Here is our full text transcript from round 23 of the 2024 Formula 1 season, which took place at the 5.419-kilometre Lusail International Circuit:
Good afternoon all and welcome to race day at the Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate Sunday of F1 2024.
It’s been a busy old Sprint weekend so far and it looks like we’ve got all the ingredients ahead for the full 57 lap Grand Prix to build on the close-fought nature of yesterday’s Sprint. George Russell will start Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix from pole position after Max Verstappen was given a one-place grid penalty for impeding the Brit during qualifying.
As they prepared for their final flying laps at the end of qualifying, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen caught George Russell by surprise as he slowed in the third sector, leaving the Mercedes driver needing to take late evasive action that forced him onto the kerb and gravel.
Russell had been on provisional pole before the final runs, and said after the session that the incident was “maybe” the reason he was unable to improve on his first effort.
What are Ferrari’s chances of staying in constructors’ fight?
Given Carlos Sainz in particular had been predicting it for weeks, it hasn’t been much of a surprise to see Ferrari not be in absolute contention at the front of the grid so far this weekend in Qatar.
The Lusail circuit features the kind of medium-length high-speed corners that the SF-24 just doesn’t like and their drivers start only fifth (Charles Leclerc) and seventh (Sainz) this afternoon.
But they still weren’t that far away in qualifying – Charles Leclerc was less than a tenth away from McLaren’s Lando Norris in third – and Carlos Sainz is hopeful of a more competitive race.
“I think our race pace is stronger and, even though overtaking here is far from easy, I’m confident we can fight for some solid points,” said the Spaniard – “The weekend is not over, we need to stay fully focused during the race and be prepared to grab any opportunity.”
Ferrari could be on the backfoot if the Qatar Grand Prix turns into a two-stop race and the hard tyre is the compound to be on. Verstappen, Russell and both McLarens have two new hards left, which could be important.
We’ll say though, the teams expected a one-stop race last time out in Las Vegas. If the pace is high at the front, or the field is bunched, don’t be surprised to see a two-stop race. We shouldn’t see the softs being used this evening. Nico Hulkenberg is the only driver not starting the race on the medium tyre. The Haas driver appears to be looking to go longer on the hard. Russell is technically on ‘used’ tyres, but in reality just took them out for a one-lap scrubbing. He shouldn’t be at any disadvantage to Verstappen off the line.
Lap 1/57: Max Verstappen takes the lead from George Russell – who drops to third behind Lando Norris too!! Great start from Max to get the inside line into Turn One, with Norris following through on the inside of the Mercedes too and briefly going wheel-to-wheel with the Red Bull too. Verstappen makes light work of making up for his grid penalty! There was drama at the back as well as the front of the field! Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon have made contact and are both stranded in the run-off area and out of the race. The Safety Car has been sent out to allow that mess to be cleared up.
Lap 2/57: There were more positional changes at the front! Charles Leclerc got past Oscar Piastri to take P4 for Ferrari, while Lewis Hamilton dropped behind Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso into ninth. That will not have improved the seven-time world champion’s mood.
There was plenty of further incident back in the pack with Alex Albon and Lance Stroll also making contact. Stroll has pitted and rejoined the track on fresh tyres.
Lap 4/57: Safety Car continues to lead the pack around into a third full tour after those early collisions back in the back.
Lap 5/57: Max Verstappen, so experienced in these situations, expertly opens a gap to Lando Norris ahead of the final corner and retains the lead at the start of lap 5. Norris has to defend from Russell behind. Oscar Piastri gets fourth place back from Charles Leclerc to restore McLaren’s control in the Constructors’ Championship battle!
Lap 5/57: More apparent collisions on the restart as Liam Lawson spins off in the RB at Turn One and Valtteri Bottas also runs wide in the Sauber. We await a replay as to decipher what exactly happened there!
Lap 8/57: Race lead up to almost two seconds now for Max Verstappen over Lando Norris, who now has George Russell almost back within his DRS range. Another fastest lap from Max, who leads by 1.8s.
Lap 10/57: Lewis Hamilton has now been noted for that false start. We’ve also heard radio of him apologising to his team for it, so a penalty seems certain.
Alonso angered by lack of straight-line speed
Fernando Alonso on Aston Martin team radio while running 12th from eighth on grid: “I cannot ******* believe it man. Two years with the same ******* problem on the straights.”
Lap 11/57: No one would have seen this coming after the Sprint, that’s for sure.
Max Verstappen continues to hold a small but handy lead of around two seconds over Lando Norris, aided last time around by another fastest lap. Russell is 1.7s back on Norris with Piastri in his DRS.
Lap 12/57: The stewards are very busy! Liam Lawson has got a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Valtteri Bottas at the restart.
Lap 14/57: A five-second penalty for Lewis Hamilton is confirmed. That’s not going to help his chances of fighting back from eighth. He’s currently tucked up behind the Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
Lap 16/57: Given he started on pole, the first phase of this race hasn’t worked out terribly well for George Russell and Mercedes with the Briton dropping over 3s back on the top two. But some of the pressure that was starting to grow on Russell from Piastri has just been relieved, at least for now, after the Australian got well out of shape into the final corner and ran wide. Gap back out to 1.1s.
Lap 18/57: Lando Norris has just done successive fastest laps of the race to bring Max Verstappen’s lead down towards 1.5 seconds. Is the McLaren looking after its hard tyres a little better than the Red Bull?
Lap 22/57: With Lando Norris around two seconds back from Max Verstappen, attempting an undercut remains a potential option for McLaren. You would expect to gain a second or two from it. All eyes on the mechanics as we enter the pit window!
Lap 23/57: His error at the final corner cost him a few laps, but Oscar Piastri has arrived back onto the tail of George Russell in the battle of third with the Mercedes seemingly starting to struggle on his tyres. Charles Leclerc is not too far behind either.
Lap 23/57: George Russell is the first of the front-runners to pit, and it’s a slow stop! An issue with the right rear tyre keeps him stationary for seven seconds, which means he comes out all the way down in P11. That’s disastrous and he will likely have lost track position to both Ferraris as well as Oscar Piastri. Good news for Ferrari’s Constructors’ title hopes.
Lap 26/57: Charles Leclerc has suddenly found some pace and is within a couple of seconds of Oscar Piastri. Carlos Sainz is three seconds further back behind his team-mate.
Lap 28/57: George Russell’s frustration is growing. His new hard tyres aren’t proving much help, and he can’t get past Fernando Alonso for P9. The ageing medium tyre appears to be just as effective as the brand new hard.
Lap 30/57: Could we need a VSC here? The wing mirror has flown off Alex Albon’s Williams and is on the main straight off the racing line. How are they going to remove this?
Lap 31/57: This is interesting – Lando Norris has closed down Max Verstappen’s lead to just 1.2 seconds now. “If you had any pace to Verstappen, we’d take it so push up to him,” the Briton was told over McLaren team radio.
Lap 33/57: As far as we’re aware, the wing mirror is still lying on the main straight. F1’s new director appears to be comfortable with its presence for now. his is not a good look for the new race director Rui Marques. Valtteri Bottas hits the stray wing mirror and debris flies all over the main straight. That could have easily been avoided!
Lap 36/57: What a mess. Now we do have a Safety Car, which is terrible news for Piastri, who pitted just before it was deployed. The top three come in for cheap stops, which strengthens Verstappen’s chances of sealing victory this evening.
Lap 37/57: George Russell has just come onto team radio berating his Mercedes team for giving him another set of hard tyres. We think Russell didn’t have any new sets of mediums remaining, and Mercedes clearly weren’t confident the soft compound could last until the end.
Lap 39/57: The action is about to resume! Lap 40/57: It’s as you were at the front after that wing mirror-triggered puncture chaos. But only just as Max Verstappen has to go super defensive on the run to Turn One to hold off Lando Norris on the outside
Lap 41/57: More contact, more chaos! Nico Hulkenberg is beached in the gravel and out of the race. Sergio Perez is gone too. Both were involved in collisions, which we’re waiting to see replays of.
Lap 42/57: Or was Sergio Perez involved in a collision after all? A replay suggests the Red Bull driver simply spun, but then it wouldn’t make sense that he has retired. Perhaps it was some sort of technical issue that caused the spin? We’ll wait for more.
Lap 42/57: It seems the stewards indeed hasn’t forgotten about that yellow flag incident earlier on before the initial Safety Car after all. Lando Norris been placed under investigation for not slowing under yellow flags.
Lap 42/57: Here we go again… Lap 44/57: Oscar Piastri is worried that something might be wrong with his front-left tyre. The Australian driver is experiencing vibrations. An issue for him is the last thing McLaren need in the Constructors’ title battle.
Big penalty for Norris: 10s stop and go imposed: That means that within the next three laps Norris must come in to the pit lane, stop in McLaren’s box, and then wait for 10s before rejoining the track. That’ll cost him the best part of 35s all in all in track time once he enters and leaves the pit lane.
Lap 46/57: Lando Norris comes out at the very back of the field. He is unlikely to score any points, and this is an enormous swing for Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.
Lap 47/57: That Norris penalty has given Zhou Guanyu and Sauber an additional cushion as they seek a first point of the season. The Chinese driver is up to P8 and can surely see it home from here.
Lap 48/57: Max Verstappen has opened a four-second gap to Charles Leclerc in second. The Ferrari remains under pressure from Oscar Piastri, who is just a second behind him. George Russell is lurking behind them, while Pierre Gasly is defending brilliantly in fifth to keep Carlos Sainz behind him.
Lap 52/57: Has Lando Norris got time to salvage a point? He’s on an absolute charge, seconds faster than the car ahead, and has just passed Yuki Tsunoda for 12th place.
Lap 52/57: Max Verstappen’s lead up front is beyond five seconds. It’s tight between the three cars behind him who are separated by just a couple of seconds, but we know how difficult overtaking is around here. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz has just run wide and given a bit of breathing space to Pierre Gasly in fifth.
Lap 54/57: It’s going to be at least a single point for Lando Norris then as he gets quickly past Alex Albon and Valtteri Bottas.
A potentially crucial point for McLaren in their hopes of the constructors’ championship ahead of next week’s Abu Dhabi finale. Bottas overtook Albon himself to move into the points before Norris took it away a lap later. Kevin Magnussen is 9s up the road but the Haas has a time penalty.
Lap 56/57: The drama is never-ending. George Russell has now been noted for a Safety Car infringement. A penalty for him could mean more points for Ferrari and Carlos Sainz…
Chequered flag: Another superb drive from the world champion! He passed George Russell for the lead off the line and never looked bad. Charles Leclerc holds off Oscar Piastri for second in what has become a very decent afternoon for Ferrari. Pole-sitter George Russell is fourth, for now.
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