Australian rookie Oscar Piastri has claimed the biggest win of his career with victory in the Formula One sprint race in Qatar as Max Verstappen finished second and secured the F1 world championship for a third straight year.
Verstappen was assured of the title when his only remaining rival, team-mate Sergio Perez, crashed out in a three-car incident in the 11th of 19 laps on the floodlit 5.418km Lusail International Circuit on Saturday.
Piastri won for McLaren and his teammate Lando Norris was third.
The race featured three safety car phases and saw Mercedes’ George Russell and the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc pay the price for using soft tyres which were quicker but did not last as long as the mediums the others had fitted.
Piastri won a turbulent start while Verstappen and Norris got off badly, with Russell shooting from fourth to second and the Ferraris also getting past the two.
The safety car came out after Liam Lawson’s Alpha Tauri rode out and got stuck in the gravel, and returned for a second time in lap four after Williams driver Logan Sargeant also went out.
In-between, Russell stormed into the lead past Piastri and then handily won the second restart but the joy was short-lived as he swiftly lost the lead to Piastri while Verstappen got past the two Ferraris into third.
A three-car incident caused by a spin of Esteban Ocon ended the race of the Alpine driver, Nico Hülkenberg of Haas and Perez which decided the championship and brought out the safety car again for a third time.
Piastri kept the lead for the final five laps while Russell dropped from second to fourth on the softs, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton behind in fifth, up from 11th.
“First sprint win sounds pretty cool,” Piastri said.
“It was a very stressful race. When I saw all the soft [tyre] guys come through at the start I thought we were in a bit of trouble. But their tyres fell of pretty quickly, so that was good.
“The safety cars were my friend today once Max got behind me but the pace was reasonable and in the race where you had to manage a lot, the tyres, cars on other compounds, we did a good job.”
Dutchman Verstappen, 26, has completely dominated the season by winning 13 of the 16 grands prix – including an F1 record 10 in a row – and two of four sprints.
He clinched the title ahead of Sunday’s Qatar GP, which he will start from pole, and the remaining five race weekends of the season, matching Michael Schumacher who also clinched the title with six GPs to spare in 2002.
“Of course it’s a fantastic feeling. It’s been an incredible year, lots of great races and I feel super proud and super proud of the job of the team,” Verstappen said.
“It’s been so enjoyable to be part of that group of people and to be three time world champion is just incredible.”
Verstappen is the fifth driver in the sport’s 73-year history to win three titles in a row. He joins Juan Manuel Fangio (four straight 1954-1957), Schumacher (five 2000-2004), Sebastian Vettel (four 2010-2013) and Lewis Hamilton (four 2017-2020).
In all, he is the 11th driver to win at least three drivers’ titles, others include Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
With 13 GP wins already, Vettel can better his own record of 15 wins in one season in the remaining six races. Verstappen has two more podiums with fifth last month in Singapore his only slip-up.
