Australian rookie Oscar Piastri has claimed the biggest win of his career with victory in the Formula One sprint race in Qatar as Max Verstappen finished second and secured the F1 world championship for a third straight year. Verstappen was assured of the title when his only remaining rival, team-mate Sergio Perez, crashed out in a three-car incident in the 11th of 19 laps on the floodlit 5.418km Lusail International Circuit on Saturday.
Piastri kept the lead for the final five laps while Russell dropped from second to fourth on the softs, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton behind in fifth, up from 11th. “First sprint win sounds pretty cool,” Piastri said. “It was a very stressful race. When I saw all the soft guys come through at the start I thought we were in a bit of trouble. But their tyres fell of pretty quickly, so that was good.