Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Qatar Grand Prix

A track that many thought would be boring and hard to pass actually gave us some quality racing.

Here are the winners & losers from the Qatar Grand Prix.

Losers

5. Nikita Mazepin

Nobody expects anything from Mazepin, but he was still 2.4 seconds slower than his teammate Mick Schumacher in qualifying.

That’s next level bad.

4. Alfa Romeo Racing

Alfa Romeo has two drivers who won’t be with the team next year, and it feels like the team itself doesn’t want to be here until next year.

Just a very tough weekend. Hopefully they were working on their car for 2022.

3. Yuki Tsunoda

It’s hard to succeed as a rookie in Formula 1, but even still Tsunoda is getting torched by his teammate Pierre Gasly.

Your measuring stick in Formula 1 is your teammate. Tsunoda is losing, and quite badly.

2. Daniel Ricciardo

The up and down season for Ricciardo continues.

I’m not sure anybody knows why, but he was awful all weekend long.

1. Mercedes

There’s been lots of talk about Lewis Hamilton being successful because he’s on the best team.

Well, today was a prime example of why that isn’t the case, because Mercedes did a horrific job with the strategy for Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas.

After a terrible start, Bottas found his way to contend for a podium position, but the team left him out far too long instead of pitting to try to cover off Sergio Perez.

The result? A puncture which left him outside of the points and losing a ton of points into the constructor’s championship.

That sucks, but it’s ok because now you can use him for fastest lap and prevent Verstappen from getting an extra point on Hamilton in the driver’s championship.

Nope. Because they retired him from the race with about 6 laps left instead.

Two moves that make absolutely no sense, and a huge swing in the constructor’s championship.

Winners

5. Sebastian Vettel

Vettel had a horrendous start as well, dropping by 7 spots on the opening lap alone.

No problem. A nice recovery drive had the 4 time world champion finish in the points again.

Nothing flashy, but a solid drive nonetheless.

4. Sergio Perez

Qualifying was horrific for Checo, especially with Red Bull so far behind in the constructor’s standings.

But the race today was fantastic, coming back to finish 4th and make the next two races very interesting for both championships.

3. Max Verstappen

Verstappen had a good chance to fight Lewis today while starting in 2nd, but a big mistake at the end of qualifying led to him having to start in 7th instead.

Didn’t matter.

Damage limitation at its finest for Verstappen, who finishes 2nd and gets the fastest lap to maintain an 8 point lead in the driver’s championship.

2. Lewis Hamilton

Despite the faults of Mercedes strategy wise that I mentioned above, Lewis Hamilton had an incredible race weekend.

Nobody could even come close to him in qualifying or in the race.

And Mercedes confirmed that this wasn’t the new, much faster engine he used in Brazil, which they’re keeping for the last two races.

Watch out…

1. Fernando Alonso

2014 was the last time that Fernando Alonso stepped foot on the podium.

He found his way back today.

And this wasn’t a snatch and grab podium due to other’s mistakes. He had a fantastic race weekend.

He was great in practice, he ended up 5th in qualifying which benefitted him due to two pre race penalties for drivers ahead of him, and when everyone had tire failures trying to only make one pit stop, Fernando pulled that off with no problems at all.

He’s in his 40’s, but it’s another example that the old 2 time world champion still has a ton of talent.