2024 Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix Highlights

George Russell finished P4, while Lewis Hamilton crossed the line P12 at the 2024 Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix. Unfortunately, both cars lost positions at the start, with George dropping from P1 to P3 and Lewis losing out from P6 to P9.

Unfortunately, a slow stop for George on lap 24 resulted in him losing an additional three places and from there, he struggled to make gains due to the shortened DRS zone despite pushing hard. Lap 35 saw a front left puncture for Lewis after running over debris on the main straight. This forced him to box on lap 36 when he also served his five-second penalty for a false start. A drive-through penalty was also handed to Lewis following a failure to activate the pitlane speed limiter behind the Safety Car. He served this on lap 48.

Additionally, George landed a five-second time penalty at the end of the race for a safety car delta infringement. This didn’t impact his P4 result. The Team’s attention now turns to the season’s final race next weekend in Abu Dhabi.

George Russell

It was a very strange race because our pace had been so strong all weekend, but it just didn’t seem to be there today. Overall, my race wasn’t great, I had a bad start then poor pace and finally a penalty at the end of the race. We ultimately didn’t have the pace on the hard tyre we thought we would and were not quick enough compared to those around us. Max and Lando managed to pass by at the start, but I didn’t have the speed to catch them again. Even after the pit stop, I struggled to make it back through and regain my position.

The car was great all day Friday and yesterday, so we must understand where that pace went for us today. Both Lewis and I made terrible starts, and we have some idea why, but we need to fully understand how we lost the performance that we showed in the Sprint. I think, ultimately, you can see how you only need to gain two-tenths or lose two-tenths, and you go from being a front-runner to being down in P6 or P7, so I hope we can have the car from yesterday and Vegas next week in Abu Dhabi. It would be great if we could hopefully have a better weekend together as a Team.

Lewis Hamilton

It was a pretty bad race for me overall, but these things happen. It started off badly with my false start, which was my fault and resulted in a penalty which I served during my stop. Then I had the puncture, which was just unfortunate, followed by the pitlane speeding, which was on me, too. The car had a lot of understeer today because we didn’t have enough front wing in the setup. I gave it my best shot, but it all seemed to go downhill from the start.

This race weekend hasn’t been great, but we have another week next week where we can try and finish a bit better, and I hope we do have a better result. These last races don’t have an impact on all of the great things we have done together as a Team. Races are a rollercoaster ride of emotions, I’ve had great races in my life and bad races too. Ultimately, it’s not how you fall. It’s how you get back up, and we will try again next week.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

Today, we ultimately don’t have the pace. Our car is a handful to drive on its worst days, and today was one of those days. Both drivers had a similar experience. I think if the race had been yesterday, then we would have had a shot at winning, but today, we just didn’t have the speed behind Lando and Max. The car was super difficult for Lewis and George to drive; we had a lot of understeer, and both suffered from that. We started to lose ground from those ahead of us, and that’s when we decided to box George and hopefully put us in a better situation. Unfortunately, we suffered a slow stop, ended up in traffic and struggled to make it back through. Then, with Lewis, we had the false start and pit lane speeding, which further impacted his race along with the lack of pace.

We have one more to go, and we will continue to give it our utmost. We will celebrate the relationship and partnership we have had with Lewis and these difficult races will be forgotten quickly. We have had an amazing partnership with Lewis that’s spanned over twelve years, with six driver titles and eight constructors’ titles winning together, and these are the things that we will hold dearly.

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