifting.
Zhou Guanyu took benefit of the chaos to complete eighth. It is the primary factors Sauber have scored all season and all 10 groups now formally have scored factors on the season.
1. Max Verstappen, Pink Bull
2. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
3. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
4. George Russell, Mercedes
5. Pierre Gasly, Alpine
6. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
7. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
8. Zhou Guanyu, Sauber
9. Kevin Magnussen, Haas
10. Lando Norris, McLaren
11. Valtteri Bottas, Sauber
12. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
13. Yuki Tsunoda, RB
14. Liam Lawson, RB
15. Alex Albon, Williams
Not labeled: Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Sergio Perez (Pink Bull), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Franco Colapinto (Williams), Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
