00:00It's lights out, and away we go, and it's a good start for Hamilton, it's a good start for Alonso, and Gasly could be under pressure soon.
00:08Hamilton moves to the inside, Gasly stayed ahead of Alonso, who might pressurise going into Turn 1, but it's Hamilton from Gasly, Alonso,
00:14then comes Lando Norris, Max Verstappen on the inside, has made a brilliant start, but then goes off the track as Fernando Alonso closes the door on him.
00:21Verstappen still trying to battle away with Lando Norris, and he's got ahead of the McLaren.
00:26Tremendous start, just what Max Verstappen needed up into P4, and Alonso then threw on Gasly, but Lewis Hamilton very clearly out front, he'll take some beating from there.
00:36Max on the inside, he can see them all darting around outside, quite cautious there from him understandably, but he is just where you need to be in the corner.
00:46And then suddenly, Fernando clearly didn't know he was there.
00:51Pierre has just been told Max is not our race. Max is not our race, which is about as subtle as I think they could do that, Gasly's gone very wide there, and that's going to allow Max Verstappen to close down.
01:01He's got DRS on Gasly, this could be quite an easy pass down the main straight, it is an easy pass down the main straight, he's still got DRS, and he's ahead of the AlphaTauri.
01:10Verstappen started seventh, and now on lap four he's up into the podium places.
01:14I don't think Fernando will get silly, he won't be giving this place up easily, but I don't think he's going to fight too hard.
01:20He's not really got the pace to fight it too hard. In the space of a lap here, Fernando Alonso has been overtaken, Pierre Gasly's been overtaken, and Max Verstappen has gone from fourth to second.
01:32I do get the feeling Red Bull have got a very good race car, looking at the top speeds as well without DRS, they're very similar to the Mercedes, as then Sergio Perez makes his way past Esteban Ocon, confirming Red Bull do, and look, is this a double overtake for Valtteri Bottas? Not quite.
01:51No, it might not even be one overtake for Valtteri Bottas, who got on the dusty part of the track, and he didn't seem to do him any good. Stroll keeps his place, Bottas though does get past Sonoda, he's up into the points.
02:03We did come here fearing that it would be very difficult to follow in that middle set to see who couldn't get as close as Sergio Perez to Lando Norris to make the overtakes, but look at that, Perez lasting past again with DRS, an extra ten miles an hour of advantage with a gap opening in that rear wing.
02:19Perez now up to fourth. Valtteri Bottas has limbered up, and limbered up nicely. It maybe took him a while to get going in this race, but he's now showing his skills.
02:31Well, you've got Alonso and Perez, and you've got Bottas, who needs to make a stop, because he hasn't stopped yet. Perez is going to have a go on Alonso here, and he goes around the outside,
02:40but Fernando Alonso keeps the speed on the inside, maintains his momentum. Perez and Alonso going wheel to wheel, and this is not over yet, as Alonso goes off the track and has to come on behind the red bull.
02:52He hung that out for as long as he possibly could, and Perez got his elbows out too.
02:57Valtteri Bottas has got a puncture, and you can see that front left tire of Valtteri Bottas is forcing him wide and onto the gravel, and this is absolutely destroying Valtteri Bottas' race.
03:12He's at turn seven, coming towards turn eight. He's got over half a lap to try and limp home. He's putting gravel onto the circuit as well.
03:21Now the yellow flags very definitely being waved. Oh, and Valtteri Bottas hasn't made his pit stop yet, going long on this first stint.
03:31The only driver who hasn't stopped yet. His race is coming undone. Sergio Perez coming in for another stop.
03:39Sergio Perez now has to get through Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris before he gets back to Fernando Alonso.
03:49Tell Esteban to defend like a lion.
03:52And Alonso wants Esteban to do for him what he did for Esteban to win that race in Hungary.
03:59Hamilton's just taken the fastest lap off Perez. Here goes Perez on Stroll. That one's been coming. Perez on a two-stopper, Lance Stroll on a one-stopper. Now he can get after Ocon.
04:11You've got this. You've got the podium. So as these guys on the one-stop, they're going to be suffering.
04:16As they cross the line and Perez, with that extra 10 miles an hour, is forced round the outside.
04:25Well, I think Ocon did the best he could there, but to the delight of the man waving the Mexican flag.
04:32Perez is through. Ocon defends as best he can and still comes back at Sergio Perez.
04:37He has to try and keep the move going and he's actually going to make a move round the outside, is he?
04:42Here at the hairpin, turns four and five. Ocon's really going for it. That was getting his elbows out.
04:48There's George Russell with his wings scraping along the ground. Has he got a punch in two? Yes.
04:55Left front. Left front gone as well.
04:57Just seemed very innocuous, that curve, but obviously did enough to start deflating that front left tire.
05:05Charles Leclerc, his teammate ahead of him, has got to about a second behind Lance Stroll.
05:12And there's another front left tire. This time, Nicolas Latifi in the Williams.
05:18There he goes. A curb strike, but I think the left front was already going down at that point.
05:25And of course, he's missed the pit lane there in that respect.
05:28A bit like Pierre Gasly in qualifying yesterday.
05:32We will make that off.
05:33We should be fine, but let's stay extremely cautious on that front left.
05:41Just a few more corners to go for Lewis Hamilton, who started the fight back in terms of the world championship chase.
05:48When we were in Sao Paulo, that fight back has continued here with back-to-back victories for Lewis Hamilton.
05:54As he now sees the chequered flag in the distance, powers down the main straight and comes home to win the Qatar Grand Prix.
06:04Hamilton on top in Qatar. Max Verstappen though, limiting the damage.
06:10Started seventh. Will come home to finish second and take that fastest lap point as well.
06:15Fernando Alonso back on the podium in Formula One. Welcome back, Fernando. He comes home to finish third.
06:24That is a brilliant result for him and for the Alpine team. Sergio Perez will finish just under three seconds behind for Red Bull.
06:31Esteban Ocon. A fine evening for Alpine. He'll take fifth place.
06:38We go now to the final two races with the top two separated by not much.
06:43And who knows what's going to happen from here on in. Could it still go down to the wire?
