Doha: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri surpassed Mercedes’ George Russell and compatriot Lando Norris to secure the Qatar sprint win in a comprehensive 19-lap event at the Lusail International Circuit.
Piastri opened the race from pole position in front of Russell and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and maintained his tyre degradation perfectly to finish atop. Third title contender Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could only improve to fourth from sixth, suffering a porpoising issue, while Kimi Antonelli initially took fifth place after Yuki Tsunoda was handed a time penalty for exceeding track limits. However, Antonelli was also dealt a five-second penalty after the chequered flag, dropping the Mercedes rookie back to sixth and leaving Tsunoda with four points. Alonso and Carlos Sainz rounded out the points-paying positions in a Sprint dictated by tyre management and staying clean on the track.
On Friday, Piastri put out a perfect final lap to take pole position ahead of Russell by 0.032 seconds, while Norris saw his time cut off after he found gravel on the last lap of the sprint, dropping him behind Russell and in front of Alonso, while Yuki Tsunoda finished fifth.
Verstappen, usually very quick in sprint qualifying, suffered in the SQ3 and lost track position after going through the gravel, which saw him finish sixth.
After his crew elected to make alterations to the car overnight under parc ferme conditions, Lewis Hamilton, who was knocked out in the first quarter, had to start from the pit lane. Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly, and Lance Stroll all encountered similar circumstances.
Charles Leclerc ended himself in a midfield DRS train after going wide at Turn 2 and falling from ninth to thirteenth. His teammate Hamilton, who was still stuck in P18 after failing to improve on his pit lane start, didn’t seem to be doing any better.
Kick Sauber is currently the only team without a point from a Sprint this season after Hadjar in P9 and Alex Albon in P10 failed to score, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto and Ollie Bearman. Lawson finished 14th, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg. The other pit lane starters used the session as a trial ground, changing their tires at different points.
(IANS)
