Maximum Verstappen and Red Bull Racing had an outstanding 2023 Formula One season. The Red Bull driver won the championship at a thrilling "sprint race" the day before the Qatar Grand Prix.

This is a new format that was created to give fans more excitement throughout the weekend. Oscar Piastri, a rookie driver for McLaren, won a thrilling sprint to the finish, relegating Verstappen to second place.

After qualifying first on Friday for Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix, Verstappen will start the race at the front of the pack. Even before Verstappen sealed the deal on Saturday, the championship was effectively finished.

From May through September, he set a new record with 10 consecutive victories, dominating the standings. Amazing emotion. This has been the best year of my life, Verstappen stated. Many exciting victories, and the team should be very pleased with its performance. Being a part of that community has been a wonderful experience. And, certainly, to win the world championship a record three times is quite remarkable.

On Saturday, Verstappen started third, but he got a bad start and dropped to fifth after the first lap. Piastri won the starting position for the sprint race with the help of the MCL60, which performed better than Norris and Verstappen's cars.

In contrast to other drivers, such as George Russell and the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who started on the more aggressive softs, all three of these drivers decided to start the race on medium tyres. The two restarts caused by the Safety Car allowed Russell to overtake Piastri for the lead.

However, the McLaren driver rallied and took the lead back. And the pace of the soft runners began to slow down in the second part of the race, which worked to Piastri's advantage.

With a win in the sprint, Verstappen might have clinched his third F1 championship in grand fashion. However, in the final laps, he could only gain a few tenths on Piastri, and had to settle for second place.

With six more Grands Prix to remaining, Verstappen has already clinched the 2023 F1 world championship on the strength of a record-breaking season. The only other drivers to accomplish this feat are Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton.

On his warm-down lap, Verstappen exclaimed, "Unbelievable guys."