It looked good for both Mercedes (who started George Russell from a surprise pole after a Stewards' decision to penalise Red Bull's Max Verstappen) and McLarenMercedes (who finished onetwo in the Qatar Sprint race). In a brilliant turnaround, however, Verstappen, now starting from the dirty side of the road, nonetheless led the field out of Turn One. He went on to win, too from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. McLaren finished only third and tenth; and Mercedes were fourth and 12th. Poetic justice, you might say particularly as both Mercedes drivers incurred penalties during the race...as did McLaren's Lando Norris. It wasn't a good day, either, for the FIA, for the administrators of F1. Poor decisions were taken and there were some hardware issues, too. Peter Windsor looks back at the good, the bad and the sometimes ugly.
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And to TrackNinja, a laptimer and data app designed to help users improve their ontrack car and driver performance through analysis and an innovative Data Garage. A lite version is free; the loaded edition is US$9.99 pcm or $99.99 yearly
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Alternative race stats courtesy of Aleš Norskŷ:
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Images: Pirelli, Red Bull and Ferrari
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