Lewis Hamilton had a comfortable victory in the Qatar Grand Prix to close the gap with Max Verstappen in the battle for the world championship.
Verstappen fought his way to second after a five-place penalty and took points for fastest lap.
The win reduces the deficit for Verstappen to eight points with two races to go in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi next month.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso took a brilliant third place, his first time on the podium since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Alonso tried to stop a late foul from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, but a late arrival of a virtual safety car left the place out of question.
Before that, Perez was poised to vie for third place with Valtteri Bottas’ second Mercedes until the Finn was punctured just half way through.
And three more punctures created extra tension in the closing rounds.
How did Hamilton win?
After another weekend of contention and heat between the two title contenders, it was one of Hamilton’s easiest wins of the season, and the seven-time champion seemed to have the pace to win no matter what Verstappen had. fined or not.
The Dutchman was found to have failed to see a waving yellow flag at the end of qualifying, and despite Red Bull begging the mitigating factors – that the lights warning system in the cockpit and rails had turned off – officials said they had no choice but to punish him.
The penalty sent Verstappen down to sixth in the net, but he finished fourth at the end of the first round and second after five.
By that point, Red Bull was just 3.7 seconds behind Hamilton but the Mercedes driver continued to take the lead, taking the lead by 8.2 seconds by the time Verstappen made the first pit stop on lap 17.
Hamilton followed him closely for the next period to secure his spot and the pattern of the race was established.
They stopped one lap apart again on laps 41 and 42 and the only issue still in dispute was the score for the fastest lap.
Verstappen had it before the late pit stop so the soft tire was completely firm.
Festival of punctures and stress
Bottas also had a penalty – just three of his places as it was just a single yellow flag he missed – but while Verstappen progressed in round one, Bottas went backwards and was trailed down. in 11th place at the end of the match.
He made little progress in the opening laps before being directed by coach Toto Wolff, who told him he “must” get past the cars ahead.
The race between him and Perez was reaching its climax in the last laps, the Mexican stopped the first step early and Bottas tried to run long to get the tire advantage in the last laps.
But the puncture on lap 31 ended his hopes and in the end Finn didn’t even finish the race, Mercedes having to retire the car with 10 more laps left.
Perez still faces a battle for third, albeit, from Alonso, superb in Alpine after starting third on the grid following penalties for Verstappen and Bottas.
Red Bull pitted Perez to finish second at the same time as Verstappen, with 16 laps remaining, and let him reclaim his spot against Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine – McLaren’s Lando Norris led both but feel punctured and pitted.
Perez is 11.1 seconds behind Alonso with six laps back and forth, and there’s a lot of tension as Alonso is running on old tires and both Williams drivers, George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, also have punctures and Alonso needs to make a move. do the same number of laps as they had when their tires failed to finish the race.
A virtual safety car that can go two laps gave Alonso’s tires some extra breath and also closed the gap, and the 40-year-old Spaniard, who has returned to the sport after two years, scored his first since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Perez is fourth ahead of Esteban Ocon’s second Alpine, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.
Norris and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel finished the top 10 scorers.
Driver of the day
What happens next?
A welcome break after three straight race weekends, before a double header climax – a new lap in Saudi Arabia and then the much-changed Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi.
Hamilton and Mercedes look strong, but Verstappen has a point gap. One person deciding in the final race will be the popular outcome and it looks to be heading in that direction.
