Verstappen takes revenge in Qatar, Gasly in the Top 5

That's a world champion's answer! The day after losing his pole position, Max Verstappen took his revenge on the track. The Dutchman, asked to move back one place on the grid, did not take long to get into action. One corner to be precise.

With a very good reaction to the lights going out, the pilot Red Bull immediately got up to speed with George Russell, whom he managed to overtake at the exit of the first bend. The four-time world champion then had to elbow his way through Lando Norris who wanted to take advantage of it, but he defended his position perfectly. From then on, Max Verstappen seemed to be heading for a relatively calm Grand Prix. His RB20 having suddenly found pace, he managed to push Lando Norris back to almost 2 seconds. The positions seemed frozen but a carbon element of the Williams from Alex Albon turned everything upside down.

By unintentionally rolling over it, Valtteri Bottas put a lot of debris on the track which caused some punctures like those of Lewis Hamilton et Carlos SainzAfter a delay, race control finally sent out the Safety Car, bringing the entire field together on lap 35.

DOUBLE PUNCTURE 🤯

Hamilton and Sainz suffer punctures on lap 35 💥#QatarGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/hYHhAPMsOe

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) December 1, 2024

So, Max Verstappen had to do all the work again and almost lost everything since he slightly missed his restart on lap 40. Lando Norris tried to attack him but the Dutchman once again proved intractable before the safety car came back on track shortly after, after the misadventures of Sergio Pérez and Nico Hulkenberg.

Forced to once again relaunch the pack, the Red Bill driver did not miss a beat and ended up taking definitive cover when Lando Norris was given a 10-second Stop & Go penalty on lap 44 for not respecting the yellow flags. Having fallen back to last, the Englishman managed to climb back into the points, finishing 10th.

Ahead, Max Verstappen flew to his 9th victory of the season ahead of Charles Leclerc et Oscar piastri.

10 SECONDS OF STOP AND GO FOR NORRIS 😱

The Briton didn't slow down under the yellow flag!

He comes out last and lets Verstappen fly away to victory! #QatarGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/e36C62fEGJ

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) December 1, 2024

Gasly's new big move and Alpine

All these racing facts have also been favored by Pierre Gasly et Alpine. Taking advantage of the two Safety Cars and the problems of some and others, the Norman was able to move up to 5th place. In a final sprint of around ten laps, he put up a very good defense against Carlos Sainz. Despite the performance gap between his car and the Ferrari, the Frenchman managed to resist to bring 10 precious points to his team.

Precious because these 10 points allow Alpine to move back to 6th among the Constructors ahead of Haas and Racing Bulls with one Grand Prix to go.

Penalized twice (false start and speeding in the pit lane) and victim of a puncture, Lewis Hamilton managed to hang on to 12th place as best he could.

Note the first points of the season for Sauber thanks to 8th place Guanyu-Zhou, elected driver of the day by the community.

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