Undisputed leader of the Formula 1 world championship, Max Verstappen has every chance of winning his third world title on Saturday or Sunday in Qatar.
The suspense is coming to an end. But what suspense? Max Verstappen has crushed the Formula 1 world championship so much this year that his coronation has left no doubt for a long time now. The Red Bull driver should win his third crown this weekend in Qatar, the seventeenth of the twenty-two rounds that will be run in 2023. The Dutchman only needs a few points to be able to sit at the table triple world champions such as the illustrious Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, ??Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna.
To win a third title, in a row at that, Max Verstappen can be satisfied with finishing in sixth place in the sprint race, one of the six scheduled this season and the first since that of Spa-Francorchamps contested at the end of the month of July. Suffice to say that he has a good chance of being crowned on Saturday, even before trying to win his…14th Grand Prix of the season, scheduled for the next day at night.
The small Gulf country will host the paddock for the second time in its history. In 2021, the Qatar Grand Prix replaced the Australian Grand Prix canceled earlier due to the global Covid pandemic at the end of the season. On the Losail circuit, one of whose specificities is to offer a straight line more than a kilometer long (1,068 meters), Lewis Hamilton won the first edition. This year, if Sergio Perez is the only driver still capable of preventing his teammate Max Verstappen from winning the world championship, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, on Ferrari, and Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, on McLaren, seem to be the best armed , in view of the last races, to steal the victory from the ultra-dominant Dutch driver.
The Qatar Grand Prix is ??one of those contested at night. While free practice 1 and qualifying for the sprint race, respectively scheduled for Friday and Saturday, will take place in the middle of the afternoon in France, the qualifying session on Friday, the sprint race on Saturday, and the Grand Prices on Sunday will take place at night, early evening in France. You should know that the time difference between France and the Gulf country is one hour, and that it will be 8 p.m. in Qatar on Sunday when the race starts at 7 p.m. in France.
The Qatar Grand Prix will be broadcast exclusively on the channels of the Canal group, holder of the rights to the Formula 1 world championship. The different channels will share the event since Free Practice 1, qualifying and qualifying for the sprint race will be broadcast on Canal Sport while the sprint race, early Saturday evening, and the Grand Prix, which will start on Sunday at 7 p.m., will be broadcast on Canal.
Do you prefer to follow the Grand Prix on your computer, tablet or from the warmth of your bed with your smartphone and your duvet? No problem, this seventeenth Grand Prix of the season will of course also be viewable in streaming. Two possibilities are open to you: access to the Canal streaming platform MyCanal or via the official F1 website, F1.com. Both will offer the entire practice sessions, qualifying sessions and races live but also in replay. On MyCanal, activating expert mode also allows you to combine screens, multi-cameras (including on-board cameras) and data, for example pilot times in real time. On F1.com, live broadcasting of testing and the race is supplemented by replays, documentaries and even historical reminders via the F1TV Pro service, offered at 64.99 euros per year or 7.99 euros per month.