Dominant Hamilton cuts down Verstappen's lead after Qatar GP win

Seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton managed to cut down Max Verstappen's hitherto fourteen point lead at the top of the driver standings to only eight points as he peerlessly won the inaugural edition of the Qatar Grand Prix held at the Losail Circuit on Sunday evening in Doha, Qatar.

Starting from pole position, Hamilton never faced any threat as he controlled the race up front in his dominating win that saw him finish well over 25 seconds ahead of Verstappen who had to take a second place finish with 40 year old Fernando Alonso expertly steering his Alpine racing car to the third podium finish.

After Brazil last week, Mercedes once again appeared to have found sheer pace as Verstappen's Red Bull had to watch from the outside without posing any challenge whatsoever.

Prior to the race, things appeared to have gone south for Red Bull as their Dutch number one driver was hit with a five place grid penalty for failing to respect the double waved yellow flags in an incident in qualification yesterday.

The current driver's championship leader however managed to recover from the grid drop as he made a perfect start off the line from lights out. Just five laps in, the 24 year old had gone from position eight to his initial second with relative ease up through the field.

While Hamilton went on to record his 102nd win of his career, tying his 102 poles, there was extra euphoria at Alpine as Alonso returned to the podium for the first time since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Alonso's win was made even perfect as he managed to make a one stop race work for him while other drivers who tried the risky strategy, including Valteri Bottas and Williams duo of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, suffered puncture consequences.

Outside the top three, Verstappen's teammate Checo Perez finished in fourth as he managed to recover from a terrible qualifying on Saturday that saw him start the race in eleventh position. He finished ahead of Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll who came in fifth and sixth respectively.

Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were P7 and P8. Lando Norris took P9 after a late stop for the McLaren driver, as Sebastian Vettel took the final points-paying position for P10 with Pierre Gasly failing to make a two-stop strategy work, dropping from an impressive P2 on the grid to finishing in P11.

While Hamilton was blazing upfront in P1, the same could not be said for teammate Bottas who appeared to have gotten back into podium contention after a very bad start. After taking his own grid drop from P3 to P6 for failing to respect a single waved yellow flag, the driver who will line up at Alfa Romeo next season found himself down to eleventh after the first lap. The Fin then went as high as third in the race before tyre issues and car problems forced Mercedes to retire him.

So, with just two races to go now, it's Hamilton within touching distance of Verstappen in the drivers' fight with the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix set for 3-5 December.