Qatar GP: Max Verstappen wins in main title twist to arrange F1 2025 championship decider with Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri

Formula 1’s 2025 title struggle can be settled by an exhilarating three-way decider in Abu Dhabi after Max Verstappen beat Oscar Piastri to victory within the Qatar Grand Prix and championship chief Lando Norris completed solely fourth.

The battle for victory on Sunday dramatically turned on the looks of the Safety Car on lap seven after a collision over ninth place between Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly.

McLaren team-mates Piastri and Norris, operating first and third on the time, didn’t instantly pit whereas second-placed Verstappen did – with the Red Bull driver adopted in for recent tyres by all-but one automotive behind him.

With the race stints at this occasion being restricted to a most of 25 laps attributable to tyre issues on the high-speed observe – which means a two-stop technique was successfully locked in for the 57-lap race – McLaren’s resolution to remain out meant their drivers nonetheless wanted to make two visits to the pits whereas Verstappen, who was proper behind them within the Safety Car queue, solely wanted to cease as soon as extra.

McLaren’s technique relied on their automotive proving sufficiently quicker than Verstappen’s Red Bull, or benefitting from a second later Safety Car afterward, to overtake him however neither state of affairs materialised – a lot to their title-chasing drivers’ price.

Piastri completed second however Norris – who would have clinched his maiden title with a spherical to spare with a victory – was solely fourth. Norris had been fifth beginning the penultimate lap however gained an additional place, and a potentially-crucial extra two factors, after an error from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli noticed him slip via to fourth.

Piastri was left notably pissed off after the race, having seen a probable victory slip away via McLaren’s lap-seven technique name.

“Speechless,” mentioned the Australian. “I don’t have any words.”

Piastri’s anger was compounded by the truth that Verstappen is now Norris’ nearest challenger within the standings heading into the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, stay on Sky Sports F1 subsequent Sunday.

Verstappen, nonetheless unfathomably within the hunt for a fifth successive title having seemingly been properly out of the operating on the summer season break, is now simply 12 factors again on Norris with Piastri 16 factors behind his team-mate.

Norris stays favorite to clinch the crown however his room for error has significantly narrowed. He should end on the Abu Dhabi podium to make certain of the championship if Verstappen wins the race.

With McLaren’s technique name proving very pricey, Carlos Sainz additionally cashed in to take his second podium look of the yr for Williams. The Spaniard completed slightly below a second forward of Norris.

Antonelli’s late slip dropped him to fifth forward of Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who misplaced floor initially. Russell was promoted late on when Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bulls suffered a puncture whereas operating sixth.

Fernando Alonso was seventh for Aston Martin after a late spin though he nonetheless beat the lead Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, with the Italian group’s sobering weekend delivering simply 4 factors in whole.

Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson in ninth and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda in tenth rounded out the factors locations.

Lewis Hamilton’s forgettable Sprint weekend, which twice noticed him qualify 18th, completed outdoors the factors in twelfth place as Ferrari’s fourth-place end within the Constructors’ Championship was confirmed.

Why did McLaren not pit their drivers?

Most focus forward of the race had been on the beginning and the function that Verstappen, beginning on the clear facet of the grid in third, would play on the run to the primary nook in a race he wanted to complete forward of Norris to maintain his title comeback alive into the ultimate spherical.

Verstappen did make a powerful begin and overtook Norris for second, though Piastri stayed forward of each due to a textbook getaway from pole and regarded set to manage a race wherein overtaking was anticipated to be very troublesome.

However, it was in the end the implications of the particular tyre rule launched by Pirelli for the Qatar weekend, introduced a number of weeks in the past, that had the larger impact on the race’s final result than the battle to Turn One.

With groups in a position to full not more than 25 laps on one set of tyres all weekend, one permutation for the 57-lap race was that any Safety Car on lap seven would enable drivers to pit after which full two an identical 25-lap stints to the tip.

Remarkably, that’s precisely the way it performed out – for almost all of the sector – when the tangle between Gasly and Hulkenberg at Turn One noticed the latter’s broken automotive stranded within the run-off space and the Safety Car referred to as.

But it was McLaren’s resolution to not pit their two vehicles on the finish of that lap which proved so damaging for his or her race and transformative for Verstappen’s.

After the race resumed on lap 11, Piastri continued on till lap 24, with Norris pitting for the primary time on the 25-lap cut-off a lap later. A DRS practice which had fashioned behind Alonso allowed them to rejoin fourth and fifth however greater than 18 seconds behind Verstappen, who made his second cease seven laps later.

When Piastri introduced ahead his second cease to lap 42 in a bid to have adequate tyre life to attempt to chase down the Red Bull, he rejoined with a spot of 17 seconds to make up. However, regardless of his tyre benefit, he solely made up 10 seconds of that over the ultimate 15 laps.

Speaking afterwards, McLaren group principal Andrea Stella instructed Sky Sports F1: “It was a decision not to pit. In fairness, we didn’t expect everyone else to pit.

“Once everybody pitted, it makes that the fitting factor to do. When you’ve the lead automotive, you do not know what the others are going to do.”

McLaren would doubtlessly have needed to ‘double stack’ their drivers had they pitted with everybody else on lap seven, doubtlessly which means Norris because the second automotive needed to be held within the field after his cease as different vehicles steamed in down the pit street, however Stella mentioned: “There could have been a loss for Lando if we pitted both cars with the double stack, but, effectively, the main reason was not expecting everyone else to pit.

“It was a call. As a matter of reality it wasn’t the proper resolution.”

Piastri appeared crestfallen afterwards on a weekend he had largely dominated on an impressive return to form after a series of poor outings that had seen Norris usurp him at the top of the championship.

“I have never spoken to anybody however I really feel fairly c**p as you’ll be able to think about. I do not know what to say,” he mentioned.

“We didn’t get it right with the strategy. The pace was very strong. I didn’t put a foot wrong. Just a shame.

“I left it [whether to pit] within the group’s palms to determine what the perfect technique was. They had extra data than I do. But, yeah…”

Verstappen ‘all under control’ as mighty title comeback goes to Abu Dhabi

McLaren’s miscue proved an unexpected gift for Verstappen.

His second win in as many weeks, and fifth within the final eight occasions, signifies that at simply 12 factors again on Norris heading to Abu Dhabi he’s as near the championship summit as he has been for the reason that season’s fifth spherical in April.

He had been 104 factors off the lead on the finish of August.

“I didn’t expect to win today, that’s for sure,” admitted Verstappen.

“Looking at pure pace, we were not on the same level as McLaren, but we made the right call, as most of the grid did, in boxing under the safety car.

“That virtually offers you a free pit cease and that made the race for me.

“I knew after that pit stop it was going to be two long stints on the tyre in terms of tyre wear, but we managed that very well and they didn’t really catch up too much. It was all under control.”

The 2025 F1 season concludes with the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix stay on Sky Sports F1 from Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime