Oscar Piastri has won his first race for McLaren, taking out the sprint in Qatar ahead of Max Verstappen.
Piatri’s success ended Red Bull’s domination of the sprints this season and earned the Australian rookie his first victory in F1, even if not a proper grand prix for the record books.“When he got through to second I thought I was going to be in a bit of trouble, but the pace was good. First Sprint win sounds pretty cool,” said Piastri, who finished 1.871 seconds ahead.
Mexican Perez needed to finish in the top three to keep the title open for another day, with the main grand prix on Sunday, but his hopes ended in a cloud of dust after tangling with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg on lap 11.That meant Verstappen, who started third, was the champion for the third year in a row with an unassailable lead of 184 points and only 172 left to win.
Verstappen, who has won 13 of 16 grands prix so far including 10 in a row, replied: “Yeah, unbelievable guys. I don’t know what to say. Thank you for providing me with such a car. It’s been a lot of fun this year.” Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was sixth with teammate Charles Leclerc seventh at the flag but then handed a five-second penalty for exceeding the track limits and demoted out of the points.While Piastri led away into the first corner on the medium tyres, with Russell using his softs to slot into second, Verstappen on mediums dropped initially to fifth and Perez to 11th.Those on the mediums had the last laugh, however, as the softs wore down and Piastri passed Russell to take back the lead on lap 11.
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