Qatar Grand Prix

Horner blames Verstappen grid penalty on ‘rogue marshal’

Kevin Peterson05 mins

Red Bull has blamed a “rogue marshal” for Max Verstappen receiving a five-place grid penalty for Formula 1’s inaugural Qatar Grand Prix and has demanded that the FIA has “better control of their marshals”. Verstappen improved on his final qualifying lap to qualify second but passed double-waved yellow flags that were out for Pierre Gasly’s stricken AlphaTauri. The stewards met four hours before the start of the grand prix on Sunday to discuss the incident with Verstappen and his team. Although Red Bull argued that there was no trackside light panel or yellow flag on his dashboard display, the stewards noted that Verstappen ignored the physical double-waved yellow flags that require the drivers to react. Therefore the stewards said they had no choice but to award the usual five-place drop for ignoring double-waved yellows, moving Verstappen down to seventh on the grid. The decision was finally announced 90 minutes before the start of the race and led to immediate fury from Red Bull Christian Horner when he spoke to SkySports F1 about the penalty. “I’m struggling to understand it,” Horner said. “The race director [Michael Masi] effectively said ‘play on, it’s safe, it’s clear’. “Max was at the beginning of the lap, in the first sector, so he has so much time to look at it. Otherwise, we’d have informed him. Unfortunately, there’s a yellow flag, he just didn’t see it, he even saw a green light on the right-hand side [in the pitlane]. “I think it’s just a rogue marshal that’s stuck a flag out, he’s not been instructed to by the FIA, they’ve got to have control of their marshals, it’s as simple as that, because that’s a crucial blow in this world championship for us. “Now he’s starting P7 at a track you can’t overtake at. That is massive.” Horner admitted that there’s “no point” in appealing the decision with such little time before the start of the grand prix, and expressed his frustration that Sainz was not penalised for failing to slow for yellow flags like Verstappen and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas was. “What I really don’t understand is Carlos Sainz has done exactly the same thing,” Horner explained. “He hasn’t seen it, driven straight past, gone past with his DRS open, fully planted, he’s lifted about 10 meters before the line and that’s OK.” The stewards report indicated that Sainz hadn’t seen the yellow flag as Horner stated, but he did “make a significant reduction in his speed in the relevant mini-sector” when he saw Gasly’s stricken car. Horner said there “needs to be some grown decisions made by grown-ups” and fumed that the “race director should have control of the circuit”.

Confirmed starting grid for Qatar GP after penalties

Kevin Peterson02 mins

The top order of the Qatar Grand Prix starting grid has been shaken up in the wake of penalties for Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas. Lewis Hamilton will start the inaugural race at the Losail International Circuit from pole position, his first in nine races and the 102nd of his F1 career. But he will be joined on the front row by AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly whose puncture in the final moments of qualifying sparked investigations into Verstappen and Bottas. Red Bull driver and championship leader Verstappen drops five places from second to seventh after being found guilty of ignoring double-waved yellow flags as Gasly’s stricken car crawled slowly onto the main straight. Bottas has been handed a three-place penalty for not seeing single-yellow flags and drops to sixth from third. As Bottas completed his timed lap first, his penalty was also applied before Verstappen’s. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has avoided a penalty for an alleged single yellow-flag breach and will start fifth.

Bottas gets a three-place grid penalty for yellow flags breach in Qatar

Kevin Peterson03 mins

The Qatar stewards have announced that Valtteri Bottas will drop 3 places on the grid for today’s Qatar Grand Prix. Of the three drivers summoned by the stewards post-qualifying, the Finn was the last to be seen, however his was the first ‘verdict’ to be announced. Having reviewed video, telemetry and the marshalling system evidence, the stewards head that Bottas admitted he did not notice the yellow flag displayed at Flag Point 16.6 and conceded that he did not reduce speed as required in the yellow flag area despite noting that Pierre Gasly was stationary on the pit straight. Deeming the failure to respect the single yellow flag a breach of Appendix H, Art. 2.5.5.b) of the FIA International Sporting Code and noncompliance with Race Director’s Event Notes 7.2, the stewards deem that Bottas drops of 3 grid positions and is handed 1 penalty point, bringing his 12 month total to 5. Bottas was shown a single waved yellow flag as he approached the start/finish line at the end of his final flying lap in Q3, due to Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri which was stopped beside the pit wall. The stewards said the Mercedes driver “admitted he did not notice the yellow flag displayed at flag point 16.6 and conceded that he did not reduce speed as required in the yellow flag area despite noting that car 10 [Gasly] was stationary on the pit straight,” the stewards noted. The penalties for Verstappen and Bottas will promote Gasly, who originally qualified fourth, to the front row of the grid for today’s race.

Max Verstappen handed a five-place grid penalty for yellow-flags breach in Qatar

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen’s title hopes have been dealt a blow after the Dutchman was hit with a five-place grid penalty before the Qatar Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver was set to start second on the grid alongside rival Lewis Hamilton, who secured pole position as Mercedes took charge in Doha. Now Hamilton has been gifted a chance to close the 14-point gap on Verstappen in the title race with the Dutchman now starting seventh at the Losail International Circuit. Verstappen drops back as a result of an incident at the end of qualifying, where a puncture for the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly caused confusion on track and he did not slow down sufficiently under double-waved yellow flags. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admits the decision is “massive” in the fight for the championship this season. “We are struggling to understand it. There was a yellow flag, he [Verstappen] just didn’t see it,” he told Sky Sports F1. “It’s a rogue marshall that stuck out a flag out. He wasn’t told to do so. This is a crucial blow in the world championship. It is massive.” Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas — who qualified third — was hit with a similar punishment, only taking a three-place penalty as he failed to slow under single-waved yellows. Gasly now starts second with Fernando Alonso in the Alpine third on the grid. The British driver admitted that he was delighted with his final lap on Saturday that secured pole in the inaugural race in Qatar. “I was off [the pace] yesterday so really had to dig deep. I was here ’til midnight working late,” he said. “We found a lot of areas I could improve, made some changes for final practice and it seemed to work. “You have to try to carry that through into qualifying. We didn’t have any traffic and that last lap was beautiful. This track is amazing to drive — all medium and fast corners.”

Bottas and Sainz also summoned by stewards after Qatar qualifying

Kevin Peterson04 mins

Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz have also been summoned to the stewards after qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix over alleged yellow flag infringements. This comes after Verstappen was summoned for the same issue. Verstappen qualified P2 in today’s session with a lap time of 1:21.282. However, it appears that the Dutchman kept driving through the final sector of the circuit whilst double-waved yellow flags were shown. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly qualified fourth today, but he ended up with a puncture in his front right tyre after going over some curbs whilst going through the penultimate corner. Verstappen improved on his first lap of Q3 by a tenth of a second, which has raised suspicion as to whether or not he eased off the throttle. As a result, Verstappen has been summoned to the stewards for a potential infringement, but he will not be going to see them until 13:00 local time tomorrow on race day. Valtteri Bottas, who took third on your grid, is also under investigation. This was for an incident involving singled waved yellow flags. Carlos Sainz, who took seventh, is under investigation for the same thing. After Verstappen at 13:00 local time, Bottas will meet with the stewards tomorrow at 13:30, and Sainz will follow at 13:45. Speaking about this situation, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel believes that the yellow flag was cancelled at the end of the third qualifying session “because Max was coming”. Vettel was also affected by the flags but is “pretty happy” as he managed to out-qualify Perez, Leclerc, and Ricciardo. He has said that: “I had the yellow flag in the last sector and then the yellow flag cleared, I guess, because Max was coming.” Double yellow flags mean that drivers should ‘abort the lap’ as a car is on the track, which Vettel did but he believes he could have been “the only one”. The flags were there for everyone’s safety and it was clearly shown that debris came off of Gasly’s car when the puncture was obtained. No more has been said at this time as to the outcome of this alleged infringement, so Verstappen and fans will have to wait to find out if a grid penalty will be given to the driver for Qatar Grand Prix race.

Qatar GP: Verstappen under investigation for ignoring yellow flags

Kevin Peterson04 mins

Max Verstappen has been summoned to the stewards ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon after potentially going through double yellow flags on his final flying lap and not aborting his lap. After Pierre Gasly had run across the kerbs at turn fifteen and damaged his car, the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver continued onto the start and finish straight, only to stop his car on the run to the finish line. Red Bull Racing’s Verstappen continued to attack up until the chequered flag and improved his time, even though it was still 0.455 seconds back on the best time of the session set by Lewis Hamilton. It is unclear to whether the incident triggered a yellow sector with race control. Had it done so, Verstappen’s steering wheel would have illuminated, and he would have been forced to abandon his lap. What is clear was that the double yellow flags were being waved on track. Should he be found guilty, Verstappen faces a grid drop penalty for Formula 1’s first-ever race at the Losail International Circuit, which would give Hamilton an extra advantage at the front of the field. Toto Wolff, the Team Principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, says he will let the stewards make the decision rather than protesting themselves, although he believes the Dutchman is guilty of not slowing under the yellow flags. “I’ve just seen it. I’ve seen that he is passing a flashing light, I think a flashing red or flashing yellow light on the left,” Wolff is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “Then he’s passing the double waved yellows and there is a standing car on the road. I guess it’s a bit of a triple whammy. “They’ve gone after us with a yellow flag, passing a yellow flag on the outside. It’s in the stewards’ hands. I wouldn’t want to comment much more of what should happen or not happen. I think the stewards are looking at it and they need to come up with a verdict.” Verstappen said he had no idea that there were any yellow flags coming through the final sector and does not believe he did anything wrong, something also said by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas. “I heard after the session he had damaged his front wing, but from my side it was all okay,” said the Dutchman. “Same thing I heard only afterwards, and I had no yellow flags or anything,” added Bottas.

Qatar GP: Hamilton takes pole position despite stomach ache- Qualifying results

Kevin Peterson09 mins

Lewis Hamilton was celebrating pole position for the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix after showing a clean pair of heels to Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas in Saturday’s twilight qualifying session at Losail International Circuit. Mercedes approached the qualifying session with great confidence after its car has enjoyed a significant pace advantage over the weekend at the new F1 venue in Qatar. Defending champion Lewis Hamilton managed to capitalize on that, taking pole position for the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix, with title rival Max Verstappen lining up alongside him in second. It was especially sweet for the reigning world champion after he admitted struggling to find the right set-up on Friday when he reported that “I’m definitely not close”, when he was also suffering from a stomach upset. “Yesterday was a really difficult day for me, actually,” Hamilton told former F1 driver David Coulthard in parc ferme after the end of the floodlit session. “Thursday and Friday I wasn’t feeling too well, so I really struggled throughout practice,” he revealed. “I had a bit of a stomach ache from Wednesday. “I was just off yesterday, so I really had to dig deep. But I felt fantastic today,” he continued. “I slept well last night so that makes a big difference. “This track is amazing to drive – incredibly fast on medium and high-speed corners – but it felt good.” Despite feeling under the weather last night, Hamilton said he had stayed late in the paddock to work on the set-up problems with the Mercedes. “I was here until midnight last night, working with the engineers, who also always work so late,” he said. “They’re such hard workers. The first qualifying segment saw the Haas drivers head out first on to the challenging, flowing Losail International Circuit. Kimi Räikkönen was the first driver to fail to get through into the second qualifying session. The Finn set a time of 1m23.159s, just beating Williams driver Nicholas Latifi and his team mate Antonio Giovinazzi. The two Haas driver finished 19th and 20th with Mick Schumacher coming out on top of the intra-team duel. The German beat his team mate by over two seconds, but the staggering difference was mainly down to the lack of running for Nikita Mazepin. The Russian was forced to sit out yesterday’s Free Practice 2 when his team needed to his chassis following substantial floor damage. The 22-year-old driver was unable to gain experience on the Losail circuit after suffering an issue on his power controller in FP3 on his installation lap. The second session saw an extremely close battle between the teams with only tiny margins separating the drivers. The big shock came when Red Bull driver Sergio Perez was dumped out of qualifying. The Mexican was unable to set a strong lap time on the medium compound which forced him to switch to the soft boots. However, even the red-walled tyres were not enough for the Guadalajara-born driver to progress into the final qualifying segment. The other big loser of Q2 was Charles Leclerc, who did not find harmony with his car in the qualifying session. The Monegasque complained about the pure pace of his car on several occasions during the qualifying session, and ended up only 13th fastest. The other drivers not to get themselves through into Q3 were Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell. In the last qualifying session, Hamilton used the superior pace of his W12 to take the pole position for the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix. The Briton delivered a strong first push lap, but his second one was a sensational effort which saw him beat his championship rival Verstappen with a margin of 0.455s.Valtteri Bottas seemed to under-perform, and was not able to squeeze everything out of his car, ending the session behind Verstappen. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly took fourth for the fourth time this year. Fernando Alonso put his Alpine on to the third row with a clinical lap which earned him a fifth starting position. Behind the Spaniard, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel will line up on the grid for tomorrow’s Qatar Grand Prix race. 2021 F1 QATAR GRAND PRIX – QUALIFYING RESULTS POS. DRIVER NAT. TEAM Q1 Q2 Q3 1 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m21.901s 1m21.682s 1m20.827s 2 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 1m21.996s 1m21.984s 1m21.282s 3 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m22.016s 1m21.991s 1m21.478s 4 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m22.535s 1m21.728s 1m21.640s 5 Fernando Alonso ESP Alpine F1 Team 1m22.422s 1m21.894s 1m21.670s 6 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team 1m22.839s 1m22.216s 1m21.731s 7 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m22.304s 1m22.241s 1m21.840s 8 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m22.458s 1m22.058s 1m21.881s 9 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team 1m22.565s 1m22.012s 1m22.028s 10 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m22.548s 1m22.146s 1m22.785s 11 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing 1m22.398s 1m22.346s   12 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m22.551s 1m22.460s   13 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m22.742s 1m22.463s   14 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team 1m22.688s 1m22.597s   15 George Russell GBR Williams Racing 1m22.863s 1m22.756s   16 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m23.156s     17 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing 1m23.213s     18 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m23.262s     19 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m23.407s     20 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m25.859s    

Valtteri Bottas tops Qatar GP FP2 as Red Bull experience rear wing issues

Kevin Peterson07 mins

Rear wing talk continues to dominate discussion at the Qatar Grand Prix weekend, with Red Bull suffering from oscillation issues in second practice. While Mercedes replaced Red Bull at the top of timesheet with Valtteri Bottas quickest of anyone in FP2 – setting a 1:23.148, two tenths clear of Pierre Gasly who was a surprise P2 – the main focus was once again on wings as Red Bull’s upper flap on the rear was blighted by severe oscillation. The Red Bull mechanics spent time addressing the issue on both cars throughout the second session, Verstappen finishing the day in P3 three tenths off the pace set by Bottas. Title rival Lewis Hamilton, in P4, was four tenths slower than his team-mate. As darkness descended on the Losail International Circuit and temperatures cooled, the FP2 session offered the drivers and teams much more representative conditions of what they can expect once the lights go out on Sunday. Just 19 drivers would be able to get the vital track experience they needed as Haas’ Nikita Mazepin sat out the session because of an unscheduled chassis change. Visbility was proving to be a slight issue for some drivers as their eyes adjusted to the dazzling floodlights beaming down on the dark tarmac. Sergio Perez needed to come back into the garage to replace the visor on his helmet. After the opening stints, it was Mercedes who were top of the pile as Bottas held a two-tenth gap over team-mate Hamilton. The latter almost got in Bottas’ way in the early stages but, thankfully for them, they managed to avoid an embarrassing collision between them. Bottas then returned to the track and pumped in a 1:23.154, but that lap was deleted for clearly exceeding track limits at Turn 7. At Red Bull, their focus was on rear wings, but their own on this occasion, as there was an issue with the DRS on Verstappen’s car which was soon fixed…or so we thought. Back on track, Verstappen’s team-mate Perez was starting a flying lap, but soon backed out due to traffic problems in sector two. Verstappen found a quieter moment to throw down his first qualifying sim run, yet found himself two tenths down in the first sector. That gap extended to four tenths by the time he crossed the line, but there was a suspicion that his car was carrying a slightly heavier fuel load compared to others. There was also a firm eye staying fixed on Red Bull’s rear wing, which was still misbehaving with the upper flap oscillating when the DRS was open. The problem kept Perez in the garage for much longer than he would have liked. Meanwhile, Verstappen’s former team-mate Pierre Gasly found himself sandwiched in between the two Mercedes drivers after an eye-catching lap on the softs. Verstappen re-emerged for another crack at dislodging Bottas, but again was no match for the Mercedes through the first sector. He did find improvement, but only by a tenth. Work to do, it appears, for Red Bull ahead of qualifying day on Saturday. 2021 F1 QATAR GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (2) POS DRIVER NAT. TEAM TIME 1 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m23.148s 2 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m23.357s 3 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 1m23.498s 4 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m23.570s 5 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team 1m23.632s 6 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m23.705s 7 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m23.735s 8 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing 1m23.787s 9 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m24.020s 10 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m24.033s 11 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team 1m24.041s 12 Fernando Alonso CHI Alpine F1 Team 1m24.056s 13 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m24.095s 14 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team 1m24.135s 15 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m24.631s 16 George Russell ISR Williams Racing 1m24.954s 17 Antonio Giovinazzi GBR Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m25.072s 18 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing 1m25.290s 19 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m25.575s 20 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team No Time Set

Qatar Grand Prix: Verstappen sets the pace in FP1 as Hamilton experiences power issues(Results)

Kevin Peterson05 mins

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has topped the times in a sedate first practice session at the Losail International Circuit with the Qatari venue playing host to its first Grand Prix this weekend. With an air temperature around 28 degrees celsius and a track temperature of 38 degrees, the drivers spent the first half of the session learning the track and playing with lines as they put in the laps on the Medium and Hard compound tyres and clear away the dust from the track surface. It was with around twenty minutes to go that the pace of the session started to ramp up as the drivers swapped to the Soft tyre compound. Valtteri Bottas went quickest with a 1:24.194 to go quickest, with Verstappen then beating that time with ease as he set a 1:23.723 to go almost half a second clear. With the Red Bull driver quickest in the first and third sectors, Bottas set the faster time in the middle sector. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly slotted in behind Verstappen with three minutes left in the session, setting a time almost half a second slower than Verstappen and 0.034 quicker than what Bottas had managed. Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth place, almost 0.8 seconds away from the pace set by Verstappen. However, the Mercedes driver had been on a much quicker lap with about 15 minutes remaining in the session, including the fastest middle sector, but aborted the lap in the final sector after getting a snap of oversteer. Hamilton could be heard on the team radio querying his straight-line speed as he felt his engine was down on power, and also withdrew to the pits in the closing minutes as his team told him he had a car issue. While Mercedes tried to hide the car back in the garage by having personnel stand in front of it, TV footage suggested that Hamilton had an issue with his front wing. With the issue repaired, he returned to the track with two minutes remaining. 2021 F1 QATAR GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (1) POS DRIVER NAT. TEAM TIME 1 Max verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 1m23.723s 2 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m24.160s 3 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m24.194s 4 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m24.509s. 5 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m24.648s 6 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m24.713s 7 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m24.790s 8 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing 1m24.915s 9 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team 1m24.972s 10 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team 1m25.215s 11 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team 1m25.291s 12 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m25.328s 13 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing 1m25.688s 14 Antonio Giovinazzi GBR Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m25.757s 15 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m25.828s 16 George Russell ISR Williams Racing 1m25.871s 17 Fernando Alonso CHI Alpine F1 Team 1m25.905s 18 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m26.699s 19 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m26.712s 20 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m27.500s

Qatar Grand Prix: F1 to monitor track limits on 5 turns

Kevin Peterson02 mins

Drivers have been warned that track limits will be enforced at 5 of the Losail International Circuit’s 16 corners during this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix. Before a wheel has even turned, drivers have been warned that a lap time achieved during any practice session or the race by leaving the track on the exit of Turns 4, 12, 13, 14 and 16 will result in that lap time being invalidated by the stewards. Each time any car fails to negotiate any of the exits by using the track, their team will be informed via the official messaging system. On the third occasion of a driver failing to negotiate any of the turns by using the track during the race, he will be shown a black and white flag, and any further cutting will then be reported to the stewards. For the avoidance of doubt this means a total of three occasions combined not three at each corner. Given the track will only have one DRS zone – on the main straight – overtaking is likely to be very difficult. Consequently the likeliest opportunity will be into Turn 1, particularly with DRS assistance. However, according to Mercedes, turns 6, 10 and 16 might offer chances to sneak down the inside if a mistake is made.

Press conference line-up for Qatar Grand Prix

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Formula 1 heads off to Qatar this weekend, with the country’s inaugural Grand Prix taking place at a staple of the MotoGP calendar, the Losail International Circuit. F1 has released the press conference schedule for the Qatar Grand Prix which will happen on Thursday and as usual there are interesting driver pair-ups which will be interesting to watch. Lewis Hamilton will be pairing with George Russell and we will be expecting a lot of questions for the duo as Russell will be joining Hamilton at Mercedes for 2022 F1 season. Also, expect Hamilton to talk on his tight battle for 2021 drivers’ championship with Max Verstappen. Another interesting duo to watch will be Antonio Giovinazzi and Max Verstappen. Earlier in the week Alfa Romeo announced they will be letting Giovinazzi go, replacing him with chinese driver Guanyu Zhou. For Verstappen, expect to get a lot of insight on the 2021 drivers’ championship battle with Lewis Hamilton as the fight is down to only 3 races. SCHEDULE OF VIRTUAL PRESS CONFERENCES QATAR GRAND PRIX 2021 THURSDAY, 18 NOVEMBER, 1430 HOURS LOCAL TIME Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) Fernando Alonso (Alpine)Nicholas Latifi (Williams) Esteban Ocon (Alpine)Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)Mick Schumacher (Haas) Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)Lando Norris (McLaren) Nikita Mazepin (Haas)Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)Max Verstappen (Red Bull) Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa Romeo)Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)George Russell (Williams) FRIDAY, 19 NOVEMBER, 1500 HOURS LOCAL TIME Toto Wolff (Mercedes)Christian Horner (Red Bull) Frederic Vasseur (Alfa Romeo)Franz Tost (AlphaTauri) SATURDAY, 20 NOVEMBER, POST-QUALIFYING First three finishing drivers