The F1 safety car rule that nearly "had Red Bull over" in Verstappen's Qatar win

That was more like it. The result the paddock Formula 1 got so used to seeing from mid-2022 to early-2024, returning in this year’s Qatar Grand Prix: Max Verstappen displaying utter brilliance to win for Red Bull.

It was a race of intrigue and controversy – like so many of this season’s contests. Once again at the Losail venue, there was tyre drama. And for McLaren and Lando Norris, as Verstappen’s closest challenger yet again, there were more reminders of the tiny details they still need to nail to prevail in their expected 2025 title challenge, as their first chance to seal this year’s constructors’ title after a dominant sprint race performance ultimately went begging.

In the end, however, Verstappen ended the weekend with career GP victory 63. And the driver who runs that number each week was firmly on his mind at the race start.

Russell’s qualifying complaints rile Verstappen

Verstappen should have been lining up on pole – but for his impeding of George Russell ahead of their final fliers in Q3. The Dutchman was incredulous at the sanction – calling it “like I was talking to a brick wall” with the stewards. He cast particular ire at what he saw as Russell’s effort to “screw someone over that hard” – saying he’d “lost all respect” for his rival.

But Russell, as Verstappen was to do as the GP’s closing stages kicked off a day later, was only playing the blame game so much a part of F1 these days. This also got him away from the non-rubbered-in side of the grid, which Russell reckoned was worth 1.5 car lengths in extra wheelspin.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said “it only added to his enthusiasm to get off the line well”, with Verstappen lining his RB20 up in menacing fashion – pointing at the polesitting Mercedes.

When the lights went out, Russell launched well enough – 0.03 seconds better in fact. But, just as in Mexico, the RB20’s low-grip-start prowess came to the fore again. Verstappen was quickly powering up alongside Russell and braked later on the inside into Turn 1.

Norris couldn't hold on to the lead he briefly held when Verstappen had the inside line at Turn 2

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

But Norris, chasing the racing line cunningly having started third, emerged from the hairpin right-hander with enough momentum to get his MCL38’s nose into the lead as Verstappen and Russell went deep. But, critically, Verstappen still had the inside line for Turn 2 and the Red Bull was thrusting thrillingly back to the lead it’d previously only very briefly possessed.

Norris stayed close enough to force Verstappen off line into Turn 4 but any hopes of further battle – including around the immediate DRS factor from lap two – were dashed when the safety car was called out as Verstappen reached Turn 11.

The problem was all the way back at Turn 1, where Williams had just suffered yet more crash damage this term and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine career seems to have ended. Yet neither were to blame – their cars left with nowhere to go when Nico Hulkenberg dropped his Haas on cool starting hards and spun – whacking Ocon, who in turn hit Franco Colapinto. While this pair were out on the spot, Hulkenberg was able to carry on with just a left-rear puncture.

"On this track what we have seen is high wear but very low degradation. And with a very low degradation, there is no incentive to change the tyres. You try to keep the tyre as long as you can" Mario Isola

The stint one stalemate

This was a boost to Verstappen, as it meant Norris had to navigate a safety car restart with the world champion leading the way – something Verstappen typically handles with aplomb. Indeed, when racing got under way again at the start of tour five of 57, Verstappen had already dropped Norris as they left the preceding Turn 15, with the chasing Russell ending up with such a good run to Turn 1 that Norris had to jink in defence at his compatriot’s late look.

Verstappen then duly pinned it through the opening two sectors – crossing the line with a 0.95s lead after Norris had stolen a few tenths back in the final third. This would play out time and again over the first half – the McLaren’s higher downforce level giving Norris the confidence to push in the high-speed corners at Losail’s end. Verstappen, meanwhile, had to take it easier here and take his time elsewhere.

“Most of the first stint, I felt quite good in the first two sectors,” Verstappen later explained when Autosport asked about this cat-and-mouse chase. “But then in the final sector, Lando already started pushing a bit more from the beginning of the race. And I was managing probably a little bit more. It just evened out around the lap, almost every single lap. It was nice. I enjoyed it – making sure that you don't make any mistakes.”

The gap generally held “between 1.6 and 1.9s, the whole stint”, per Verstappen – with the maximum coming at 2.0s on laps 11 and 23.

After nailing the restart, Verstappen was able to match Norris for pace to keep a steady gap

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Why the medium tyres lasted unexpectedly long

“He managed the race incredibly well,” Horner said of Verstappen’s opening phase. “He looked after his tyres so that he had the longevity on the medium.”

This was becoming ever-more significant, as by lap 24 the leaders were beyond the pre-race prediction for time spent on the mediums before being able to switch to the hards to go to the finish.

The 16-17C cooler track temperatures and rounded kerbs combined for how 2021’s winning two-stopper and 2023’s prescribed three-stopper became just a single service expectation this time around.

The heat and energy saved with the four laps under the safety car at the start helped, but this didn’t explain why the times for the two leaders were still steadily dropping. That’s even as, according to Verstappen, they were pushing “flat out”.

“On this track what we have seen is high wear but very low degradation,” explained Pirelli motorsport boss Mario Isola. “And with a very low degradation, there is no incentive to change the tyres. You try to keep the tyre as long as you can, or you try to find a sweet spot to change the tyre.

“When a tyre is worn, [there is] a part of the tread where you still have some rubber. And the drivers are able to adapt their driving style in order to try to minimise this excessive wear.”

Having run from the mid-1m26s down to the mid-1m24s, Verstappen and Norris had dragged themselves 8.5s clear of Russell by the time the 23rd lap commenced. The Mercedes came in at the end of that tour, but there suffered a slow right-rear change. Russell’s 7.0s wait meant McLaren was in no need to bring in Oscar Piastri, who’d been threatening an undercut.

Now he was unleashed into free air he could get down to the lap times being set up front. But, just as attention turned to whether McLaren might attempt to undercut Verstappen with Norris, the story of the race changed considerably.

A slow pitstop by Mercedes dropped Russell fully out of the fight at the front

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Albon’s mirror going missing punctures the race

As he ran down the main straight at the start of lap 29, Alex Albon’s right-hand side mirror flew off. This would lie just off the racing line for five tours – the biggest gap between the cars a near 20s stretch between Verstappen and Kevin Magnussen in 16th (with the Haas having stopped from earlier running solidly in ninth), insufficient for a marshal to intervene.

Isola reckoned the teams were banking on the mirror’s fate when it came to finally calling their single services.

“Most of the teams were waiting for a safety car when the mirror was in the centre of the straight,” he explained. “They didn't want to lose the opportunity to have a tyre change under a safety car that is giving you an advantage. So then when Valtteri [Bottas] destroyed the mirror, it was clear that the situation was going to be different.”

On the second occasion they followed the safety car through the pitlane, Hamilton didn’t initially activate his pitlane speed limiter and when he braked a few seconds later he caused Norris to slow savagely and flatspot both his new front hards

Bottas’s Sauber sent the smithereens flying when letting Charles Leclerc through to lap him on the 34th tour and seconds later both the following Carlos Sainz had Lewis Hamilton had sustained left-front punctures.

McLaren called Piastri in to stop immediately, worried, per team principal Andrea Stella, about “the integrity of the car and there was also a safety consideration to be made”. But the Australian was soon stifled as the safety car was called with Verstappen and Norris at nearly at the end of the 35th tour. They duly headed to the pits to take hards – the leader having already been called in.

“I think so,” was Isola’s answer on whether the shards of Williams mirror had caused the punctures on the Mercedes and Ferrari. “But we have to check and analyse the tyres as usual.

“The front-left is the tyre with the higher wear. And most of the front lefts used in the first stint have [tyre] construction that is visible. So, when they are completely worn, you have less protection. Even if the debris is very small but it's sharp – like carbon fibre – you puncture the tyre.”

The marshals clear the debris from the main straight under safety car conditions

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur insisted “for sure, tyre wear is not helping, but [this didn’t cause] the puncture, it is the debris”. However, Sainz at least was already reporting a problem when he arrived on the carbon and glass detritus field Bottas and distributed…

How the safety car lights nearly “had over” Red Bull

With Verstappen and Norris now on the hards, they spent the next two laps running behind the safety car with Hamilton in between. 

On the second occasion they followed the safety car through the pitlane, Hamilton didn’t initially activate his pitlane speed limiter and when he braked a few seconds later he caused Norris to slow savagely and flatspot both his new front hards. The incident would later result in Hamilton serving a drivethrough, having also been handed a 5s penalty for fractionally jumping the start.

But he and Bottas behind were able to unlap themselves ahead of the restart, which is where the moment of greatest peril to Verstappen’s ninth GP win of the campaign played out last Sunday.

Having been told by his race engineer GianPiero Lambiase that the safety car was coming in for a lap 40 restart, as he rounded Turn 13 on the previous tour Verstappen noted the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series’s lights were still flashing.

To the drivers, this signifies an ongoing race neutralisation and so Verstappen – who later reckoned the safety car’s lights system had broken, with the lights on the car’s front going off while the rear set remained flashing to the drivers behind – couldn’t drop back as he wanted.

If he had, he risked running afoul of Article 55.14, which allows the race leader to “dictate the pace and, if necessary, fall more than 10 car lengths behind [the safety car]” only once it is clear the safety car is about to come in.

“The rule that nearly had us over today,” Horner said afterwards. “The message came: 'safety car in this lap'. But the light stayed on on the safety car. And you're then supposed to keep a distance to the back of the car. So, he couldn't slow the pack up, because he was unsure what the safety car was going to do.

Verstappen almost lost the lead to Norris at the second restart due to the safety car lights remaining on

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“He was following the instructions from the safety car, basically. And then it came into the pits, which obviously then compromised him, but he was still fortunate to stay ahead of Lando down at Turn 1.”

Indeed, although he’d dropped back from the safety car somewhat when Lambiase gave enough assurance over what was going on – the pitlane car entry warning alarm sounding in the background of his messages as a big a clue to his charge as any other – Verstappen still wasn’t enjoying his normal restart process.

The delay in backing the pack up meant he chose to do “something different out of the last corner”. This was booting it back up to speed there. But, with the hard needing a longer warm-up phase, Verstappen found he had “no rear grip”.

The delay in backing the pack up meant he chose to do “something different out of the last corner”. This was booting it back up to speed there. But, with the hard needing a longer warm-up phase, Verstappen found he had “no rear grip”

Norris was therefore able to blast down to Turn 1 and, when Verstappen covered the inside, got his nose ahead at the apex. But, although Verstappen defended fiercely, he critically allowed Norris enough space and so what the Dutchman called getting “a bit spicy” didn’t ignite in fresh driving standards controversy.

Norris’s penalty ruins the race, but is the right call

Before Verstappen could re-establish his previous lead, the safety car was back in action for a third time.

First, the virtual variety had come on, with Sergio Perez having spun his way out of the fifth Sainz had enjoyed pre-puncture before restart two. Perez then burned his clutch out and ended up stranded between Turns 14 and 15. Then, Hulkenberg spun again with cool tyres – this time going around at Turn 9 and getting beached in the gravel.

Before Verstappen aced restart three by dropping Norris again out of Turn 15 – this time with masses of wheelspin for the chaser – and lap 43 kicking off, the McLaren’s race was already under threat.

Norris's pursuit of Verstappen was curtailed by a 10s stop/go penalty

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Back when they’d first came across Albon’s mirror, Verstappen and Norris had passed double waved yellow flags – with a marker board further back activating just as the latter flashed by it. Verstappen had lifted and lost 0.5s, but Norris – with DRS having lapped Bottas – had not.

Verstappen was fast on the blower to report his rival – Russell’s complaints seemingly forgotten in what is a tedious game to many but obviously necessary to the competitors in the modern age.

“We have the GPS data live, so we can see the speed compare,” Horner said of how Red Bull reported Norris’s infraction. “He was still absolutely flat-out. And there was a double waved yellow there.

“I think with Max having spent a little bit of intimate time with the stewards on Saturday, he was very keen that it was looked at thoroughly. And he kept reminding us, ‘Had it been looked at?’ And, of course, that then gets passed by the sporting director to the race director.”

On lap 44 came the inevitable penalty. The severity of a 10s stop/go sanction came as a surprise to many but is consistent with other incidents in recent years – such as Nikita Mazepin and Nicholas Latifi not lifting in the aftermath of Kimi Raikkonen taking out Sebastian Vettel at the 2021 Austrian GP’s close.

Stella questioned the “proportionality and specificity” of the penalty, but Norris disagreed. “I f***** it up – I don't know what I did wrong,” Norris said. “If I did what [the stewards] said I did wrong, then good on them for giving the correct penalty.”

Could Norris have won without his penalty?

Norris stayed out until the end of lap 45 before serving his sanction, by which point Verstappen was leading by just 0.7s as Norris harried him into the mid-1m23s for the first time.

From there, Verstappen was left to run easily clear of Leclerc. The Ferrari had fought by Piastri at the start, been overtaken by the Australian into Turn 1 at restart one, been dropped before coming back strongly at the second McLaren and ultimately been the biggest gainer of the leaders with a stop during the second safety car.

Norris fully accepted his 10s stop/go penalty even if McLaren boss Stella felt it was too heavy

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Leclerc then held off Piastri to secure second and take a potentially important bite out of McLaren’s constructors’ lead for his Ferrari squad. Verstappen was 6.0s ahead at the flag. It was, he said, a stunning turnaround from “fighting Haas in the sprint to fighting for the win in the main race”.

Red Bull had fitted Perez’s car with a more steeply angled front wing during the sprint to try and solve its awful balance issue from its simulation and wind tunnel tools not providing the best initial set-up. But it didn’t do likewise for Verstappen’s downforce package into GP qualifying. Instead, adjusting the RB20’s ride height and damper settings to provide a more compliant ride around the massive amount of kerb riding required here did the trick.

But it might not have been enough to win, with Norris insisting afterwards he possessed “easily the quickest [car] out there”. The leaders were also running the harder compound to the end – something the Red Bull has struggled with at times this season.

Adjusting the RB20’s ride height and damper settings to provide a more compliant ride around the massive amount of kerb riding required here did the trick

The McLaren can also “extract some additional performance out of the car” as race end’s approach – as Stella put it. Its rivals are still mystified as to why. This was on display as Norris roared back from exiting the pitlane after his penalty in 15th and last to finish 10th – doubling his points tally with the fastest lap from that run.

His average, once you remove the three laps where he caught then passed Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Albon, comes in 0.42s quicker than Verstappen each time over the same distance – 1m22.880s playing 1m23.300s.

But, with Norris gone, Verstappen said he “drove it to the end with good pace”. The obvious caveat being that he’d no need to push and so it can never be known of Norris’s hard tyre charge would’ve yielded the win. Stella concluded it was “difficult to say, not necessarily [that we] would have won the race”.

The reigning world champion was full value for his 63rd grand prix victory

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images