🔗 Share this article

The championship contender benefited from a strategy call from the British team that flew in the face of decisions made by all other squads during an initial safety car deployment

It was a costly decision that sacrificed track position to the Red Bull driver in the final stages and in hindsight threw away the race win for the Australian driver

Grand Prix Outcome and Championship Consequences

The race winner triumphed to take his seventh win of the season, matching Norris and Piastri, while the Australian was runner-up and the British driver in fourth behind the Williams of the Spanish driver

The McLaren driver earned an additional points by overtaking the Mercedes driver's Silver Arrow on the second-to-last lap

Norris has been left with a 12-point lead over Verstappen, who moved ahead of his teammate by four points heading to Abu Dhabi on 5-7 December

To win the championship, the British driver must finish at least third at Yas Marina if his rival wins the race next race day

Key Events of the Dramatic Race

• The team's decision not to stop when a safety car was deployed on lap seven for a collision between the French team's Gasly and the Swiss team's Nico Hulkenberg
• A strategy initiated by Piastri to advance his final stop in a desperate attempt to catch Verstappen came to nothing
• A surprise second podium for Sainz gifted by McLaren's tactical decision

The Way McLaren Lost Out in Qatar

The fateful moment for McLaren was when Gasly and Hulkenberg collided as the German tried to overtake the Frenchman around the outside of the first corner on lap seven

The German's car was damaged beside the circuit This triggered the yellow flag

The critical part of the timing was that it left exactly 50 laps left in the race

With the tire manufacturer imposing a 25-lap safety limit on the tires, that meant anyone who pitted at that moment was committed to a fixed plan with a second stop on the thirty-second lap

Driver Responses and After the Event Statements

Speechless

The McLaren driver commented in his post-race interview: Clearly we made mistakes tonight I drove the best race I could, as quick as I could, but there was no more pace out there Attempted my utmost but couldn't secure victory

The race winner said: That represented an amazing performance for us We made the right call to box It was smart And super-happy to triumph in Qatar and stay in the fight to the end, incredible

Final Grand Prix Positions

• 1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
• 2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
• 3. Sainz (Williams Racing)
• 4. Norris (McLaren)
• 5. Antonelli (Mercedes)
• 6. George Russell (Mercedes-AMG)
• 7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin F1)
• 8. Leclerc (Ferrari)
• 9. Liam Lawson (RB F1 Team)
• 10. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull Racing)

Looking Ahead

The crucial championship finale at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit The circuit itself does not produce the most thrilling racing, but yet again this evening event features an event which promises to be every bit as dramatic as Sebastian Vettel's maiden championship in twenty-ten, or Verstappen's much-debated initial championship in 2021