Max Verstappen arrived at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix as a newly-crowned four-time drivers’ champion yet Jenson Button spotted something ‘disastrous’ in the F1 Sprint.
The Red Bull racer took his latest championship triumph last time out at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. A P5 finish in Sin City proved enough for Verstappen to secure the title and continue his run of dominance. But his first race as a four-time champion was far from a happy occasion.
McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari have so far enjoyed an early pace advantage over Red Bull at the Qatar Grand Prix. From those three teams, only Lewis Hamilton failed to qualify ahead of Verstappen for the F1 Sprint. But Verstappen’s time got another backward step in the Sprint.
Jenson Button brands Max Verstappen’s Qatar Sprint start as ‘disastrous’
Hamilton got a superb launch from P7 to shoot straight ahead of Verstappen as the F1 Sprint at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix got going. But in his quest to stay in the fight, the Red Bull pilot lost more places and fell to ninth by the end of the first lap at the Lusail International Circuit.
Verstappen tried to hang on around the outside of Hamilton through Turn 1. But he got held up as the two Ferrari drivers, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, got bunched up on the exit. A kick of oversteer for Sainz as he got on the throttle would prove to be costly for Verstappen.
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With his road ahead blocked, Verstappen lost ground to the pack of cars ahead and a kick of oversteer out of Turn 2 offered Nico Hulkenberg a route through. Another bit of oversteer at T5 also let Pierre Gasly get Verstappen, whose start to the Sprint Button could only criticise.
“That’s a disastrous start for Max Verstappen,” Button said on Sky Sports F1 (30/11, 14:05).
Red Bull had a Sprint to forget with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez
Oversteer would be a thorn in Verstappen’s side at the start for the Sprint at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix. Sainz holding the pack up cost the Dutchman ground and his own loose rear-end through the following corners saw the newly-crowned champion fall further down the order.
It even took Verstappen until Lap 8 of 19 to re-pass Gasly for eighth place with a simple dive down the inside with the aid of DRS into T1. Yet that would be all he could achieve, with the Red Bull racer never able to get back onto Hulkenberg’s tail and try a move for seventh spot.
The F1 Sprint at the Qatar Grand Prix was far from the race Red Bull wanted as Sergio Perez also endured another day to forget. After starting from the pit lane – and missing the green light coming on – the Mexican finished the Sprint in P20 after an anonymous performance.
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