By Robert Haile

Newly crowned World Champion Max Verstappen continued to dominate with his fourteenth win of the season as McLaren continued their recent podium success.

Having taken the title in the Sprint race yesterday Verstappen didn’t ease up as he dominated the Qatar Grand Prix.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz missed out with a technical issue and Sergio Perez would start from the pit lane.

McLaren took another double podium with Oscar Piastri backing up his first win with a second place and Lando Norris finished third.

George Russell recovered after a first lap collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton that ended the seven time world champions race to take fourth with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fifth.

Fernando Alonso finished sixth with Aston Martin as Esteban Ocon’s Alpine finished ahead of both Alfa Romeo’s with Valtteri Bottas leading Zhou Guanyu and Perez claimed the final point in tenth.

Track limits denied Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll a tenth place finish as he was demoted to eleventh with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine and Alex Albon’s Williams also penalised.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg led AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson at the back of the grid.

Early retiree Sainz was joined by Hamilton and Williams’ Logan Sargeant who reported feeling unwell in the closing stages of the race.

In the battle for second Sergio Perez is now 20 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso is 11 points behind in fourth.

With the Constructors Championship sealed the battle for second is heating up and Mercedes extended their lead to 28 points ahead of Ferrari in third while McLaren closing in on Aston Martin and are 11 points off fourth.

Formula 1 heads to the USA and the Circuit of the Americas with a busy schedule with another Sprint race over October 20-22.