Ryan Malesevich

amateur runner, technology enthusiast, and friend to all dogs

2024 Qatar Grand Prix Recap

01 December 2024

With the Driver’s Championship locked up last weekend in Las Vegas and the Constructor’s Championship seemingly set to McLaren, the realization that we’re at the end of the season is starting to dawn on me. Next week is it and then we’ll be off until mid-March when the 2025 season kicks off in Melbourne. Let’s not lament on that much because the penultimate weekend had a lot of excitement.

Sprint Qualifying

This is the last sprint. The tires were dictated to Mediums in SQ1 and SQ2. Softs are required for SQ3. Let’s dive in:

  • SQ1
    • Track evolution is giving a lot of purple sectors with the driver’s completing their second laps.
    • It is always fun to see when drivers complete identical lap times. In SQ1, Norris and Russell both do a 1:22.021.
    • Albon knocks out Sergio Perez right at the end. The common narrative of Checo underperforming continues.
    • OUT: Sergio Perez, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu, and Franco Colapinto
  • SQ2
    • Another identical time. This time Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen set the same time.
    • OUT: Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen
  • SQ3
    • Norris is going fast. Then Russell goes fast. Then Norris goes fast. Ultimately, Norris takes pole position. With Piastri in P3 ahead of Sainz and Leclerc, it means McLaren sets themselves up nicely.
    • It’s surprising seeing Pierre Gasly do so well while Esteban Ocon is decidedly not.
    • The Red Bulls don’t look very good with Max managing only P6.
    • George Russell is doing great but Lewis Hamilton is struggling. If you listen to him, the world is ending. He’s just in a funk.

Red Bull and Williams modify Sergio Perez and Franco Colapinto’s car after parc ferme, so they must start in the pit lane. Here’s how the grid will line up for the Sprint:

  1. Lando Norris
  2. George Russell
  3. Oscar Piastri
  4. Carlos Sainz
  5. Charles Leclerc
  6. Max Verstappen
  7. Lewis Hamilton
  8. Pierre Gasly
  9. Liam Lawson
  10. Nico Hulkenberg
  11. Fernando Alonso
  12. Alex Albon
  13. Valtteri Bottas
  14. Lance Stroll
  15. Kevin Magnussen
  16. Yuki Tsunoda
  17. Esteban Ocon
  18. Zhou Guanyu
  19. Sergio Perez (starts from the pit lane)
  20. Franco Colapinto (starts from the pit lane)

Sprint

The sprint was not very exciting. I found it pretty boring outside of a few story lines:

  • The temperatures are a lot lower than last week so we shouldn’t see the drivers struggle like 2023.
  • Zhou Guanyu gambles on the softs as everyone else chooses to use the mediums. It does not work out for him.
  • Lando had a good start despite Russell attacking. Oscar was able to get around George for a Mclaren 1-2.
  • Verstappen has a really bad spot and loses 3 spots to drop out of point contention. He eventually gets past Gasly to secure one point for Red Bull.
  • Sergio Perez is caught napping and doesn’t start when the lights go out. Colapinto passes him in the pitlane exit. He blamed it on cold tires but I’m not so sure.
  • For most of the race it was a DRS train of Norris, Piastri, Russell, and Sainz.
  • Hulkenberg did well to get into points paying position. That’ll be big for Haas in the Constructor’s Championship.
  • Right at the end, Norris and Piastri execute a swap while somehow keeping Russell behind them. I didn’t like the call, but it was payback for the Brazil GP where the drivers did a swap in the sprint during that weekend.

Here’s how things ended:

  1. Lando Norris (+8)
  2. Oscar Piastri (+7)
  3. George Russell (+6)
  4. Carlos Sainz (+5)
  5. Charles Leclerc (+4)
  6. Lewis Hamilton (+3)
  7. Nico Hulkenberg (+2)
  8. Max Verstappen (+1)
  9. Pierre Gasly
  10. Kevin Magnussen
  11. Fernando Alonso
  12. Valtteri Bottas
  13. Lance Stroll
  14. Esteban Ocon
  15. Alex Albon
  16. Liam Lawson
  17. Yuki Tsunoda
  18. Franco Colapinto
  19. Zhou Guanyu
  20. Sergio Perez

After these results, the Constructor’s Championship looks like this:

  1. McLaren: 608 + 15 = 623
  2. Ferrari: 548 + 9 = 593
  3. Red Bull: 555 + 1 = 556
  4. Mercedes: 425 + 9 = 434
  5. Aston Martin: 86 + 0 = 86
  6. Haas: 50 + 2 = 52
  7. Alpine: 49 + 0 = 49
  8. RB: 46 + 0 = 46
  9. Williams: 17 + 0 = 17
  10. Kick Sauber: 0 + 0 = 0

Qualifying

I missed watching Qualifying live but it did bring up some surprises.

  • Q1
    • The teams that you’d expect to get through all get through. I’m looking at you Sergio Perez! Good job making it to Q2.
    • Both Kick Sauber’s get to Q2. I really want them to score some points. I hate goose eggs.
    • The same story continues with Alpine. Pierre Gasly is doing well while Esteban Ocon is struggling.
    • It’s strange to see Nico Hulkenberg struggle in qualifying as he’s knocked out in Q1.
    • OUT: Alex Albon, Liam Lawson, Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto, Esteban Ocon
  • Q2
    • The Kick Sauber’s good run ends.
    • The big surprise seems to be Max Verstappen who is finding a lot of purple sectors and is going quite fast.
    • OUT: Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll
  • Q3
    • In the top 10, all cars you’d expect (McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes) are there. Then we have Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen in there.
    • The track evolutions are fun to see at the end of the session.
    • Max gets a surprise pole position. He tops George Russell by 0.055 seconds.
    • Even though Sergio Perez got to Q3, he wasn’t able to do much. It was great to see Fernando Alonso out-qualify him.

After the session, it was announced that Max received a 1-place grid penalty for driving slowly during the session and impeding Russell. Normally this would be a 3-place grid penalty, but essentially they just swapped the two. It was peculiar and ultimately a foreshadow to what was going to happen in the race.

Here’s the official starting grid:

  1. George Russell
  2. Max Verstappen
  3. Lando Norris
  4. Oscar Piastri
  5. Charles Leclerc
  6. Lewis Hamilton
  7. Carlos Sainz
  8. Fernando Alonso
  9. Sergio Perez
  10. Kevin Magnussen
  11. Pierre Gasly
  12. Zhou Guanyu
  13. Valtteri Bottas
  14. Yuki Tsunoda
  15. Lance Stroll
  16. Alex Albon
  17. Liam Lawson
  18. Nico Hulkenberg
  19. Franco Colapinto
  20. Esteban Ocon

The Race

I was not optimistic about this night race. The sprint was pretty dull. Almost immediately when things started, it became obvious that this was not going to be a boring race. Let’s get into some of the points I noticed:

  • George had a very good start but Max was able to utilize Lando’s position to get past George and takes P1.
  • Immediately there’s a yellow flag in sector 1 and a lot of debris in the background. A safety car was called.
  • Hulkenberg almost hit Albon and likely didn’t have enough tire grip. He ended up hitting into Ocon who also hit Colapinto. Both Ocon and Colapinto are knocked out of the race. Hopefully, it’s not going to be a big repair bill for the Williams team.
  • Albon and Stroll also were involved in an incident.
  • Hamilton was noted for a false start and lost three positions. He ultimately was given a 5-second penalty. One of two that he received in the race. The other came much later in the race though.
  • Yuki had a good start to jump from P14 to P10. He wasn’t able to sustain that as later on he was past by nearly everyone.
  • The safety car ended after lap 4. Max held the lead. Piastri was able to get past Leclerc and immediately we got another yellow flag as Liam Lawson spun out. I believe he was hit by Lance Stroll, who received a 10-second penalty. He came in, served the penalty, went around for one lap and then retired the car.
  • Piastri did his best to get up to Russell, but went wide a few times with oversteer and couldn’t get it.
  • The pits start at lap 24 with Russell coming in. Mercedes had a really bad stop when the car was dropped off the jack. He lost a lot of time with the 7 second stop and came back into a lot of traffic. This effectively took out any chance for him fighting for a podium. What a bummer considering the pole position and the form he’s had over the last several races.
  • Max and Lando start to lap drivers on lap 29. At one point a yellow flag comes out. The gap between Max and Lando drops considerably. We later learned that Lando did not slow down during the yellow flag. He was handed a late 10-second stop and go penalty. Effectively, this knocked him from P2 to P15 with a 35 second penalty. He was able to fight back to P10 with a fastest lap but this meant the Constructor’s Championship will not be settled in Qatar.
  • At one point a mirror falls off either Albon or Hulkenberg’s mirror. It’s just kind of sitting there.
  • Later when Bottas was getting passed by the leads, he drove over the mirror and things fly all over the place. Almost immediately we learn that Hamilton and Sainz both have a puncture.
  • Piastri comes in right before the full safety car. Many of the drivers are able to take advantage of the full safety car.
  • On the restart, Lando almost got around Max but couldn’t let it stick. A VSC is called after Hulkenberg goes into the gravel track and Perez’s car just dies. It triggers another full safety car.
  • At this point the top 10 is wild. Pierre Gasly is in P6. Zhou Guanyu is in P9. With what happens to Norris, both go up one more spot and get some much needed points. Alpine will take 10 more points and put them solidly in P6. Zhou gets his first points of the season and Kick Sauber will lose the goose egg!
  • Hamilton is given a drive-thru penalty for speeding in the pit lane. He wants to retire the car but the team tells him to get back out there.
  • Norris gets the fastest lap and is able to go from P15 to P10 in the last few laps. At one point Bottas was in P10, but did get passed by Norris. Sadly, no points for him this year.
  • Albon is given a 10-second penalty for causing a collision earlier in the race.
  • George Russell is given a 5-second penalty for a safety car infrigement, but he had enough of a gap to Pierre Gasly and retains P4.
  • Ferrari has a really solid weekend with Charles in P2. Sainz finishes P6. McLaren has Oscar in P3 and Lando in P10. Max gets the win.
  • I was happy to also see Alonso get some points for Aston Martin who have been in no man’s land for most of the season.

Here’s how everything finished:

  1. Max Verstappen (+25)
  2. Charles Leclerc (+18)
  3. Oscar Piastri (+15)
  4. George Russell (+12)
  5. Pierre Gasly (+10)
  6. Carlos Sainz (+8)
  7. Fernando Alonso (+6)
  8. Zhou Guanyu (+4)
  9. Kevin Magnussen (+2)
  10. Lando Norris (+2 with fastest lap)
  11. Valtteri Bottas
  12. Lewis Hamilton
  13. Yuki Tsunoda
  14. Liam Lawson
  15. Alex Albon
  16. Nico Hulkenberg (DNF on lap 40)
  17. Sergio Perez (DNF on lap 39)
  18. Lance Stroll (DNF on lap 9)
  19. Esteban Ocon (DNF on lap 1)
  20. Franco Colapinto (DNF on lap 1)

The Constructor’s Championship had some movement. Nothing is locked up, but as Charles Leclerc said in the post-race interview 21 points is a lot to make up. It’s still looking like it’s McLaren but crazy things have happened in Abu Dhabi before.

  1. McLaren: 623 + 17 = 640
  2. Ferrari: 593 + 26 = 619
  3. Red Bull: 556 + 25 = 581
  4. Mercedes: 434 + 12 = 446
  5. Aston Martin: 86 + 6 = 92
  6. Alpine: 49 + 10 = 59 (+1)
  7. Haas: 52 + 2 = 54 (-1)
  8. RB: 46 + 0 = 46
  9. Williams: 17 + 0 = 17
  10. Kick Sauber: 0 + 4 = 4

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