Oscar Piastri scored his first win as a Formula 1 driver in a lively sprint race at Losail International Circuit.
He led home Max Verstappen who clinched the 2023 Formula 1 world championship following his team mate’s retirement earlier in the 19-lap race.Piastri battled with George Russell throughout the first half of the race, passing the Mercedes driver and then pulling away from Verstappen to win. Lando Norris took third for McLaren after catching and passing Russell on the final lap.
With both McLarens starting on the front row of the grid on used medium tyres and Verstappen behind the pair of them on fresh mediums, the Red Bull driver had small advantage lining up for the start of the sprint race. However, when the lights went out, Piastri got a much better launch than Norris and Verstappen, who were both swamped by a trio of soft-shod drivers: Russell and the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Charles Lecler. Verstappen fell to fifth, Norris behind him.
Near the rear of the field, Liam Lawson lost control of his AlphaTauri into turn two and spun into the gravel, triggering a Safety Car period. After a brief interruption, the race resumed at the start of lap three with Piastri on his medium tyres leading Russell on softs. Russell followed the McLaren through the opening sector before making an opportunistic dive into turn six to take the lead.
Logan Sargeant became the second rookie to spin off in three laps when he lost control of his Williams at the dusty turn nine. For the second time, the Safety Car was deployed, offering crucial respite for those many drivers attempting to complete the sprint race on soft tyres.
The race eventually resumed at the beginning of lap seven, with Russell getting a jump on Piastri behind him, who was facing pressure from Sainz. The Ferrari slipstreamed the McLaren down the pit straight and pulled to the outside, but Piastri successfully held off Sainz’s challenge to hold onto second place.
Russell pulled out a lead of over 1.3 seconds by the end of the first green flag lap, however he soon started to suffer from rapid degradation on his left-front tyre, allowing Piastri to catch and overtake him with DRS to retake the lead. Behind, Verstappen overtook Leclerc and then soon passed Sainz for third place, while Leclerc lost an additional place to Norris, who moved up into fifth.
On lap 11, the 2023 world drivers’ championship battle officially came to an end when Sergio Perez crashed out of the race in a three-car collision with Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg at turn two. With Perez out, Verstappen clinched the title, but the new world champion was more concerned about chasing down Russell ahead.
The Safety Car was deployed for a third time due to the accident and the race resumed with only five laps remaining. Piastri eased away from Russell while Verstappen started to put pressure on the Mercedes. It took Verstappen just one lap before he could pull alongside Russell along the pit straight and pass him for second without the use of DRS.
Behind, Norris had lost fifth place to Leclerc but the McLaren driver used his more durable medium tyres to stick with the Ferraris, passing the pair of them over the following laps to take fourth and begin his pursuit of Russell. Out front, Piastri held a two second lead over Verstappen with two laps remaining, but appeared to be able to keep enough pace to fend off the champion.
The McLaren rookie kept his cool over the final two laps and took the chequered flag to win the sprint race, 1.8 seconds ahead of Verstappen in second. Norris overtook Russell on the final lap to claim third, with Hamilton finishing behind his team mate in fifth after passing the two Ferraris.
Sainz led home Leclerc in sixth and seventh, but received a black-and-white warning flag for multiple track limits violations. Alexander Albon took the final point for Williams in eighth, with Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly just missing out.
After the chequered flag the stewards announced Leclerc and Lance Stroll were under investigation for multiple track limits infringements.
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2023 Qatar Grand Prix
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Jere (@jerejj)
7th October 2023, 19:32
A dramatic & exciting sprint, even if not for all the right reasons.
Weird offs by Lawson & Sargeant, while the 3-car collision was solely Ocon’s fault as he had plenty of space on the inside, yet he steered into Hulkenberg.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
7th October 2023, 19:36
Ocon couldn’t see Perez was alongside Hulkenberg, so I don’t think it’s an error on his part. He was steering towards the outside but leaving Hulkenberg enough room, it’s just that Perez was there. More of a racing incident than anything else.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th October 2023, 19:38
Even without Perez on the right, he still unnecessarily steered towards Hulkenberg.
Axel
7th October 2023, 19:44
I’m not a fan of Ocon, but the moving was quite the standard squeeze, nothing weird or dangerous about it if it weren’t for Perez being there as well.
BassClef (@bassclef)
7th October 2023, 22:07
If Perez wasn’t there he still would have turned into Hulkenberg, so yes, it was dangerous.
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
7th October 2023, 23:12
But Hülkenberg would have drifted to the outside too, which is what literally every driver does in that situation.
Pérez forced a 3-wide in a situation where a fight was already happening. It’s like the third race in a row where he gets in trouble with midfielders. It won’t be his fault as in deserving of a penalty, but getting into such risks with a Red Bull is really poor racecraft.
F1 frog (@f1frog)
7th October 2023, 19:43
I am pleased for Oscar Piastri but don’t think it should be described as his first F1 win if it was a sprint race, it doesn’t go into the history books as a race win unless it is a Grand Prix win.
And what a season for Max Verstappen. Best season by one driver since Jim Clark in 1965? I suppose there haven’t been any particularly special drives unlike other candidates like Hamilton 2018, Senna 1993, Prost 1986, Stewart 1973 but he also hasn’t had a single off-day unlike all of those aforementioned drivers. Although there are still six opportunities for either of those.
AlanD
8th October 2023, 1:57
Frog, I agree, to an extent. It is his first race win in an F1 car against F1 competition, so certainly worth celebrating, but it isn’t a GP win, so yes, it shouldn’t be in those records. But then where does that leave us with races which end short of the final distance where only half points are awarded? For instance, Max won the farce that was the 2021 Belgian GP having completed one “racing” lap, scored half points, counts as a win in his stats.
Lopes da Silva
8th October 2023, 11:14
I suppose the headline should have been: “Piastri takes first F1 sprint race win”. But I did not get the impression that this was referring to an F1 win. I read “F1 win in sprint race”.
It would have been serious if the title was “Piastri takes first F1 win as Verstappen clinches…”
PeterG
7th October 2023, 19:46
But he hasn’t taken his first F1 win as the person who finishes first in the sprint gimmmick isn’t classed as an F1 race winner.
He didn’t stand on the podium, He didn’t get the winners trophy and his name won’t be in the record books as having won an F1 race.
Piastri has not won a race. He’s won a Liberty show gimmmick that nobody will remember.
Welcome to the Liberty show over sport farce!
kuvemar
7th October 2023, 19:51
What are these record books you’re fantasizing about? Because he will very much have the sprint win immortalized in F1’s statistics. And why wouldn’t he since sprints are going to be an integral part of every race weekend in the future. Poles are there, fastest laps are there and so will sprints.
Paul A (@paul-a)
8th October 2023, 0:18
The FIA is clear, a sprint is not a race.
“Article 5.3 A sprint *session* will … a) The distance of each sprint session … shall be equal to the least number of complete laps which exceed a distance of 100km.” This is what I call a gimmick.
“Article 5.5 The distance of *all* *races* … shall be equal to the least number of complete laps which exceed a distance of 305km.” (Minor exception for “The distance of the race in Monaco … 260km.”) This is what I have called an F1 Grand Prix for seventy-three years.
However, (articles 6.1, 6.4, 6.5 etc) the FIA obfuscates the whole matter by calling week-end events “Competitions” which all include a race, a few include a “session”, but both sets of points count towards the WDC. Entertainment value?
Moi
7th October 2023, 19:58
I doubt he is bothered much about your sour opinion on sprint races… he won a F1 race, period.
Edvaldo
7th October 2023, 20:05
No he didn’t. He won a F1 sprint. There’s a reason they created this name, and it was to avoid confusion about it.
Lopes da Silva
7th October 2023, 20:06
Did someone said that Piastri took is first F1 win?
Red Andy (@red-andy)
7th October 2023, 19:56
What were the soft tyre runners thinking?
Peyton
7th October 2023, 19:59
I think that they realized there is a big chance there will be a lack of tyres tomorrow. Most teams don’t have many tyres left and if Pirelli institutes maximum 22 laps per tyre – it might mean people have to run 3 stops and put on weird/weak tyres.
I think soft runners just decided to keep their medium for the race tomorrow.
osnola
7th October 2023, 20:01
Indeed, they were already spared for at least 6 laps as a result of the SC,s
But as far as Russell goes, I can understand the reason. Splitting tactics between teammates really paid off
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
7th October 2023, 19:58
What is wrong with F1?! Why were all these gravel incidents full safety cars? These used to be double waved yellows at best. Then we got VSC. Now… why were these full safety car?
This circuit is awesome racing. But you can’t have half a race be safety cars. It can’t.
osnola
8th October 2023, 12:59
but they did….
Edvaldo
7th October 2023, 20:01
Look at Norris’s face lol
Not too happy anymore is he?
osnola
7th October 2023, 20:02
Of course not. And he honestly admitted it was his own fault.
What more can you expect. He saved the third plaquette…
baasbas
7th October 2023, 20:19
@Edvaldo
He dropped the ball on a day where a win was on the tables. His rookie teammate didn’t and took it.
He said it and is not hiding from it either.
Give the guy a break. He has every right to look … well, as he does in the picture :-)
Oople
7th October 2023, 22:10
Guy literally owns up to his mistake.
What more do you want, except to feel a false sense of superiority with your “hard talk” – grow up.
Edvaldo
7th October 2023, 22:33
What else could he do if not own up to his screw ups, again? Tell me.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
8th October 2023, 6:24
At least he didnt blame it on the car or something else like perez
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
7th October 2023, 21:23
what was up with the soft tires dying after 2 laps, sigh. what is Pirelli thinking ? horrible sprint race, will be lucky to have 10 finishers tomorrow who havent been black flagged/retired.
Paul
7th October 2023, 21:46
Technically he may not have his first official F1 win but his race was longer than both the 1991 Australian GP (15 laps) and 2021 Belgium GP (1 lap) and those were considered races (well Australia 1991 was, no comment on Spa)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
8th October 2023, 5:18
Yes, and there’s other races surely that weren’t much longer than this one but counted, I’m thinking about suzuka 2022 with the rain and long red flag that had 28 laps.
Tiaki Porangi
8th October 2023, 7:17
Oh, he won the title, did he?
Oh ok.