🔗 Share this article

Verstappen benefited from a strategy call from the British team that contradicted decisions made by every other team during an early race safety car deployment

This proved to be a expensive choice that gave up track position to Verstappen in the final stages and in hindsight threw away the victory for the Australian driver

Grand Prix Results and Title Implications

The race winner triumphed to take his seventh victory of the season, equalling Norris and Piastri, while the Piastri was second and the Briton in fourth behind the Williams of Carlos Sainz

Norris won himself an additional points by overtaking the Mercedes driver's Mercedes on the penultimate lap

The championship leader has been left with a twelve point lead over his rival, who moved ahead of Piastri by four points heading to Abu Dhabi on December 5-7

To win the championship, the British driver must finish at least third at Abu Dhabi if his rival takes victory next Sunday

Critical Moments of the Dramatic Race

• McLaren's decision not to stop when a yellow flag was called on the seventh lap for a collision between Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Swiss team's Hulkenberg
• A decision led by the Australian to advance his final stop in a last-ditch effort to catch the leader came to nothing
• A unexpected podium finish for the Williams driver gifted by the team's strategy call

The Way McLaren Missed Out in Qatar

The fateful moment for McLaren was when Gasly and Hulkenberg came together as the Hulkenberg tried to pass the Frenchman around the outside of the first corner on lap seven

Hulkenberg's car was left damaged beside the track That brought out the yellow flag

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

With Pirelli imposing a twenty-five lap maximum usage on the tyres, that signified anyone who pitted at that time was locked into a rigid strategy with a additional pit stop on lap 32

Competitor Responses and Post-Race Comments

Speechless

The McLaren driver added in his post-race interview: Clearly we didn't get it right tonight I drove the strongest performance I was capable of, as fast as I could, but there was no more pace out there Tried my utmost but couldn't secure victory

The race winner stated: That represented an incredible race for us We made the right call to pit It was intelligent And super-happy to win here and remain competitive to the head, remarkable

Ultimate Grand Prix Standings

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

What's Next?

The crucial championship finale at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina This venue does not produce the most exciting racing, but once again this evening event features an contest which promises to be every bit as thrilling as Vettel's maiden championship in 2010, or the Dutch driver's highly controversial initial championship in 2021