F1 | 2023 Qatar F1 Grand Prix Result, Sprint Race Result, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary

A big weekend of Formula 1 as Max Verstappen win his third World Championship and the main Qatar Grand Prix on the Sunday and Oscar Piastri takes a first win on the Saturday with the Sprint Race. To cover that and so much more is our 2023 Qatar F1 Grand Prix Result which covers both races and anything else of interest.

This 2023 Qatar Grand Prix Result, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time. And you get it for both the main race on Sunday and the Sprint Race on Saturday. So read on.

READ MORE:

2023 Belgian Grand Prix Preview
2023 Hungarian Grand Prix Review
Our 2023 F1 Calendar & Results

2023 Qatar F1 Grand Prix Result Sprint Race Summary

Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.

Setting the scene – Oscar Piastri continues his impressive recent run by taking the sprint race pole position ahead of his team mate in a super session for the McLarens. Max Verstappen is third and ready to pounce. He needs just three points to secure his third world championship. Both qualifying sessions have been all about the track limits and drivers having times taken off them. Hopefully that doesn’t ruin the race.

Lap 1 – Oscar Piastri converts his first pole position impressively into a first corner lead, behind him both Lando Norris and Max Verstappen are squeezed out going into turn one by the rapid starting George Russell and Carlos Sainz. Charles Leclerc up as well. Verstappen is 5th and Norris 6th. Perez is another loser of the start down two positions. Liam Lawson is off into the gravel and out of the race. The race itself is put on hold as the Safety Car comes out.

SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED

ORDER – PIA RUS SAI LEC VER NOR ALO OCO HUL PER

SAFETY CAR EXITS

Lap 2 – Just the one lap behind the safety car, and Oscar Piastri just holds onto first despite loads of pressure from George Russell into the first corner. But a few corners later the Mercedes overtakes the McLaren for the lead as Piastri outbrakes himself slightly – possibly the difference between his soft tyres vs Piastri’s medium set. A ding dong battle between Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso ends up in Norris’ favour as Norris keeps 6th and Ocon steals 7th from Alonso. Logan Sargeant spins off into the gravel and seals another DNF. And another safety car. We can guarantee as least one of the Safety Car and Logan Sargeant will be on the grid next season.

SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED

ORDER – RUS PIA SAI LEC VER NOR OCO ALO HUL GAS

SAFETY CAR EXITS

Lap 7 – After what seems like a safety car period that went way too long, the race resumes. Carlos Sainz almost steals second from Piastri into the first corner, but the Australian does well to hold him off. Alonso takes his seventh lace back from Esteban Ocon. George Russell has given himself a handy greater than one second lead to stay out of DRS zone. The question is can his soft tyres hold on for the whole race against the mediums of McLaren and Red Bull. Speaking of those cars, they are in a less dominant 5th and 11th. Max Verstappen eyeing the long game of a 6th place that seals a championship.

Lap 9 – Max Verstappen proves he isn’t just hanging around by overtaking Charles Leclerc for 4th. The medium tyres are working now as Perez overtakes Gasly for 10th and Oscar Piastri sets fastest lap.

Lap 10 – The soft runners are going backwards now, well Carlos Sainz certainly is as Max Verstappen breezes by.

ORDER – RUS PIA VER SAI LEC NOR ALO OCO HUL PER

Lap 11 – Oscar Piastri overtakes George Russell down the main straight with his DRS and tyres helping to regain the lead. In more good news for McLaren Lando Norris gets by Charles Leclerc. Less successful is Sergio Perez who is in the gravel trying to overtake Nico Hulkenberg for 9th, that hands the World Championship to Max Verstappen without having to do anything. It probably also hands Sergio Perez’s 2024 Red Bull seat to anyone else the way he’s going. Esteban Ocon is in the gravel with Perez and it looks like Hulkenberg has escaped. Replays show that it was a racing incident of three cars alongside each other and the two outside ones squeezing the middle car to the inevitable outcome. If we were to apportion some blame, it was Ocon who should have given more room. Safety Car is out again. Piastri hoping this one lasts as long as possible.

SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED

ORDER – PIA RUS VER SAI NOR LEC ALO HAM GAS BOT

SAFETY CAR EXITS

Lap 15 – Safety car leaves giving us five laps to the chequered flag. Piastri just holds onto first place and carves out a second space by the end of the lap. Further back Charles Leclerc gets past Lando Norris. 

Lap 16 – Max Verstappen passes George Russell for second place, and is hunting a sprint win to seal his championship. Piastri is 2.6 seconds up the road with four laps to go. Can the McLaren hold on.

Lap 17 – The gap from Piastri to Verstappen is down to 2.3 seconds, while Lando Norris retakes Leclerc for 5th and gets past Carlos Sainz for 4th a few corners later. Magnificent stuff. Further back Lewis Hamilton takes Pierre Gasly for 8th and Alex Albon sneaks into the top ten ahead of Valtteri Nottas.

Lap 18 – Two laps to go and the Piastri-Verstappen gaps in just under two seconds.Lewis Hamilton is up to 7th and harassing the Ferraris straight away.

Final Lap – Piastri heads into the final lap with a lead of two seconds or more. He needs to just keep going for a first win. Further back plenty happening, Lewis Hamilton gets past Leclerc. Alex Albon takes Fernando Alonso for 8th. But Oscar Piastri drives composed, and he holds off Max Verstappen with ease for his first win in F1 while Verstappen takes a third World Championship. Talking of third, Lando Norris makes it a decent sprint race for McLaren with a third place. It may be just a sprint race, but a decent first place for Oscar Piastri on a track he has never raced on.

ORDER – PIA VER NOR RUS HAM SAI LEC ALB ALO GAS

2023 Qatar F1 Grand Prix Result Main Race Summary

Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.

Setting the scene – There’s still a race to be run after the excitement of Oscar Piastri’s first win in the Sprint Race yesterday, and even more importantly the third World Championship for Max Verstappen.

To ensure that the governing body aren’t forgotten, they have insisted before the race that no one can run more than 18 laps on a set of tyres, which could add a level of chaos to the race. It’s on safety grounds, but it sounds plenty stupid, and with one of the longest pit lanes on the calendar, we’re going to be be watching nothing but pit stops we fear.

GRID (Starting Order) – VER RUS HAM ALO  LEC PIA GAS OCO BOT NOR — PER (PL)

Lap 1 –  Pole sitter Max Verstappen gets away OK, Lewis Hamilton gets away better from third and he tries to get pass both Verstappen and George Russell around the outside only to clip his team mate, rip off his right rear wheel and send both him and Russell into a spin at turn one. Yesterday’s winner Oscar Piastri lucks in and is up to second from sixth.  Further back there’s some swapping for minor positions and no trouble as the Safety Car is called upon.

It wasn’t a ridiculous move from Lewis Hamilton, and it looked like he had enough pace to get it done, he just needed to give George Russell more room and he might have taken first rather than be sitting out the rest of the Qatar Grand Prix. Disaster for Mercedes who had two cars in the top three and now have one who is last.

SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED

ORDER – VER PIA ALO LEC OCO NOR GAS TSU BOT HUL

Lap 4 – A bunch of lower midfield cars come in to pit, not sure how that works with the 18 lap rule for strategy. Also bad news coming for Nico Hulkenberg after the stewards advise they are looking at an incorrect starting procedure, which means penalty usually. And it does this time too, 10 second penalty.

RACE RESUMES

Lap 5 – Max Verstappen holds onto first place with a masterful restart, Oscar Piastri was a little slow but keeps second. Further back Sergio Perez and George Russell debate who should own 13th place, Perez looks to run Russell off the road. Could be interesting how these two come back through the field. Russell gets past a lap later. 

Lap 8 – Replays shows Fernando Alonso running wide off one of the corners but keeps his position as the tyres wear off. But that highlights another problem – track limits. Which ruined a lot of qualifying laps, there’s five second penalties awaiting in the race for those who run wide too many times in the race.

Further ahead Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri are trading fastest laps. George Russell is up to 11th already, and looking fast, his first lap prang possibly costing us a battle at the front. We might still get one with Piastri though.

ORDER – VER PIA ALO LEC OCO NOR GAS HUL TSU ALB

Lap 12 – Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly become the first front runners to pit of what will be many, many pits tops. They drop from 3rd and 7th to 15th and 17th for reference. The pit stops and an overtake help George Russell jump up to 6th. Oscar Piastri pits from second a lap later and drops to 13th. So glad there’s going to be extra pit stops, so front runners are held up by midfield cars. Nice one FIA.

Lap 14 – Lando Norris pits from what was second and drops to 13th. Talking of second, George Russell is up to second after overtaking Nico Hulkenberg. He pits a lap later and rejoins 15th and has to do it all over again. Russell’s earlier sparring partner Sergio Perez has made it up to third place but he has to stop soon according to the 18 lap rule, like his team mate Verstappen in the lead too.

Lap 18 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead, which gives Alex Albon a nice moment s he takes the lead temporarily in his Williams. Further back Oscar Piastri is making light owrk of the midfield runners in the way of his net second place. He’s up to fourth now then second as those cars pit.

Lap 19 – Lando Norris overtakes Charles Leclerc for 6th, Lance Stroll lets Fernando Alonso past for fourth, and George Russell is up to 10th after another overtake.

ORDER – VER PIAS ALO BOT STR NOR LEC OCO GAS RUS

Lap 24 – George Russell continues to make progress through the field. Lando Norris is catching Fernando Alonso for third. Sergio Perez sets a who cares fastest lap from 9th. It disappears as Lando Norris updates the fastest lap as we type.

Lap 26 – Oscar Piastri is the first front runner to pit for a second stop. He rejoins 8th this time. Fernando Alonso pits a lap later, he did ask his team to fix an uncomfortable problem over the radio prior to stopping – the seat is burning his rear end. The team don’t seem to do anything to fix that in the two second he is stopped for. That could get interesting later. 

Lap 29 – In good news for Lando Norris, he pits and get by Fernando Alonso for a net third and that means within a car of his team mate Piastri. Meanwhile Piastri takes a while and loses some time getting past Alex Albon for fourth. By lap 32 Norris is within five seconds of Piastri and that could get interesting soon, Norris sets fastest lap on lap 33.

Lap 33 – Fernando Alonso runs off the track at turn 15 and loses his position to Charles Leclerc in a moment of excitement. He rejoined pretty dangerously in front of Leclerc who overtook him anyway, but the way stewards have handed out punishment at this race weekend, he may have more misery coming.

Lap 35 – George Russell is up to fourth again with some more good overtaking. A sad case of what could have been for him today. His team say he can still finish fourth. Decent effort then.

Lap 38 – Ocon overtakes Vallteri Nottas for 7th as the final pit stops for everyone loom as the race enters the final 18 laps. Lando Norris within four second of his team mate in the battle for second place. Talking of second place, Sergio Perez gets a five second penalty for track limits. Solid weekend for the Red Bull driver who is lucky Lewis Hamilton crashed out in the hunt for second place in the Championship. 

ORDER – VER PIA NOR RUS LEC ALO OCO BOT GAS STR

Lap 40 – The final pit stops begin in earnest. Not sure who Earnest is, or whether he wants any pit stops, but they are happening nonetheless. 

Lap 41 – Logan Sargeant retires exhausted. WE won’t pick on him for that. It is a race in the middle of a desert.

Lap 44 – Oscar Piastri pits as his team mate closes within two seconds and sets fastest lap while Piastri pits. Piastri rejoins in the clear in fourth. Lando Norris pits a lap later and rejoins just as Oscar Piastri turns into the first corner, they are very close now. A decent battle looms for the last part of the race for second between the McLarens.

Lap 45 – Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly get five second penalties.

Lap 47 – McLaren tell Lando Norris to hold position, which Norris rightly questions why. They can race surely? Norris was the quicker of the two McLarens in the last stint. So we will see if he listens or not.

Lap 51 – George Russell pits from second and drops to fourth. He is now battling McLarens for the podium and has a fresh set of soft tyres on against the hard tyres for the McLarens.

Lap 54 – Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez battle for ninth place. Lance Stroll gets another penalty, so that’s sorted then. Wonder if Stroll will be as grumpy as he was in Friday’s press conference that found it’s way onto social media.

Lap 55 – Instead of George Russell catching the McLarens he is being caught by Charles Leclerc and there’s just enough time for the Ferrari to catch the Mercedes. Meanwhile Lando Norris proves a point and is within 1.5 seconds of his team mate.

Last lap – Somewhere out in the too distant future Max Verstappen cruises to victory – his 14th of the season no less. Less cruising than flying is Lando Norris who gets within a second of Oscar Piastri on the final lap, but the Australian seals his best ever proper race result with second. Another podium for Norris is still a good reward. George Russell recovers well to finish fourth and Leclerc has had a quiet run to fifth. We will wait on the final order with probably more penalties to be handed out based on the weekend so far.

FINAL ORDER (Across the line)  –  VER PIA NOR RUS LEC ALO OCO BOT PER ZHO

Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).

These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.

THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN

A third World Championship secured with second place in the Sprint Race. An almost invisible performance for first in the main race and yet another win. 

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

OSCAR PIASTRI – A sprint race win gives Piastri his first number one finish in his short F1 career, which he took with his usual amount of excitement, which is next to none. Drove a solid race on Sunday to get another podium with his usual calmness.

LANDO NORRIS – Was visibly disappointed after the sprint race where he watched his team mate win as he paid for qualifying mistakes. But climbed from 10th on the grid to the podium with another classy Sunday drive. Currently best of the non Verstappen drivers right now.

GEORGE RUSSELL – After dropping to the back of the field due to a clash with his team mate on lap one, Russell drove past a lot of cars, and ended up finishing fourth, showing enough pace for fans to be disappointed he didn’t get the chance to battle Verstappen for first and have a race at the front for a change.

ALFA ROMEO – Double points finish is timely at this end of the season..

THE GRAPE-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON

Just pips Sergio Perez for grape-est in the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton makes a super start and tries to take first place in a double swoop around the outside of turn one, only to perform a double stuff up as he hits his team mate, loses a right rear wheel and forces his team mate into a spin. A shame as he looked fast, as did George Russell.

DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS

SERGIO PEREZ – Another rubbish qualifying sees him stuck in the midfield during the race, and unlike George Russell, seems to struggle to make his way forward. Unlucky to have been taken out in the sprint race, but that’s what happens when you don’t qualify better. Basically wasting the Red Bull seat right now, a car capable of winning everything in the hands of Verstappen. Will be lucky to keep a hold of his drive for 2024 despite contract.

CARLOS SAINZ – A race winner not long ago, he didn’t even make the start of the Qatar Grand Prix.

NICO HULKENBERG – Taken out in sprint race after being sandwiched by Perez and Ocon. Took wrong grid slot for main race and got a ten second penalty. Not the luckiest F1 driver.

LOGAN SARGEANT – Spun off in the sprint race. Did OK in the main race, but ended up feeling poorly and had to retire. Not great when you’re trying to hang onto your seat for 2024.

LANCE STROLL – Held a particularly spiky press conference on Friday, and nothing else over the weekend would have made him happy. A few penalties in the race cost him points.

Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest.

We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.

Note: this is for the combined races.

SEASON IMPORTANCE –  10 / 10

Max Verstappen wins the Championship, so pretty definitive on that front. The battle for second will rage on after a shocker weekend from Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez. Plus the battle between ASton Martin and McLaren get interesting after McLaren’s big weekend.

ON TRACK ACTION – 7 / 10

Some good racing as the many pitstops mandated by the FIA sees the order shaken up every now and again. George Russell in particular was busy, but most of the front runners had to do some overtaking for a change. Not Max Verstappen, who only had to lap cars, including his team mate.

ENDING 3 / 10

McLaren killed the ending a little by wanting their drivers to hold position in the closest battle on track. Not that Lando Norris followed completely. But not much else happening apart from more penalties handed out to midfield runners.

OVERALL RATING 20 / 30

Decent enough race, not sure if the 18 lap tyre mandate helped or hindered. But the early 3am timeslot for viewers in some parts of the world didn’t help. Nor does another MAx Verstappen win. McLaren at least made it interesting, as did the Mecedes drivers, one very briefly and one during most of the race. 

2023 F1 Season Power Rankings

Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.

Who not check out last race which includes the season ratings so far: Hungarian Grand Prix and 2023 Driver Ratings.