Hamilton narrows the gap with silky Sunday drive in Qatar
It may not be a location top of the list to entice the taste buds of humanitarians and fans alike, but Qatar is here to stay in F1, for the best part of the next decade, so we might as well get used to it.
In its inaugural season as host, however, Qatar has given F1 exactly what it needed. A race which closes the gap further between the top two in the driver’s championship.
A classic race weekend it was not, but in yesterday’s result, the fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen goes on into Saudi Arabia.
Much of the debate relating to the title contenders took place off the track, unlike last week in Brazil where the wheel to wheel racing was rightly the focus.
Various drivers, including Verstappen and Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas, received grid penalties in relation to not lifting under yellow flags in qualifying.
This denied a one-two fight between the Brit and Dutchman into the first corner but would it have made a difference? Unlikely.
The far superior pace of the Mercedes saw Hamilton win comfortably, by 25 seconds, but he never looked like finishing anywhere but the top step of the podium.
Hamilton escapes chaos
Further down the field, however, the unknown of the Qatari conditions caused havoc.
Various drivers, including Bottas, suffered punctures in the latter stages of the race, having not known the distance the tyres could realistically reach in the evening conditions of the Middle East.
But drama aside, the grand prix has closed the gap between Verstappen and Hamilton to just eight points – there’s potentially a further 52 remaining.
It isn’t quite anyone’s game. The other 18 drivers were out of the running long, long ago. But in the final countdown it’s experience against desperation.
Hamilton won his seventh world title last year, matching the great Michael Schumacher, and is looking to go one better this season. He’s already seen as one of the best racers to compete in the sport but with an eighth comes the title of most successful. Out on his own for years, potentially decades, until he’s caught.
Verstappen, on the other hand, is hungry for his first championship. Originally labelled by team principal Christian Horner as potentially the youngest ever world champion, the ship has now sailed – even if he is at the sprightly age of 24.
The two drivers are so different off the track but hard racers on it, and it’s taken the best part of a decade to get a battle this close between two constructors this late in the season.
Though the Qatar–Saudi Arabia–UAE trilogy isn’t to everyones taste, the racing certainly must be.