“It screwed us:” Safety Car period had major championship consequences for Haas · RaceFans

With four rounds to go, the fight for sixth place in the constructors’ championship looked set.

Haas, on 46 points, eyed the threat from RB, 10 points behind them. They gave little thought to Williams in eight place, much less ninth-placed Alpine, 32 points behind.

Then came Brazil, where a windfall result for Alpine more than tripled their points haul at a stroke, lifting them to sixth in the standings.

Haas hit back immediately. Nico Hulkenberg’s eighth place in Las Vegas, while Alpine failed to score, restored them to sixth place. His seventh place in the sprint race in Losail nudged Haas’s lead up to three points.

Safety Car, Losail International Circuit, 2024 — Alpine benefitted from the second Safety Car period

Come the grand prix, the fight for sixth place in the championship was fought out between Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly. The Haas and Alpine drivers held the bottom two points positions after passing Yuki Tsunoda’s RB.

Wary that Alpine might pull Gasly in for an early pit stop and get him on to fresh tyres sooner, Haas summoned Magnussen in on after 27 laps for a set of hard tyres. But even with a useful pocked of clear air behind Liam Lawson, Magnussen wasn’t quite able to match Gasly’s times on his harder tyres. It was going to be close.

But then a wing mirror fell of Alexander Albon’s Williams and landed on the run to the first corner. Race control avoided deploying the Safety Car to begin with, but then Valtteri Bottas smashed it into pieces and two drivers sustained punctures, which forced their hand.

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With the Safety Car deployed, every driver who hadn’t changed tyres yet headed for the pits. Magnussen was among those who suffered the most: Besides losing his chance to get back ahead of Gasly, he also fell behind Fernando Alonso and Zhou Guanyu. Although he impressively out-ran the recovering Lando Norris, ninth place to Gasly’s fifth put Alpine ahead again by five points heading into the final round.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Losail International Circuit, 2024 — McLaren ignored Safety Car threat and pitted Piastri

“I’m super gutted with the Safety Car coming out,” said Magnussen afterwards, “it completely ruined the day for me. It was going well and we had a good beginning to the race, but I just wish that Safety Car hadn’t come out because it really screwed us. There’s still one race to go and we’ll go into it giving everything.”

Haas brought Magnussen in long before a Safety Car looked like an imminent threat. But McLaren’s decision to pull Oscar Piastri in on lap 34, long after the debris had been spotted, looks like a poor call.

It also had implications for the constructors’ title fight. Piastri successfully passed Charles Leclerc early in the race, putting both McLarens ahead of the Ferraris, which was vital for their hopes of winning the title. The early pit stop dropped him back behind Leclerc and helped Ferrari keep their title hopes alive.

2024 Qatar Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2024 Qatar Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2024 Qatar Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2024 Qatar Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

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2024 Qatar Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2024 Qatar Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Rank	#	Driver	Team	Complete stop time (s)	Gap to best (s)	Stop no.	Lap no.
1	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	27.818		1	34
2	63	George Russell	Mercedes	27.87	0.052	2	35
3	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	28.024	0.206	1	35
4	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	28.088	0.27	1	35
5	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	28.303	0.485	1	35
6	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	28.343	0.525	2	31
7	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	28.46	0.642	1	35
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	28.543	0.725	1	27
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	28.592	0.774	2	36
10	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	28.628	0.81	1	35
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	28.792	0.974	1	35
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	28.968	1.15	2	35
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	29.024	1.206	1	35
14	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	29.034	1.216	1	24
15	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber	29.085	1.267	1	35
16	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	29.179	1.361	1	35
17	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	29.271	1.453	2	40
18	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	29.783	1.965	1	1
19	63	George Russell	Mercedes	32.309	4.491	1	23
20	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	32.957	5.139	1	1
21	30	Liam Lawson	RB	34.655	6.837	2	40
22	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	36.143	8.325	1	34
23	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	37.915	10.097	1	34
24	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	39.687	11.869	2	55
25	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	41.674	13.856	2	7
26	30	Liam Lawson	RB	45.049	17.231	1	35