Sprint race second at Losail Circuit hands Oracle Red Bull Racing driver his third F1 crown in a row.
Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen is now a three-time Formula One world champion after securing his third straight Drivers’ Championship title in the Sprint race at the revitalised Qatar Grand Prix, where the Dutch finished in second place behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
After scoring 13 wins from 16 Grands Prix so far in 2023 and mounting a record-breaking 10 race winning streak earlier in the season, Verstappen needed only to finish sixth and score three points in the 19-lap sprint around the Losail Circuit to secure the title.
Only Oracle Red Bull Racing team-mate Sergio Pérez, who is currently second place the Drivers’ Championship, could deny Verstappen celebrating a Saturday night title celebration by finishing third or better in the sprint.
Verstappen started third on the grid behind both McLaren’s for the sprint, while Pérez lined-up eighth in a race that saw the Safety Car deployed no less than three times in the space of the 19 laps.
Unfortunately for Pérez, the second Safety Car deployment was due to an unfortunate collision between him and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon that put the Mexican driver out of the race, which handed Verstappen world title number three when he crossed the line in second place behind Piastri after battling through from a poor start that dropped down to fifth
The Dutch driver, who turned 26 last weekend, now joins Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet on three F1 world titles, with only five drivers still ahead of him on all-time list of championship wins.
Victory in the Sprint Race allowed Verstappen to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of winning the F1 crown with six races still to be completed and he also became the first driver to win the title in a Saturday race since Nelson Piquet at the 1983 South African Grand Prix.
Driver’s Championship glory for Verstappen follows Constructors’ Championship victory for Oracle Red Bull Racing, who have won 15 of the 16 races to date in 2023, and confirms a Drivers’ and Constructor’s title double for the sixth time for the team.
“It’s a fantastic feeling,” Verstappen said. “It’s been an incredible year, with a lot of great races, and so enjoyable to be part of it with that group of people. We’ll keep on pushing and try to do the best we can. It was an exciting race today – a shame about the Safety Cars, but it was fun out there.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda just missed out on the Top 10 in 12th place, but stand-in team-mate Liam Lawson suffered the first DNF of his F1 career after spinning out on the opening lap of the race.
YUKI TSUNODA – 12th
“Today wasn’t the easiest day, but that seems to be the case on Sprint Saturdays. I apologise to the team for the track limit violation and my radio communication in SQ1. We didn’t maximise the performance during the Sprint Shootout, so I’m pretty frustrated. As for the Sprint race, the first lap was difficult, especially with the wind, but we focused on collecting data, taking care of the car and bringing it home. We learned a lot of things for tomorrow and we’re starting close to the points, so we’ll refocus and try to extract the most out of the car. Track limits seem difficult and tyre management will be tricky, but we have a couple of things in our back pocket, so hopefully we can maximise on that and score points tomorrow.”
LIAM LAWSON – DNF
“Today, the speed in SQ1 was there, but unfortunately I made a mistake during my last lap, took too much kerb and my lap time got deleted. My apologies to the team, because they did a really good job and worked hard overnight to make a big step forward from yesterday. On lap one of the Sprint race, the biggest thing was the sand offline. I had a bad start on the dirty side of the track, but then I went into Turn 1 on the racing line, had a strong corner and made up a few places. In Turn 2, I went offline and lost the rear very quickly. I’m massively sorry to the team, because with everything that happened in the race, we maybe could’ve scored some points today. My mistake cost us. The car seems okay and going into tomorrow, I’ll learn from what happened today. The tyre degradation was quite high, so it will be a tough, long race, but I’ll look at the data tonight and apply it tomorrow.”
Guillaume Dezoteux – Head of Vehicle Performance)
“We started the day in a pretty unusual way, with an additional 10-minute ‘familiarisation session’ aimed at learning the track layout changes. The circuit was changed in turns 12 and 13, getting narrower to reduce the amount of kerb riding, which was damaging the tyres. Both drivers had a chance to get familiar with this change and it appeared clear that staying within track limits would be the main challenge today.
“The first Sprint Shootout was intense, with a lot of traffic and many cars having lap times deleted due to exceeding track limits. Unfortunately, Yuki got his second lap deleted, which brought his session to an end. On Liam’s side, he made it to the second Sprint Shootout. He was improving on this second lap, but went wide in Turn 15 and the time that would have put him ahead of Bottas in P13 was deleted, leaving him on t14th spot for the Sprint race.
“The Sprint race didn’t last long for Liam. His initial getaway wasn’t great, but he recovered very well in Turn 1, keeping the inside line and gaining positions. Going into Turn 2 he was on the outside, which was very dirty, and together with the tailwind, he lost the car. Yuki’s race was looking positive on the medium tyre, which was holding on better than the soft compound. The two Safety Car periods helped the soft tyre runners get to the end and we couldn’t really make progress. Obviously, we’re disappointed with the Sprint result, but we gathered very useful data for the race tomorrow. Now we’re reviewing the various strategies and we’re looking forward to seeing an eventful race on this slippery track.”
