Lewis Hamilton takes commanding victory in Qatar Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton won the Qatar Grand Prix and regained valuable ground in the championship battle against Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton celebrates a commanding victory in Qatar. (LAT Images)
Hamilton started from pole position and established a significant lead as Verstappen charged through the field from seventh on the grid.
Verstappen was up to fourth at the start and made his way to second, entering into a strategy battle with Hamilton for track position.
Red Bull pitted Verstappen on lap seventeen, with Mercedes bringing Hamilton in on the next lap to maintain his lead.
The dance was repeated when Verstappen pitted a second time, with Hamilton following Verstappen into the pits to match the Red Bull strategy.
Hamilton crossed the chequered flag with a 25.7 second advantage over Verstappen, who accepted defeat early and sought to limit the damage to his championship lead.
"It's been a hell of a year so to be at this point of the season and have back-to-back wins is a great feeling," said Hamilton.
"It was a pretty straight forward race for me, a little bit lonely but of course, we needed those points, so a really solid job by the team."
"A big thank you to everyone trackside and back at the factories for all their hard work."
Lewis Hamilton leads away from pole position in Qatar. (Jiri Krenek)
The Qatar Grand Prix was the 102nd victory of Hamilton's F1 career and the 30th different track he has won at.
"I'm really grateful for these points and it's amazing to be able to close the gap so much in the last two weeks."
"We've still got our work cut out, but we're loving such a close battle and the challenge that it brings."
Verstappen leads the Drivers' Championship by just eight points over Hamilton with just two races remaining.
"I'm of course happy with the result today," said the Dutchman.
"This weekend has been quite difficult for us as a team and we are still lacking pace."
"I tried everything I could after the five-place grid penalty, so to finish in second and score the fastest lap is really good."
"I had an exciting start and I knew that the first few laps were really important."
"I had a good launch and I was fairly quickly back in to second place - from there I tried to keep the gap small and that worked out quite well."
"I had fun today, especially when going for the fastest lap."
"For now, we need to stay focused, there are still two races left to go and a lot of things can happen"
"Anything is possible."
Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso celebrate on the podium in Qatar. (Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool)
Valtteri Bottas was running third after starting in sixth, but a tyre failure saw the Finn limp back to the pits and eventually retire on lap 48.
Fernando Alonso started third on the grid after pre-race penalties for Verstappen and Bottas, and moved up to second after overtaking Pierre Gasly off the start.
The Spaniard held onto second until ultimately being caught by Verstappen, and relinquished third place to Sergio Perez.
The Red Bull driver pitted and was on a charge to catch Alonso for the final podium position once again, but a late virtual safety car allowed Alonso to secure the final spot on the podium.
Alpine Racing celebrate as Fernando Alonso crosses the line in Qatar. (Alpine Racing)
The Alpine driver scored his maiden podium for the team and the 98th of his career.
"It felt fantastic today and to be back on the podium was so good," said Alonso.
"We deserved this result as a team and I’ve had to wait seven years since my last one."
"Hopefully we don’t need to wait this long again!"
"We took some risks with the one-stop strategy but it worked out well."
"We had some strong pace and despite Perez catching us at the end we did enough to hang on."
