Sprint: Piastri wins Qatar Sprint, Verstappen seals third world title

F1 Grand Prix, GP Qatar, Losail International Circuit

Oscar Piastri took a sensational victory in the Qatar Sprint, beating Max Verstappen and his team-mate Lando Norris. Despite not winning the 100-km dash in Lusail, the Dutchman sealed his third championship title.

The field opted for different tyres to start the 100-km sprint race on with half of the drivers choosing the soft and the other half of the field deciding for the more durable medium compound.

Starting on the soft compound from P2, George Russell jumped to the second place at the start with the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc also making inroads on the red-walled tyres. In the meantime, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were unable to find enough grip on the medium compounds and dropped back to P5 and P6 respectively.

On Lap 2, the safety car was deployed after Liam Lawson lost control of his AlphaTauri on his own, spinning out into the gravel trap at Turn 2.

The stricken AlphaTauri was cleared incredibly quickly and the field was released a lap later. Having opted for the softs, Fernando Alonso had tremendous grip at the restart and the Spaniard was eager to overtake Lando Norris for P6, but their fight saw the two-time world champion lose a place to Esteban Ocon.

In the meantime, George Russell made the jump on Piastri right after the restart, overtaking the Australian at Turn 2. The action was, however, disrupted once again as Logan Sargeant brought out another Safety Car with his own spin into the gravel.

After the second restart, Verstappen started to climb up the order, overtaking the Ferrari pair of Leclerc and Sainz. Norris also managed to close in on the Monegasque and overtook him on the outside of Turn 1, using his grip advantage.

At the front, Russell managed to build up a small advantage, but it vanished quickly as his softs started to degrade. On Lap 11, Piastri overtook Russell for P1 to lead the Qatar Sprint for the second time.

Just after a few laps of action, another drama started to unfold. Perez was battling for eighth place with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon when the three cars collided. The Frenchman and the Mexican span out into the gravel trap which brought out another safety car. While Hulkenberg managed to continue, his Haas picked up serious damage and the German was forced to limp back into the pits and retire.

After the third restart, Leclerc overtook Lando Norris while Verstappen made the jump on Russell to take P2. The Dutchman was 2.6s adrift of Piastri with three laps left.

With the Ferraris starting to struggle for grip on their old soft Pirelli tyres, Norris overtook both of them on Lap 17. Hamilton, who made profit of the collision between Perez, Ocon and Hulkenberg and the safety car intervention, managed to overtake Alonso with two laps to go.

In the meantime, Norris closed in on Russell, who was also struggling on his red-banded tyres, and passed the Mercedes driver into Turn 1 on the last tour of the 19-lap race. Hamilton also made use of his grip advantage and overtook both Ferraris on the last lap.

At the front, Verstappen was unable to chase down Piastri, who took the first win of his F1 career after his second-place finish in the Spa F1 Sprint.

Ahead of the race, only Sergio Perez had a mathemiatical chance to beat Verstappen in the Drivers' Championship, but the Dutchman only needed three points to secure his third title. The reigning world champion's result saw him mathematically put the drivers’ championship out beyond the reach of Perez confirming him as the sport’s title winner for the third successive season after his breakthrough triumphs in 2021 and 2022.

It means Verstappen joins an exclusive group of drivers with three F1 crowns, including Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna, leaving quadruple champions Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel next up on the all-time list.