Verstappen wins in Qatar as the stewards dish out countless penalties

Max Verstappen overcame a one-place grid penalty to win the Qatar Grand Prix in a race brought to life by, er, Alex Albon's wing mirror.

It flew off his Williams and landed on the middle of the straight mid-way through, and when it was shattered by Valtteri Bottas three laps later, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz both got punctures and the debris required the deployment of the safety car. Oops.

Prior to that Lando Norris - then running in second behind Verstappen - missed the double yellow flags and failed to lift off the gas, for which he was given a 10-second stop-go penalty that mystified McLaren and cost the team a heap of points in the battle with Ferrari for the constructors' title.

It was just one of a string of debatable calls made by the stewards, along with not dealing with Albon's mirror sooner and the decision to demote Verstappen from pole.

The four-time champ was penalised for impeding George Russell in the final part of qualifying, despite both drivers being on a warm-up lap and the Briton knowing in advance that the Red Bull was ahead of him.

After the race, Verstappen told media he'd lost all respect for Russell because of the way he'd behaved in the stewards room afterwards. Blimey.

Anyway, it comes against a backdrop of apparent turmoil at the FIA, which sacked race director Niels Wittich with no explanation two races ago, having already fired or lost several other key people this year.

In defence of race control, they had an awful lot to do in Qatar: there were two separate collisions - plus Lewis Hamilton's jump start - to deal with on the opening lap alone, and the seven-time champ was later caught speeding in the pit lane.

Still, the issue of the FIA's policing of the rules refuses to go away, with all eyes on president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and his running of the organisation.

Meanwhile Sauber finally got off the mark with its first points of the season courtesy of Zhou Gyanyu's P8 finish, and Pierre Gasly secured a fabulous P5 for Alpine; a result that carries the team back into sixth in the standings despite Haas also scoring points through Kevin Magnussen.

Rumour has it that Esteban Ocon - who crashed out on the first lap and will switch between the two teams in 2025 - could vacate his seat in Abu Dhabi next week in order to let his replacement Jack Doohan make his debut one race early.

Next weekend's race is the final round of 2024: McLaren leads Ferrari by 21 points with 44 still to play for. Victory for the former would be its first constructors' crown since 1998, or 2008 for the latter. Who's your money on?