2024 Qatar GP: Verstappen wins, penalty costs Norris 2nd place

Max Verstappen won the 2024 Qatar GP at the Lusail International Circuit, leading from start to finish. Joining the Red Bull driver on the podium were Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and Oscar Piastri of McLaren. The race was decided at Turn 1 and then in the closing stages, when a stop-and-go penalty dropped Lando Norris from 2nd place.

George Russell started from pole for Mercedes but only held the lead as far as the first corner. Verstappen had started from grid position 2 after a one-place grid penalty. He passed Russell at Turn 1, and Norris also squeezed past the Mercedes. From then on, Verstappen never gave up the lead: according to our race data, he was the only leader all evening. The weather played no part. It stayed dry, with air temperatures between 18.2 and 19.7 degrees and no more than 23.8 degrees on the track surface.

Further back, there was contact straight away. Nico Hülkenberg of the Haas F1 Team started 18th on hard tyres and tangled at Turn 1 with Esteban Ocon of the Alpine F1 Team and Franco Colapinto of Williams. Ocon and Colapinto were stranded, so the Safety Car came out as early as lap 1 and stayed on track until lap 5. Hülkenberg used the Safety Car to pick up a fresh set of hards (stationary time 6.3 seconds).

Also in the early stages, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin and Alexander Albon made contact at Turn 4. After the restart, Piastri passed Leclerc for 4th. At the front, Verstappen and Norris played cat and mouse, but the McLaren could find no way past. Russell lost his shot at the podium in the pits: he came in from third on lap 23, was stationary for 7.0 seconds and three laps later was down in eleventh.

The decisive phase began with a small part. The rear-view mirror came off Albon's Williams on the start/finish straight and was left lying in the middle of the track. Valtteri Bottas of Sauber hit it and scattered the debris across the circuit. Shortly afterwards, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton both suffered front-left punctures. Both had to pit on lap 34. Hamilton was stationary for 10.4 seconds and slipped from 7th to 16th. Sainz was stationary for 9.8 seconds and dropped from 5th to 8th. The Safety Car came out on lap 35.

The drama continued straight away at the restart on lap 40. Sergio Pérez, running in a promising 5th at the time, spun. Hülkenberg spun too and ended up stranded in the gravel. First came the Virtual Safety Car, then, still on lap 40, the real Safety Car again, which stayed out until lap 43.

Then came the blow for Norris. He had not slowed sufficiently under the double-waved yellow flags caused by the mirror. Race Control noted the incident on lap 41, and the verdict came on lap 44: a 10-second stop-and-go. Norris served the penalty on lap 45, was stationary for 10.8 seconds and three laps later was only 14th. Leclerc moved up to 2nd, Piastri to 3rd. Verstappen brought the win home unchallenged. On fresh hard tyres, Norris still set the fastest lap and fought his way back to 10th.

Almost the entire leading group went for a one-stop from medium to hard. What made the difference was who waited until the Safety Car to make the switch.

• Verstappen: He switched under the Safety Car on lap 35 with a stationary time of 2.5 seconds and stayed in front. Strategically, he had nothing to lose.
• Piastri vs Leclerc: Piastri pitted from 3rd as early as lap 34, one lap before the Safety Car (stationary time 3.3 seconds). Three laps later he was fourth. Leclerc, by contrast, switched under the Safety Car on lap 35 and kept 3rd. After Norris' penalty, that became 2nd place for the Ferrari. Piastri's early stop therefore cost him exactly the position that ultimately decided between 2nd and 3rd.
• Russell: The slow first stop on lap 23 cost him eight places. He made his second stop under the Safety Car on lap 35 (2.6 seconds) from 8th. Three laps later he was 7th, and he eventually finished fourth despite a 5-second penalty. Without the botched stop, more would probably have been possible.
• Kevin Magnussen: The Haas driver stopped from 8th on lap 27 and fell to 16th. He then stayed out on his hard tyres. The Safety Car periods brought him back up to the pack, and in the end he came away with 9th.
• Fernando Alonso: Alonso changed tyres twice under the Safety Car, switching to hards on lap 35 and to a used set of mediums on lap 36. On those tyres he climbed from 9th to 7th.
• RB F1 Team: Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson of the RB F1 Team picked up softs under the Safety Car on lap 40. It didn't pay off: Tsunoda dropped from 11th to 13th and finished there too. Lawson was 14th.

Five drivers failed to finish.

• Esteban Ocon (Alpine), lap 1: He was eliminated in the collision with Hülkenberg and Colapinto at Turn 1. The stewards reviewed the incident but took no further action.
• Franco Colapinto (Williams), lap 1: He was caught up in the same accident and also failed to complete a single lap.
• Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), after lap 8: He received a 10-second time penalty for the collision with Albon. He had already made a second stop on lap 7, stationary for 15.2 seconds. Shortly afterwards, he parked the car for unexplained reasons.
• Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), after lap 38: He spun from 5th at the restart. Pérez explained that the engine suddenly delivered too much power while he was warming up his tyres, and on cold tyres he could no longer hold the car: “I had a massive over delivery from the engine”, he said (source: formula1.com). Race Control later noted an incident involving his car at Turn 14, first for unsafe rejoining of the track, then for dangerous driving. The stewards are investigating it after the race.
• Nico Hülkenberg (Haas), after lap 39: He had continued after the first-lap crash. At the restart he spun and got stuck in the gravel.

The stewards had plenty to do in Qatar and handed out seven penalties:

• Stroll: 10 seconds for the collision with Albon (lap 8)
• Lawson: 10 seconds for the collision with Bottas at Turn 1 (lap 11)
• Hamilton: 5 seconds for a jump start (lap 14), plus a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane (lap 47). The drive-through dropped him from 11th to 15th, and he finished twelfth.
• Norris: 10-second stop-and-go for failing to slow under yellow flags (lap 44)
• Albon: 10 seconds for the collision with Magnussen at Turn 1 (lap 54). He finished 15th, one lap down.
• Russell: 5 seconds for an infringement during the Safety Car period (lap 57). He still kept 4th place.

The battle between Tsunoda and Magnussen at Turn 1 and Alonso's rejoining of the track at Turn 14 were not investigated further. After the race, the stewards are still looking into an incident at pit entry on lap 1 involving Piastri.

Winner of the day, alongside Verstappen, was above all Pierre Gasly. He started eleventh and finished fifth, gaining six places, more than anyone else. With a single stop under the Safety Car on lap 35, he moved from 7th to 6th and then profited from Pérez's retirement and Norris' penalty. His 10 points lift Alpine to 6th in the constructors' standings on 59 points, ahead of Haas on 54 and RB on 46. Guanyu Zhou was also strong: from grid position 12 he drove to 8th and scored Sauber's first 4 points of the season. Leclerc gained three places from grid position 5.

The losers were Norris (seven places lost), Hamilton (six places lost, zero points), Pérez with his retirement from 5th, and Russell. After the botched pit stop, the polesitter could only finish 4th.

In the standings, Verstappen leads clearly on 429 points, ahead of Norris (349) and Leclerc (341). In the fight for 2nd, Leclerc is now only 8 points behind Norris. In the constructors' standings, Ferrari scored 26 points in Qatar, McLaren just 17. That leaves McLaren on 640 points, still 21 ahead of Ferrari (619), with Red Bull next on 581. It will all be decided at the Abu Dhabi GP.

On our race page for the 2024 Qatar GP you'll find all the data and can relive the race in 3D.