Live: McLaren ‘missed a trick’ after early safety car confusion

Racing is back underway and it’s the McLarens of Piastri and Norris that lead and will hold that lead through the first corner, with Verstappen in third.

“It feels to me that McLaren have missed a trick,” Brundle says.

“The goal here now is really good pace until lap 25. Everyone else will stay out until lap 32,” says the McLaren engineer.

With the 25-lap limit on the tyres, the cars that all came in now can make their cars stop within those limits.

“This has worked out horribly for McLaren,” Martin Brundle says on Fox Sports.

Hard to disagree.

And Lando Norris is asking that over the radio.

“We should have just followed him in, no?” he says.

But the team have another idea.

“They have lost all of their flexibility for the rest of the race.” the engineer says.

That’s true, but if nothing significant happens for the rest of the race, there is no benefit to staying out.

A pit stop under the safety car is worth 16 seconds. Without, it’s worth 27 seconds.

Nico Hulkenburg has crashed and is stranded having collected one of the distance boards.

It looks like Pierre Gasly has a puncture.

Max Verstappen dives into the pits.

BOTH McLARENS STAY OUT!

Lots of others are diving into the pits though.

In fact it’s just Esteban Ocon along with the two McLarens who have stayed out!

Lando Norris looked to have a pretty good start.

But he just couldn’t maintain the traction against Max Verstappen, who just had the drive to get past the McLaren.

That dirty side of the track not doing him any favours.

And it didn’t do George Russell any favours either – he’s been knocked back to seventh after starting fourth based on him being swamped by the drivers behind and to the side of him.

One driver who didn’t seem to have any problems? Eighth-placed starter Fernando Alonso. He’s up two positions to sixth.

I mean, based on history, you may as well.

Every Qatar Grand Prix has been won by the driver who finished the opening lap first.

Oscar Piastri already had a lead of over a second as they go through to complete the first lap.

Max Verstappen is up to second and has a solid lead over Lando Norris.

Kimi Antonelli has had a great start, as has Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso, with George Russell plummeting down the field.

We’re underway in the Qatar Grand Prix!

MAX VERSTAPPEN HAS HAD A BLINDING START!

OSCAR PIASTRI LEADS INTO THE FIRST CORNER!

AND LANDO NORRIS DROPS TO THIRD!

• First race: 2021
• Number of laps: 57
• Lap distance: 5.419km
• Race distance: 308.611km
• Grand prix lap record: 1:22.384 — Lando Norris (2024)

Here’s how the grid looks.

An excellent pole lap from Oscar Piastri yesterday puts him in the box seat, despite McLaren locking out the front row.

Crucially for Piastri, Lando Norris starts on the dirty side of the track which, in these Middle East circuits in particular, is a major issue when it comes to getting away cleanly.

“Probably just the start [is my only opportunity to overtake], yes,” Norris said.

“Just the run down to Turn One, but I’m on the dirty side of the grid.

“I don’t have the highest expectations, but we’ll see what we can do.

“I probably can’t take risks from the dirty side of the grid. I’ll make the decision when I arrive into Turn One.”

On a circuit where overtaking is at even more of a premium than at many others on the calendar, Piastri holds almost all the cards.

Another huge aspect is the ultra-aggressive Max Verstappen on in third, clean side of the grid and always a threat from the start.

Norris will have to be ultra aware of the Dutchman when he considers whether there is a chance to overtake Piastri, and may just take a defensive option to stay second.

This is where the meaningful action will be starting from.

If you’re after thrilling racing with plenty of overtaking, then the Lusail International Circuit is probably not going to be your first port of call for a Formula 1 race.

The circuit was built with motorcycle racing as its primary focus and is a circuit that is well suited to the premier two-wheeled class with its fast and flowing layout.

Medium to high-speed corners are the defining features of the circuit, a tough challenge for any driver who is on older tyres — as well as the relatively sharp curbs, which have already caused some slicing of the tyres this weekend.

The triple right-hand turns of corners 12 to 14 will really test the stability and downforce of any F1 car.

The best overtaking spot is turn one, after the long straight, which stretches more than 1km — but don’t hold your hopes out for too much of that at the pointy end.

Whoever gets the best start will likely win this race.

Oscar Piastri has been speaking, very briefly, to Sky Sports in Germany after getting his car to the grid.

“It will be the same as always,” Piastri said of the upcoming battle between he and Lando Norris.

“We’re both fighting for a race and a championship.”

Short and sweet from the Aussie, who is now speaking with Zak Brown on the grid. We’re not privy to that chat.

There is a bit of a headwind down the 1km-long main straight which might play into things further down the track.

But aside from that, the drivers are all just about ready to get the pre-race ceremony underway after the celebrity-filled chaos that is the Formula 1 grid.

Because the demands on the tyres at this circuit, tyre supplier Pirelli has imposed a mandatory maximum of 25 laps usage on any set of tyres.

This is, in part, due to a fear of punctures on curbs that are slightly sharper than normal.

How sharp?

Well, both Oscar Piastri and George Russell suffered tears in their front tyres before the end of the 19-lap sprint race on Saturday.

Aside from anything, this makes the race a minimum of a two pit-stop strategy.

Pit stops could mean prizes if there are any mistakes from McLaren or Red Bull, so that could be something to keep an eye on.

– with Reuters

It is starting to be squeaky bum time for Lando Norris’ F1 title rivals – and so Max Verstappen has started to stir the pot a bit heading into this weekend’s racing.

Verstappen said he would have won the 2025 championship easily if he was driving a McLaren like Oscar Piastri and Norris.

Norris, meanwhile, said the four-time world champion talked nonsense, and sometimes did not have a clue.

McLaren, who clinched their second successive constructors’ title in October, have both Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri battling for the crown while Verstappen gets number one treatment at Red Bull.

“Max is very welcome to say everything he wants, to be honest. He’s kind of earned the right. You know, he’s won four world championships,” Norris said yesterday.

“He’s achieved an incredible amount – more than anyone generally dreams of achieving.

“Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things but there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about. It’s also Red Bull’s way of going about things, this kind of aggressive nature and, yeah, just talking nonsense a lot of the time.”

Norris said he was never threatened by Verstappen during the sprint race, where he finished one place ahead of the Red Bull driver in third.

“Of course I saw him but he was never too much of a threat at all,” he said.

“My focus was more just on George [Russell] and seeing how I could keep the tyres in a good place for later.”

The Briton added that he would continue to keep his head down, focus on one race at a time and ignore the chatter.

– with Reuters

There may have been some suggestion during the week that Oscar Piastri should help Lando Norris win the title this weekend — a suggestion that was dismissed according to the team.

And one man in particular (apart from Piastri) is pretty happy about it.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen said McLaren are right to let their drivers race freely — that Piastri would be labelled a number two if he accepted anything else,

Constructors’ champions McLaren have assured their drivers equal status and Verstappen, who is on an impressive run of form and stands to benefit if they take points off each other, said that decision was ‘perfect’.

“I think you can’t do a better job than allowing them to race,” the Dutch driver, whose current teammate Yuki Tsunoda is a clear number two, told reporters.

“Why would you suddenly now say that Oscar wouldn’t be allowed anymore to [race].

“If that was said to me, I would have not rocked up.

“If you’re a real winner and a racer, as a driver, then you go for it. I mean, even if you’re behind. What’s the point otherwise in turning up? Otherwise you can just easily label yourself as a number two driver. Which I think he doesn’t want to be.

“Hopefully we can make it a great battle until the end.”

Let’s have a quick run down on what needs to happen if the F1 drivers championship is to be decided this weekend — with thanks to F1 for the tidy graphic.

Essentially, if Lando Norris wins tonight’s race, he will win the title if Oscar Piastri finishes fourth or lower, and Max Verstappen finishes 3rd or lower.

FYI, Verstappen has to do finish in a better position than Norris this weekend to extend his fight to Abu Dhabi this weekend.

But what does Piastri need to do?

Well, for a start, he’d need to win this Qatar Grand Prix and, for good measure, let’s say he wins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix too.

In that case, Norris would have to finish 2nd in one race, 5th in the other, OR 3rd in one race, 4th in the other OR 6th or lower in either race.

But look, one step at a time, right?