What the teams said – Race day in Qatar

Red Bull

Verstappen got a great getaway and pipped Norris into Turn 1. Running a solid second, he was the first car to pull into the pits when the Safety Car was called into action. Swapping to more mediums, the Dutchman found himself on the tail of Norris in third – but knowing the two cars ahead had to pit twice. As such, he inherited the lead when they came in, and again when the papaya cars pitted a second time. He never looked likely to be challenged for the lead, as he won his seventh Grand Prix of the season and jumped up to second in the Championship.

Tsunoda battled hard from the back of the field, and looked set to fall just short but Hadjar’s late puncture elevated the Japanese racer to P10.

Max Verstappen, 1st

"I feel great, I am really proud of that one. We made the right call as a Team there to box: it was definitely what made us win the race today, as I felt like we were not on the same level as McLaren in terms of pace. When a safety car comes in it can shake up the grid and that was a great opportunity for us to then win the race. We did a very good job as a Team and I was very proud of us, especially as we nailed the strategy. In Abu Dhabi, we have nothing to lose and we are going to give it everything that we have. Of course, we are relying on another crazy race like we had today, but we are going in there with positive energy. We need to maximise the car and be as competitive as we can. We will stay focused, try and have a good time and hope that we start the weekend well."

Yuki Tsunoda, 10th

"I can be pretty satisfied with the weekend overall, a solid result in the Sprint and a point this evening. I tried my best to get into the points, and we got there in the end, it was a really tricky race tonight. The car felt good and the pace was okay, but the nature of the circuit and the two stop rule made it difficult. With the high speed corners and just one DRS zone, overtaking was nearly impossible and everyone struggled with it. Once the Safety Car came out, the strategy became fixed for almost everyone and that made it even trickier to make up positions. Over the last few races the Team have given me a strong car and I've been able to stay as close as I can to Max, so I'll look to do the same next weekend. It was impressive to see him secure another win and I will help him as much as I can in Abu Dhabi."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

"We can definitely be happy with that one. The pace in the car steadily improved from Friday night when we were in a tricky position, to tonight when we could fight with the McLarens, which is a testament to the Team once again. Of course, the decisive moment was the call to come in under the Safety Car and it was another great call from our strategy team here and those working back in Milton Keynes. From there on, Max didn't put a foot wrong, drove two incredible stints, taking great care of his tyres and managed to create a solid gap to the McLarens, which drove us to this most welcome race win! Yuki managed to recover to score points and his pace was promising at the end of the race once outside of the DRS train. We'll need to perform again in Abu Dhabi and we will have absolute focus on getting the car into a position where Max can fight at the front and look ahead. What happens behind him is not something we can control."

McLaren

Piastri made a great start from pole, leading on the first lap. Norris yielded to Verstappen into Turn 1, opting not to defend too hard from the dirty, inside line. Running first and third, McLaren were the only team not to pit under the Lap 7 Safety Car. While that promoted Norris back to second, it left Verstappen in third just a few seconds behind having already served one of the two mandatory pit stops. Piastri did everything he could to build a lead, but could not make up that time deficit and wound up coming home second when the pit stops did shake out. As for Norris, he could not even build enough of a gap to stay ahead of Sainz and Antonelli. After his second stop, he was fifth and stuck behind the Mercedes for lap after lap, only making it through on the penultimate lap when Antonelli made a mistake.

As such, Norris saw his Championship lead reduced to just 12 points over Verstappen, while Piastri dropped to third in the Championship, 16 points behind his team mate.

Lando Norris, 4th

"Frustrating result, we didn't get it right today, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. There was obviously the opportunity to finish higher, but we'll debrief as a team and come back stronger next week. We'll now ensure our focus switches to Abu Dhabi and do what we can to deliver the best possible result next weekend."

Oscar Piastri, 2nd

"We had the pace for the win today, we just didn't make the right call. I tried my best to catch Max, and we left it all out there, so it's painful not to get the win. Final push next week, I'll try and drive like I did this weekend and see what comes."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

"Today's race result is a huge disappointment; there's no point hiding it. We had the potential to win and to have both drivers on the podium, but we made an error of judgment during the Safety Car period and paid dearly for it. Today we had the fastest car, and the drivers did a great job, but as a team we didn't deliver for them. We will react to this setback as we always have, learning from our mistakes and working as a united and cohesive group. This is a team based on important values, and we will prove it once again.

"Now we must prepare ourselves in the best possible way for the final race. We still have every chance of achieving our goals. Let's not forget that we are still leading the Championship and both our drivers have a chance to win the title. It won't be easy, but we are channelling our disappointment into total determination."

Williams

Sainz made a brilliant start, climbing from seventh to fifth. The team then did a great job on his first pit stop under the Safety Car to jump him ahead of Antonelli. From there, the Spaniard put his foot down to keep within a pit stop window of Norris ahead – thus finding himself ahead of the McLaren when Norris finally pitted for his last stop. Despite some late car damage that saw his Williams begin to understeer, Sainz was able to hold on to P3 to bag his second podium of the season. As for Albon, he gambled on the hard tyre are the start but pitted behind the Safety Car and was able to run the preferred medium for the longer two stints. But he was held up in the pit lane with traffic, and thus could not make progress back to the points.

Alex Albon, 11th

"Starting on the hards today, we were planning on trying to benefit from some clean air with those tyres, but the safety car happened early on and we had to pivot strategies. Having started on the hards we were out of position and had to finish the race on mediums which wasn’t ideal for our strategy. We maybe didn’t have the pace to get through all the cars in front, but I think we left something on the table as we had a good car today, as Carlos demonstrated as well. The team secured P5 in the Constructors’ Championship which is massive - a big, huge well done to everyone on the team as this was a big step forward for us this year and something that we should all be proud of."

Carlos Sainz, 3rd

"Extremely happy! We had a very strong start and from there we executed a perfect race with strategy, tyre management, pit stops and communication. By the end of the second stint, I saw Piastri struggled to overtake me on fresh tyres, and at that moment I realised we had to go for the podium. I was pushing to the limit of the car but 6 laps to the end something suddenly broke! I started losing a lot of lap time in sectors 1 and 3 but I managed to keep it together and bring it home for P3!

"Today’s result is testament to the team’s hard work; I knew we were taking the right steps and, despite some difficult race weekends along the way, I had full confidence in what we are doing. I’m extremely proud of everyone, we deserve this P5 in the Constructor’s Championship, and I look forward to finishing the season on another high in Abu Dhabi! Let’s go!"

James Vowles, Team Principal

"Exceptional. Really fantastic performance from Carlos and the team when it counted and every detail adds up. Getting on the podium by milliseconds really is such a just reward for the incredible work the whole team is putting in this year. I was proud of Carlos and the team when we got our first podium in Baku; the second is a dream come true, but perhaps more importantly at a track that was almost our worst last year. And we've come back, we've reinvented ourselves and the result is there for everyone to see.

"For Alex, we will come back fighting in Abu Dhabi. We haven't got it all together this weekend, but I'll reiterate that his performance across the season is why we've secured fifth in the constructors' championship today. And more so than that, his pace is still there. We just need to bring it all together.

"Finally, fifth would have been a dream come true just 12 months ago when we were languishing in ninth in the Constructors' Championship. Thank you very much."

Mercedes

Antonelli made the better start of the two Mercedes cars, finding himself fourth in the early stages. Russell dropped to seventh though, behind Sainz and Alonso. The team pitted both cars together, Antonelli losing out to Sainz in the first round of pit stops, while Russell likewise was held up by pit lane traffic. From there, Antonelli looked on for fourth, absorbing plenty of pressure from a fresher shod Norris behind but he made one late mistake which allowed the McLaren to slip through. As for Russell, he had a quieter race but inherited a place when Hadjar retired late on.

George Russell, 6th

"I lost several positions on the opening lap unfortunately and that compromised my race. The inside of the track, where I was starting from, is lower grip and that hurt me in the first few corners. I got caught out at turn two as I lost the rear and then I dropped another position at our first stop as we had to wait for the fast lane to clear. We battled back where we could, but we saw on Saturday just how difficult it is to overtake here. We had to be patient and, whilst P6 is not a result we came into the day hoping for, we’ve put a few more points on our tally in the battle for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship.

"We are well positioned to claim that P2 next weekend in Abu Dhabi. It is only between us and Red Bull Racing now so hopefully we can get the job done. We won’t just be looking to play it safe though. We want to end the season, and this era in our sport, on a high so we will be aiming to get ourselves on the podium."

Kimi Antonelli, 5th

"P5 is solid points today but we could have had much more. We were slightly unlucky at the first pitstop where we lost a position to the Williams of Carlos Sainz; we had a slower stop and had to hold as traffic passed us in the fast lane. That delayed us leaving the pit box and ultimately, that is what changed our race and denied us the chance to fight for the podium. We were stuck behind him for the rest of the afternoon, and it was impossible to attempt an overtake.

"I was pushing hard to stay ahead of Norris in the closing stages and unfortunately just pushed a little bit too hard. I got out of shape through turn nine and then had a massive snap of oversteer. I was lucky to save the car but sadly dropped the position to the McLaren. It was a frustrating and disappointing way to end what had been a good race up to that point. We will focus on Abu Dhabi now though and look to secure P2 in the Constructors’ with a strong performance to end my rookie season."

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"We are frustrated with how our race played out today. It was a difficult evening where we could have brought home a podium at the very least, along with good points, but mistakes meant we didn’t take advantage of the situation.

"George had a tricky first lap, losing positions as he suffered from running on the lower grip side of the track. From there, the lap seven safety car meant we, along with almost the entire field, boxed and we were locked in strategically. It was the right call to box both cars but a slow stop with Kimi cost us a position to Sainz and that in turn held up George.

"It was almost impossible to follow closely and set up an overtake so we knew it would be a long race from there. Both drivers maintained pressure on those ahead though and were driving on the limit. We are fighting for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship and that is very important to us. Kimi was also pushing for his third podium in a row. Any view that he ‘let’ Norris past is hard to understand. It was a simple mistake and a frustrating one for both him and the team.

"We turn our attentions to Abu Dhabi and the final race of the season. We have a 33-point advantage over Red Bull so P2 is very much in our hands. We want to end the year and this era in F1 on a high and will be looking to do so in what is likely to be a spectacular championship-finale."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"A really frustrating result for us today but we at least scored a decent number of points. We go into the last race 33 points ahead in P2 in the constructors’ championship and although we didn't have much clear air to show it, the car has good pace.

"George lost a bit of ground on the start but that seemed to be the case for all cars on the inside row. He then ended up off line following a snap at turn 2, lost grip with dirt on the tyres and unfortunately dropped places to Sainz and Alonso. Kimi's start was better and he was just settling into the stint behind Norris when the safety car came out at the exact lap that allowed the race to be completed with two 25-lap stints. As expected, almost all cars stopped; we ended up holding Kimi for slightly longer than necessary which cost him a place to Sainz and ultimately that is what cost him a shot at the podium. With George there was always going to be some loss from having to stack and that allowed Hadjar to also get in front. The rest of the race was fairly unspectacular. George gained a place to Hadjar when he had a puncture and also realised he could go a full second quicker once in clear air. Kimi lost a spot to Norris when he was pushing to stay ahead.

"Not the result we wanted but we will regroup over the next two days and hopefully finish the year strongly in Abu Dhabi."

Aston Martin

Alonso made a great start and was running sixth for much of the race, including through both pit stop periods. He managed his tyres superbly, keeping everyone else at bay for lap after lap until he managed a spin all by himself. Fortunately that only cost him two places, and he came home seventh to extend Aston Martin’s lead over Haas in the Championship. As for Stroll, he pitted on Lap 7 like most of the field – but then came back in a few laps later. That guaranteed him a three-stop race, before he picked up a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. After four stops, the Canadian wound up retiring.

Fernando Alonso, 7th

"Two points yesterday and six today exceeds our expectations for this weekend. After the early Safety Car, we committed to the two-stop strategy along with everyone else. We didn't have the pace to fight ahead tonight. We got a bit lucky with the DRS train of cars and with how difficult it is to overtake here. We also got a bit lucky with the spin mid-race, because on another circuit maybe I would have ended up in the gravel. The points are a welcome boost in the battle in the Constructors' Championship as we head into Abu Dhabi."

Lance Stroll, DNF

"We started from P18 today and finished P17. It was always going to be challenging gaining back positions at this track so we tried something different with our strategy today and undercut so that we could have the opportunity to make up ground later in the race in case of another Safety Car, which sadly never came. We look to Abu Dhabi now in a week's time and hope we can be more competitive there."

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer

"A strong race for Fernando this evening with six points helping strengthen our hold on seventh place in the Constructors' Championship. The early Safety Car dictated the strategy for the majority of the grid and limited our options. Fernando followed the conventional strategy and brought the car home in P7. With Lance, we suffered a radio issue, limiting our ability to speak with him, but we tried something different with an offset strategy in the hope that we might capitalise on a late Safety Car. Well done to the team here on the ground and back in the UK for their continued hard work and efforts. We focus now on closing the season well in Abu Dhabi next weekend."

Ferrari

Leclerc dropped places off the line again as he did in the Sprint, finding himself running in 11th in the early stages. Hamilton gained off the line by comparison, after opting for the aggressive strategy of a soft tyre start. The Monegasque driver then inherited a few places when Hulkenberg and Gasly clashed, and again when Hadjar dropped out late on. But eighth is scant reward from a difficult weekend. As for Hamilton, he climbed up to 12th but could go no further after finding himself stuck in a long DRS train.

Charles Leclerc, 8th

"It’s been a really difficult weekend for us. We just didn’t have the pace we needed and none of the changes we made improved our outlook.

"On a positive note, I look forward to Abu Dhabi and want to finish the season on a high. We will do everything to extract the maximum from our car and I hope to jump on the podium one last time this year, to give the whole team a positive feeling before the holidays."

Lewis Hamilton, 12th

"We made a positive start and gained a few positions in the first stint, but the Safety Car didn’t play to our advantage and I lost two positions after the double stack. From that point I found myself in a DRS train, which made progress difficult on a circuit where overtaking is limited. The focus in now on Abu Dhabi, and hopefully we can end the season on a stronger note."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"We knew this circuit would be more difficult than the previous one for us and all weekend long, we were unable to find the right set-up. We struggled to run the cars with the very high tyre pressures mandated here and we clearly took a step backwards. A couple of races ago we were on the podium and today we were fighting for P10. For sure, it’s been tough. Next week in Abu Dhabi we can expect to be back to the more normal pressures, so we can hope for a better weekend. I can perfectly understand the frustration that everyone, the drivers, the mechanics, the engineers, is feeling tonight and we are sorry for our fans. But right from tomorrow morning, we will react as a team, we will be back at work trying to prepare as well as we can for Abu Dhabi."

Racing Bulls

Hadjar lost a couple of places off the line, and ran eighth in the first stint. He managed to get Russell in the pit stops, and then found himself ahead of Alonso when the Spaniard spun. Thus, he was on for a very decent P6 finish until a very late puncture with just two laps to go ended both his quest for points and ultimately his race. His late retirement did promote his team mate into the top 10 though, Lawson having a relatively clean race and staying out of trouble in the DRS train behind Alonso for much of the evening.

Isack Hadjar, DNF

“It was just a very frustrating end of the race. When there were 10 laps left, I started to see the front left endplate vibrating a lot, so I tried my best to avoid the kerbs. Unfortunately, it broke, causing a puncture in the tyre and damaging the car, which led me to retire. It’s a shame as we lost out on many points today, and after a difficult start which I’ll review together with the team, it would have been a very good reward for us as a team after fighting for P6 for the whole race. We take the positives from this weekend in Qatar, where we showed good speed and bring them to next week in Abu Dhabi for the last race of the season."

Liam Lawson, 9th

"It's positive to come away from the race with points after where we started. We had really strong pace when we were in clean air, but then spent the majority of the race in traffic. It's a shame to not have both cars in the points today after the damage Isack experienced towards the end, however I'm looking forward to closing out the season in Abu Dhabi while we fight for our position in the Constructors'.”

Alan Permane, Team Principal

“First of all, we apologise to Isack for the failure on his car. The front wheel deflector broke which we think is likely a consequence of the heavy kerbing here. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t do that, and we will investigate how it happened. Up to that point, it was an incredibly strong race, we were in for 6th place and racing well. Liam also had a very strong race; from 12th to 9th, finishing in the points and showing really good pace throughout the race. We go to Abu Dhabi with a job to do still, but I’m confident we’ll have the performance and can round off the season on a high.”

Kick Sauber

Hulkenberg started on the soft tyre from P11 on the grid. He soon found himself passing Leclerc, and starting to hunt down Gasly before attempting to make a move on the Frenchman around the outside, but the two made contact and Hulkenberg spun off into retirement with a rear tyre puncture. As for Bortoleto, he had to serve his five-place grid drop here but managed to recover to P13 on a night where there were not too many opportunities with the majority of the field pitting at the same time.

Nico Hulkenberg, DNF

"It’s such a big shame to have a promising race end so early, after being hit by Pierre [Gasly], as I genuinely think we could have scored points today. I felt confident with the car yesterday and the pace was there in the first seven laps. Overtaking opportunities here are very limited, so I went for a manoeuvre around the outside, which is always a bit riskier, but I gave Pierre plenty of space. It’s very unfortunate, as there were definitely opportunities for us today. For now it’s only disappointment, but we’ll take a couple of days to refocus and try to finish our season in Abu Dhabi in the best possible way.”

Gabriel Bortoleto, 13th

“It wasn’t the most exciting race for me: there weren’t many overtakes, and I spent most of it being stuck behind Lewis [Hamilton]. Once he pulled a gap, I couldn’t really close it again, so my race just kind of stayed there from that point on. I had some battles at the start, but after that not much happened. There’s still something we can take from the weekend, and a few things we could’ve improved. The penalty from Las Vegas obviously affected my race today, but our pace itself was encouraging. If we’d started around P14, we might have had a shot at the top ten. Overall, there are definitely some good learnings to carry forward into the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi next week.”

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal

“Unfortunately, it was a tough day in the office for the team. After strong opening laps, Nico was caught in a racing incident at Turn 1, which ended his race early. Gabi delivered an impressive performance, starting from P19 and fighting through to P13 with strong pace throughout. The pit crew were outstanding once again, delivering two very quick and clean stops.

“Given our speed and where our competitors finished, a strong points result was within reach, so it is disappointing not to have converted that potential. Now we turn our focus to Abu Dhabi, the final race of an exciting season, determined to finish strong.”

Alpine

Gasly was running in the top 10 early on but collided with Hulkenberg as the soft-shod German tried to overtake. That dropped Gasly down to last as he limped around before pitting with the field under the resultant Safety Car, and from there carrying some car damage, he had a long evening. Colapinto started on the hard tyre from the pit lane after making changes to his set-up overnight, but did not manage to progress too far up the order.

Pierre Gasly, 16th

“Today's result is a real pity as we definitely would have been in contention for scoring points after lining up in ninth place. I was really looking forward to the race with the potential we had after improving performance of the car yesterday. We had some damage after running wide at Turn 14 and then Nico [Hülkenberg], on Soft tyres, put a lot of pressure on for a few laps. I held my line into Turn 1, we were side by side and then he made contact with my front left while making the overtake. That was pretty much our race over with a puncture and it was always going to be difficult to recover from there with quite a bit of damage to the car. Next week we look ahead to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. We will try to repeat our performance here and put ourselves in contention for points.”

Franco Colapinto, 14th

“We knew starting from the Pit Lane, and with the maximum tyre stints for this race, that most teams would run similar strategies and there would be fewer variables to give us opportunities to make progress. So, there wasn't really much we could do, or many cards up our sleeves to play with. It made for a long and lonely evening, even if we did manage to make up a few places and stick on the back of the cars in front. The car felt better with the set-up changes we made, but ultimately, we lacked the pace and strategy options to attack. I was disappointed with myself yesterday but today was a better day, however I generally struggled for grip and sliding particularly in the final part of the race. There's lots to take away from the weekend with the team testing a few things. Now we're looking ahead to the final race in Abu Dhabi and trying to end the season on a positive note as a team.”

Haas

Bearman made a great start and was running in the points until the first pit stops. But something went wrong down at Haas, with Bearman seemingly released early with the rear jack still attached. As well as damaging his car and costing him time, that earned him a 10-second stop/go penalty for the car being released in an unsafe condition. After serving the penalty, Bearman retired from the race. As for Ocon, he was the third car not to pit immediately under the Safety Car. The team brought him in next time around, which dropped him from third to last. And from there, he could not recover - especially given he picked up a time penalty for a false start to boot.

Esteban Ocon, 15th

“I don’t really have words for the penalty, I don’t know where that’s come from. I’ve done over 100 starts and have always done the same procedure. It killed our whole race, and then we had to serve a double penalty, and then being on the wrong tyre, that was the end of our race really. The next race will be an important one, last year the team had a lot of pace, so we’ll see what we get.”

Oliver Bearman, DNF

“It’s a shame, as we were on for a good result, getting lucky with the incident ahead of us. We had the pace to be there though, and we were fighting in the top 10. Now we’ve lost some points against competitors, which is a shame, but we have one more race to go to do our best and claw it all back. I’ve got to look at the positives, and although the car was tough to drive, we found ourselves in a point-scoring position. I’m looking forward to resetting and ending the season on a high.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“It’s been an extremely tough day. It had good potential, the pace in the car was good, and both drivers were much happier with the car. It’s a shame with Esteban, there was the smallest of movements from his car on the start grid, which we need to understand more about. We made a couple of big errors on the pit stops, we’re not proud of it, but when doing 24 races and however many pit stops we do – we all make mistakes. What’s important is that we stick together and support each other. We have one more race, an important one, next weekend, and it’s a good thing as we’ll get back up from this one and put on our best performance from FP1 through to the race. We’re determined to finish the season on a high, that’s our focus.”

Pirelli

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“All the strategic choices in today’s race were conditioned by the arrival of the safety car. The compound considered to be the best compromise between getting good grip right from the start, and also maintaining an adequate performance level throughout the duration of the stint, was the medium.

Although nearly every driver only used the hard for the final stint to the flag, the C1 compound would also have been competitive halfway through the race. The lap times showed that in some cases it offered better performance than the C2 medium in the final laps. All the compounds displayed very limited wear, allowing drivers to push to the maximum.

There was a lot less graining compared to previous days, which reduced cases of extreme wear but did not eliminate them entirely. As a result, the 25-lap limit was shown to be appropriate to avoid any issues.

The fascinating twists and turns of this race, with unprecedented levels of performance and new circuit records set throughout the weekend, reflect an entire season with closer competition than ever. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the championship now gets decided at the last race, with three very worthy contenders going into battle for the final time next weekend.”