00:00Lights out, away we go. Lando Norris might have got the better reaction, but Max Verstappen is coming right at him.
00:06Could it be wheel spin again for Norris? Into turn one, Piastri leads, Verstappen is now in second.
00:11Then comes Lando Norris, and then comes George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
00:16Piastri with a brilliant start in his McLaren. He's done what he did last night, he's streaking away.
00:22Here's the race start then for the second Grand Prix running.
00:25Max Verstappen gaining a place on Lando Norris at the start.
00:29This is how he did it.
00:31And there you go, that is all about that aborted lap for Lando Norris last night.
00:37Taking away his chance to get pole position.
00:39Puts him on the slightly less grippy side of the track.
00:43A little bit of wheel spin, and Verstappen just took that gift very comfortably.
00:49I thought he got the better reaction time, but yeah, definite wheel spin allowed Max to pull alongside.
00:55They're both clear of the two Mercedes behind.
00:58Now Kimi Antonelli ahead of his teammate George Russell, who, as we said, dropped places at the start and is down to seventh in this race.
01:06I think George had a big slide, big swapper going on in turn two.
01:10And this is Lewis Hamilton gaining places at the start.
01:13He's running down in 14th currently.
01:16He started down in 17th place, and he's got cars all around him, and very nearly.
01:25Well, he's forced off the track there.
01:27That's how he lost a place to Lawson.
01:29Very nearly banging wheels.
01:31And Nico Hülkenberg, we said, had got past Charles Leclerc.
01:33And this is how he did it into turn one.
01:37That's where most of the moves happened here.
01:40Oh, dear.
01:40And off the track as well.
01:41Kind of sums up Ferrari's weekend, that little corner there.
01:44On board with Pierre Gasly.
01:47Off the track.
01:47Oh, nearly clobbered the brake marker board.
01:50Straight back on it again.
01:51And there's a car to his right-hand side, which I assume was Nico Hülkenberg.
01:55Yes, it would have been.
01:56Is that rejoining unsafely?
01:59No.
01:59Oh, Bernie, I'm just going to interrupt you there, because this could be critical.
02:04We're on lap seven of 57, and Nico Hülkenberg has gone off, and he is stranded just by turn two.
02:11Oh, and are we quite into the zone where they will want to pit?
02:16So there's obviously been some contact as well.
02:18With Gasly, who is already suffering 10 points, a downforce loss, and has got a puncture there.
02:23We are definitely in a situation whereby if drivers want to come in and take a pit stop behind the safety car, they can do so.
02:33Verstappen's in.
02:33Verstappen comes in.
02:35Red Bull taking the gamble.
02:36Piastri stays out.
02:37I think Norris is staying out.
02:38If I was a soft tyre runner at Lewis Hamilton, I'd be coming in to get rid of those soft tyres.
02:44But, Ted, is anyone coming in apart from Verstappen?
02:47I'm fully expecting, yes, a Mercedes is coming in.
02:49I'm fully expecting Lewis Hamilton to come in as well.
02:53So this, when they catch the safety car, and this is the incident that finished off Nico Hülkenberg.
02:58Just a little bit of a touch.
03:01So two cars getting heavily damaged there.
03:04A bit of racing incident, really, isn't it?
03:06Yeah.
03:07A bit of understeer in the middle of the corner.
03:09Reminds me a bit of Lawson Science, doesn't it, for example?
03:12And Hülkenberg just sweeping across the front, 6-1, half a dozen of another.
03:19Let's have a look at this.
03:20The cars are so wide.
03:22So Nico picks up the throttle, but he wasn't quite far enough past.
03:31Oh, I can't believe this.
03:33Unbelievable.
03:35I gave him loads of space.
03:37He did, he did.
03:38Let's have a look from the off-board again.
03:40It seemed like enough.
03:42But the corner just tightens a little bit on exit, isn't it?
03:45Yeah.
03:47We should have just followed him in now, if he knew the car ahead was staying out.
03:52They have lost all their flexibility for the remainder of the race.
03:56So, Lando, the goal here now is really good pace to lap 25.
03:59Basically, everyone else will be stopping on lap 32.
04:03We know that now.
04:04We're going to look at Alex Albon, who's been shown a black and white flag.
04:08And this is why Turn 10, the least favourite corner for drivers on this track.
04:13So easy to go wide.
04:14It opens up and takes a few degrees out of the tightness of the corner.
04:17The crew are going to need all of that for Lando Norris and for Oscar Piastri,
04:22who stops now and they get to work, holding on to the car to make sure everything is tight
04:27and ready to go and blasting off.
04:30And with David Beckham getting a great shot from the McLaren garage goes Oscar Piastri.
04:35But that was a three-second stop.
04:36That was slow.
04:37Stop on your marks, Lando.
04:38Which he looks like he's done.
04:40Oh, sweet.
04:41Sweet pit stop.
04:422.2 seconds for Lando Norris.
04:45So where does he now feed out into this race?
04:48Sainz goes past and Antonelli goes past.
04:52And we're looking here for Oscar Piastri there.
04:55He is in the papaya.
04:56He swoops past.
04:57But the key one here is Fernando Alonso.
04:59And Alonso is gaining on Lando Norris here.
05:02Norris comes out onto the track.
05:03And it's a good job.
05:04It was a two-second pit stop because he came out just a couple of car lengths ahead of his old teammate.
05:10He will want to clear Antonelli as fast as he can.
05:13But he's got to be a bit cautious.
05:14He wants to stay on the road.
05:15But look how he's gaining.
05:16And there was absolutely no need for caution whatsoever.
05:20By the time he slammed on the brakes, Antonelli had to back out of that one.
05:24And Piastri up into third towards turn 16.
05:27As you can see, Lando Norris chasing hard behind Kimi Antonelli.
05:32Verstappen puts on the hard compound tyre.
05:35Two and a half seconds it was stationary.
05:37Into the pits comes the Williams of Carlos Sainz, the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli.
05:44Piastri then leads.
05:45Norris then is ahead of Max Verstappen, who has now pitted twice in this race.
05:52This is a bit of a race where we need to be quicker than Max.
05:54Kind of like a reminder on turn 7 throttle shape.
05:57You've gone back to what you were doing before.
05:59I'm trying.
06:00I just...
06:01I need my help then because I can't do it.
06:03Trying to work out who won or lost.
06:05Oli Behrman might have lost.
06:07Because he was 10th and he was in the points.
06:09And that's what he...
06:10His front suspension's off the ground.
06:12Well, he's run over something there.
06:13That was on the ground.
06:16And that is why Oli Behrman has lost a stack of time in this race.
06:20And why he is being investigated for an unsafe release.
06:25It's unfair of the driver because he just goes on the green.
06:27I think he had the rear jack still.
06:29He's whacking the steering wheel.
06:31He's so angry with that.
06:32I think the only way of winning a three is if we try and box now and chase him out.
06:38I will go a lot faster.
06:40Let's do it.
06:41Box.
06:41Box.
06:42And McLaren are coming out.
06:44That debate that's been going on between Tom Stallard and Oscar Piastri has now ended with Oscar Piastri, your race leader, coming in for his second stop.
06:54And there's a set of fresh tyres waiting for him.
06:58And there are a set of shiny, brand new, hard compound tyres.
07:01OK, Max.
07:03This race is Oscar who's bitted early.
07:07And he is looking to chase you down now.
07:09And it was a 1.8 second stop then for Piastri.
07:12What can they do for Lando Norris?
07:15Stops on his marks.
07:17On go the tyres.
07:18That looked a little bit slower than 1.8 seconds.
07:20It was 2.7 seconds.
07:22So Piastri now down the pit lane.
07:25He's ahead of his teammate.
07:26But where are Sainte and Antonelli?
07:28Here they come, Martin.
07:29There's the blue of the Williams.
07:31And the Williams is ahead of Lando Norris.
07:33And the Mercedes is also ahead of Lando Norris, as we thought might be the case.
07:38A title winning, potentially, chase for Oscar Piastri.
07:42Fernando Alonso goes for a major spin.
07:46And somehow didn't collect any of the cars following on behind him.
07:51Let's have another little look at what's going out on track.
07:53This is George Russell and Isaac Hajar.
07:57Russell going off into the gravel as he tries to get past the racing bulls.
08:01I think Norris will struggle to pass Sainte and Antonelli with the pace we're doing.
08:05...attention of what is happening.
08:07So Lando Norris out on track.
08:08We can see here at turn 7.
08:13Oh, that just did not want a grip, did it?
08:17Staffan last lap, 23.8.
08:19We would need to be more than a second faster than him.
08:22Well, nice.
08:25Pushing pretty hard, Oscar.
08:26Let's see what he does.
08:27Just use your pace now.
08:28Best pace to the end.
08:30Oh, there is a racing bulls with a puncture.
08:32That is Isaac Hajar with two laps to go.
08:36Isaac Hajar, who was running in the top six in this race,
08:41has got a puncture and is limping his way home.
08:44To be fair, Antonelli has gone wide and Lando Norris moves up into fourth place.
08:50So Antonelli gifting an opportunity there for Lando Norris as we start the final lap with our race leader.
08:57And that's two very precious points there for Lando Norris.
09:01Not sure what happened to Antonelli, Max.
09:02Looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through.
09:05Well, we didn't see it all.
09:08Maybe a bit churlish.
09:09Save that for the debrief.
09:11Max Verstappen, it's a hat-trick of victories.
09:14Here in the Qatar Grand Prix, the Verstappen championship charge shows no sign of relenting.
09:22Oscar Piastri had to meet his teammate and he has done so.
09:26Comes home to take second place.
09:28Who's going to get the final podium position here?
09:31This, the fourth anniversary this weekend of the passing of Sir Frank Williams.
09:36He will have loved this performance from Carlos Sainz.
09:39Sainz comes home to take another podium.
09:42Third for him, Verstappen.
09:44He is still charging off.
09:46Regardless of that, we will fight to the end, mate.
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