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F1 is in Qatar for the penultimate round of 2024. Max Verstappen has already clinched his fourth drivers’ crown but McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull are still battling for the constructors’ title.

George Russell (MER) will start on pole alongside Verstappen (RBR), while Oscar Piastri (MCL) won Saturday’s sprint race from teammate Lando Norris.

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We’ve had quite a spirited Formula Two race in Qatar, ending in victory for Paul Aron — but only after a penalty for 2025 Sauber F1 driver Gabriel Bortoleto, who crossed the line first on track.

Bortoleto was penalized for crossing the pit lane entry line when the Virtual Safety Car was deployed, dropping him from P1 to P3 in the final classification.

This promoted Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar, Bortoleto’s title rival, to second just 0.4 seconds ahead.

The result means Hadjar made a tiny gain on Bortoleto in the title race, closing the gap to 0.5 points going into the final round of the year in Abu Dhabi (188.5-188.0). A really exciting end to the title fight.

For Bortoleto, with his future secure, there’s less to play for but he’ll naturally be eager to sign off from F2 in style, make it back-to-back championships after his F3 triumph last year.

A strong finish to the F2 season in Abu Dhabi might help Hadjar in his case for any F1 promotion, should an opportunity arise at RB for next year.

We have just one hour to go until lights out in the penultimate grand prix of 2024.

I know there have been a lot of them this year — we’ve never had a 23rd round in a previous F1 season — but I reckon we’ll all still miss it once Formula One hibernates over the winter.

In the meantime, the build-up continues…

With all those shenanigans, here is the starting grid awaiting us for today’s Qatar Grand Prix — which will start in a little more than an hour’s time:

Max Verstappen may have qualified first, but he then received a one-place grid drop for “alleged driving unnecessarily slowly” and a penalty point; his sixth in a 12-month span.

Verstappen will now start P2 in today’s Qatar Grand Prix with George Russell on pole. Here is the reasoning why it’s one place rather than three, from the stewards’ decision:

???? “Car 1 (VER) was on a different preparation strategy to that of Car 63 (RUS). The driver of Car 63 stated if a car was going slow in a high-speed corner, it should not be on the racing line.

“The stewards regard this case as a complicated one. It was obvious Car 1 was attempting to cool his tyres. He also could see Car 63 approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times whilst on the small straight between Turns 11 and 12.

“Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap. Had Car 63 been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual three grid positions. However, Car 63 had clear visibility of Car 1 and neither car was on a push lap.”

Final sprint race of 2024 done, it was all eyes on qualifying for today’s Qatar Grand Prix.

This time the Q1 surprise was the exit of Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas, with Sergio Perez finally finding some pace — all the way into Q3. That was almost as impressive as both Sauber drivers making it into Q2.

Come the final session, McLaren maintained their sprint pace advantage over Ferrari but it was George Russell and Max Verstappen who had the spoils on the front row.

Verstappen grabbed it over the line by just five-hundredths of a second, but that result did not make it through the night…

At the time it felt like a nice thing to see happen, and Lando Norris’ intentions towards Oscar Piastri were clearly well meaning.

It’s just than in explaining it, Norris underlined the ‘giving away scraps’ of it all. Here’s what he said after the sprint race:

???? “It was probably a bit closer than I was wanting. But I planned to do it since Brazil. Just what I thought was best.

“It was probably a little bit sketchy, the team told me not to do it, but I thought I could get away with it and we did.

“Honestly, I don’t mind. I’m not here to win sprint races, I’m here to win races and a championship, but that’s not gone to plan. I did the best we could, and I look forward to (the grand prix).”

It was a supreme early lap from Lando Norris that booked sprint pole under the night sky on Friday. The Pirelli tires’ degradation prevented anyone going quicker at the end of the final sprint qualifying session.

There was also more desperate news for Sergio Perez, who exited after SQ1 in a Red Bull that Max Verstappen stuck P6.

But come Saturday’s race, even Verstappen could only manage finishing eighth and pocking up a solitary point — after the rare sight of a sluggish start.

At the pointy end it looked like Norris would finish off a fine performance with victory. His team even told him over the radio they were happy with the situation.

However, after his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri gave up the sprint win to Norris at the previous event in Brazil to boost his drivers’ championship chances at the time, Norris took matters into his own hands to return the favor in Qatar.

It took a bit of manoeuvring on the final straight, but Norris pulled it off and Piastri took the win.

Right, let’s bring you up to speed with everything that’s happened so far this weekend in Lusail.

We’ll start with Friday, which included the sole practice session of the round before the field took on sprint qualifying.

The signs in FP1 were certainly promising for Ferrari as they began their chase of McLaren in the constructors’ championship. Charles Leclerc ended the session fastest after a mighty lap, three-quarters of a second quicker than his teammate Carlos Sainz.

But the two red cars were split by both McLarens as their expected pace started to materialise.

Mercedes were further down the order than had been anticipated with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton P6 and P8 respectively, while for Max Verstappen the situation was worse than that as his Red Bull car appeared to be having its own hangover from those Las Vegas celebrations.

I’ve just been down to Aston Martin for our regular pre-race tech chat with the team’s performance director, Tom McCullough, who summed up the interesting strategic challenge facing everyone in Qatar.

Pirelli expects this to be a one-stop race, with its predictions anticipating drivers will start on mediums and then switch to hards between Lap 19-25.

But the high-speed corners throughout a lap around Lusail means there is a lot of front degradation, given how much the tires are getting worked to keep enough grip.

So while a one-stop strategy is possible, according to McCullough it is easy for drivers to run out of tires. Management is required, and was even present through the sprint yesterday. Here is McCullough:

???? “It’s not an easy one-stop race. The simulations would push you to a one-stop, largely because it’s hard to overtake. But it isn’t a one stop if you run out of tires, so that’s the balance everyone is playing.”

The difficulty of overtaking in Qatar means track position is important, making it less favorable to take an extra pit stop. It’s also quite a long pit lane, meaning the time lost by stopping again is around 26 seconds.

Hanging on to pit under the safety car would save about 10 seconds.

So that’s the three-pronged challenge facing teams here: tire life, difficulty of overtaking, and pit lane time loss.

It could make this far from a straightforward race for the pit wall.

???? “At the moment, both championships are not realistic.”

The words of Max Verstappen there, spoken after a miserable Italian Grand Prix where he struggled to sixth place.

In a Red Bull becoming increasingly hard to drive, Verstappen was without a win in 10 races and McLaren’s Lando Norris was breathing down his neck.

And yet Verstappen had started the season in total control with win after win — just like his stroll to the 2023 championship.

That is why Verstappen’s coronation in Las Vegas came as much with relief as anything else. The fashion of this championship win only adding to his standing among F1’s all-time greats.

Below is how he did it, brilliantly written by our own Luke Smith. Enjoy.

GO FURTHER

Max Verstappen’s toughest F1 title yet? How Red Bull’s star became a 4-time world champion

There was much anticipation and plenty of momentum for Max Verstappen, following his iconic drive through the wet in São Paulo — and with that, the inevitable happened in Las Vegas.

George Russell’s Mercedes had the pace to triumph in qualifying and then from pole on the Strip; Lewis Hamilton completing a one-two finish.

But the attention flicked back to Verstappen’s Red Bull, which finished off the podium but crucially, ahead of Lando Norris. That was enough to secure his fourth consecutive drivers’ championship.

It was a difficult weekend for McLaren, with Norris P6 and Oscar Piastri P7. Add in Sergio Perez managing only P10 in the other Red Bull, and Ferrari upped the pressure in the constructors’ championship.

However, there was also tension between Carlos Sainz (P3) and Charles Leclerc (P4) as they disagreed with each other’s actions on the track. So far in Qatar, those tensions appear to have eased.

GO FURTHER

Inside Max Verstappen’s Las Vegas F1 title clincher: Relief, elation and beer

We are here for all your second screen needs and F1 insights, but we love watching sport and understand that live pictures have their place too.

So here’s where you can watch the track narratives unfold over the course of today’s race, alongside our live coverage:

Having danced through the time zones for the previous round in Las Vegas, things have been more straightforward here — unless you’re one of the ones in the media bus or working for a team who has travelled the equivalent of 11 hours in time zones between two weekends.

Pray for Luke Smith. Anyway, here are the times for lights out at the Qatar Grand Prix today:

Let’s be honest, this isn’t one of the F1 venues to immediately get the heart pumping.

Still, the Lusail International Circuit has hosted plenty of fun since hosting its first grand prix in 2021. It also feels like a track that F1 has had to put effort into making it work.

On the outskirts of the Qatari capital, Doha, Lusail International Circuit was built in 2004 with Moto GP in mind, and you can see those motorcycle influences with its fast flow and predominantly medium and high-speed corners.

The race today will be under floodlights and that means cooling temperatures, with Turn 1 one of the primary overtaking spots.

Here are the key facts from Lusail:

There’s more to read on the Qatar track through Madeline Coleman’s circuit breakdown, which you can enjoy with the link below.

GO FURTHER

F1 Qatar GP track breakdown: Conditions, G-forces make Lusail a physical grind

Hello and welcome to The Athletic’s live coverage from the penultimate race of the 2024 Formula One world championship: the Qatar Grand Prix.

Sure, the drivers’ championship is done for the year — and so too now is the sprint race schedule.

But there is still a big title yet to be decided; the one teams would argue they value the highest. The three-way battle for the constructors’ championship is the key backdrop to this race.

We will bring you all the context, color and updates you need on what has already taken place and what’s to come today in Lusail, with our reporters trackside and experts watching on.

So stay turned, because we’ve got you covered from here.