Norris’ title wait goes on as Verstappen wins in Qatar

After Red Bull’s Verstappen won a thrilling Qatar Grand Prix, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and Oscar Piastri will square off in Abu Dhabi for the championship championship title.

Verstappen benefited from a McLaren strategy call that swayed in the face of decisions made by every other team during an early safety car.

Verstappen’s track position was sacrificed in the final stages, which ultimately cost the race win for Piastri.

Verstappen, the Dutchman, equaled Norris and Piastri for his seventh win of the year, while Carlos Sainz, the Australian, came in second and the Briton, in fourth place behind Williams.

By passing Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes on the final lap, Norris added an additional two points.

Verstappen, who moved ahead of Piastri by four points heading to Abu Dhabi on December 5th, has a 12-point lead over Verstappen, who will now have to travel there on December 5th.

If Verstappen wins the race on Sunday, Norris must finish at least third at Yas Marina to claim the title.

The following were the highlights of a dramatic race in Qatar:

On lap seven, when Gasly and Hulkenberg converged on the outside of Turn One, the fateful moment for McLaren occurred.

Hulkenberg’s car was left abrasive along the track. The safety car was brought out by that.

The exact 50 laps that were left in the race were crucial to the timing.

Anyone who pitted at the time was forced into a strict strategy with a second stop on lap 32 because Pirelli had set a 25-lap safety limit on the tires.

McLaren made the statement that stopping their drivers would rob them of their strategic options at the end of the race, as McLaren explained.

Everyone else decided to stop and lock in their track position despite knowing that stopping under the safety car saves time as opposed to a standard stop and considering the difficulty of overtaking around the Lusail track and that Pirelli had to force them to do two at the time.

After the fact, Norris later questioned the decision, but it was too late.

When everyone else made the decision to pit, McLaren almost always knew they would be giving Verstappen the lead if the race proceeded without incident until the very end.

They would eventually fall behind Verstappen after their own first stops and eventually regain control of the lead after his final one, but instead would fall behind once more when they stopped for the last time.

That is exactly how the race turned out.

A significant pace advantage would have been available to McLaren if they had installed the soft tires as of lap 10 and had waited until lap 10 for the final product to be changed.

At the time of the call, McLaren had a problem: Norris would have had to be stacked behind his team-mate if they had stopped both cars.

After the Red Bull had already passed him right away, he was already in Verstappen’s path. Additionally, Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes and Williams’ Carlos Sainz would have left him in the middle of at least two other cars.

Piastri persuaded the team that making their second stop earlier would give them more time to chase down the Red Bull in a desperate state of disbelief.

With 15 laps to go until Piastri arrived, he put on hard tyres, but despite reducing Verstappen’s lead to eight seconds by the time, the four-time champion was unafraid.

At the conclusion of the race, Piastri declared, “No words, please.”

In his post-race interview, he continued, “Clearly, we didn’t get it right tonight. There was nothing left over after I completed the best race of my life, driving as fast as I could. Despite my best efforts, it was unsuccessful.

Retrospective, it’s pretty obvious what we should have done, but we’ll talk about it as a team. At the moment, it’s a little difficult to swallow.

Verstappen remarked, “This was a fantastic race for us. As a team, we made the wise decision to box. It was wise. And incredible happy to win this battle and continue to do so.

“It was a little offset because of it all,” said one participant, “but for us, it was a very strong race on a weekend when it was a little tough but we still managed it.”

He referred to McLaren’s strategy as being “an interesting move,” adding that “you still have to keep the tires alive.”

Norris, who had won the race, said: “I had no expectations going into the weekend. I make every effort possible. Today, it wasn’t good enough, but that’s life.

The mistake was made right away, and that was obvious. Doing what we did was more of a gamble than what they did.

Even though second was on offer if McLaren had chosen the right strategy call, Piastri should have won comfortably, but Norris struggled more.

At the time when the McLaren drivers were attempting to create as much of a gap as possible before their final stop, he had a huge moment at the high speed Turn 14 on lap 35, just rescuing a crash.

Verstappen remained in Verstappen’s path until the final stop, fearing he had damaged his floor.

Norris struggled for a long time to pass the Italian, coming in fifth place, behind Sainz and Antonelli.

Till Antonelli ran wide with less than a lap left before Norris could advance.

Sainz led the race well, finishing fourth in the opening laps despite George Russell’s error on the opening lap and losing two spots.

When Sainz was forced to be held for other cars during the safety-car pit-stop scramble, Sainz showed strong pace and benefited from McLaren’s error. He also gained a spot on Antonelli.

Russell moved up to sixth place after Fernando Alonso spun his Aston Martin, leaving Antonelli.

Alonso, who had controlled the midfield pack after the first stops and looked set for sixth before a spin cost him two places, behind Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Russell, appeared to have suffered as a result of the spin.

However, A puncture in Hadjar’s car placed Alonso one of those spots back, and the veteran Spaniard’s seventh place finish in his uncompetitive car.

Top 10

1. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen

2. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri

3. Williams vs. Carlos Sainz

4. McLaren’s Lando Norris

5. (Mercedes) Kimi Antonelli

6. George Russell (Mercedes)

7. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso

8. (Ferrari) Charles Leclerc

9. (Racing Bulls) Liam LAwson

10. Red Bull, Yellow Bull, Yuki Tsunoda

standings for drivers