The 2025 F1 championship battle will go down to the Abu Dhabi GP finale, as Max Verstappen secured a crucial win at the Qatar GP. McLaren’s decision to go with the alternative strategy backfired, and what looked like an assured win turned into a P2 result for Oscar Piastri and P4 for Lando Norris.
As a result, Norris’s championship lead has been slashed to 12 points, with one more race to go. Verstappen moves up to second place overall, four points ahead of Piastri.
- Verstappen finishes 7.995 seconds ahead of Piastri
- Sainz’s P3 helps Williams secure fifth place in constructors’ championship
- Norris vs Verstappen vs Piastri title decider at Abu Dhabi
Qatar GP: Verstappen wins as McLaren fumbles strategy
Given the high temperatures and abrasive track surface at Lusail, Pirelli set a maximum stint length of 25 laps for each set of tyres. Piastri initially held the race lead, ahead of Verstappen and Norris. But an early Safety Car, deployed after Nico Hulkenberg’s crash on Lap 7, ended up being a pivotal moment.
While the rest of the grid pitted for fresh tyres, McLaren opted to keep both Piastri and Norris out. This proved to be a strategic blunder, with both McLaren drivers losing out to Verstappen after the final round of pit stops.
Piastri rejoined in second place, and despite being on fresher tyres, he couldn’t close in on Verstappen. Norris, meanwhile, dropped to P5 after his final stop and could only salvage a P4 result after Kimi Antonelli ran wide on the penultimate lap.
Heading into the Qatar GP, Norris held a 24-point lead in the standings, but this has now been slashed to 12 points. Speaking after the race, McLaren’s team principal Andrea Stella admitted the team made “an error of judgement during the Safety Car and paid dearly for it”.
Stella added, “Today, we had the fastest car, and the drivers did a great job, but as a team, we didn’t deliver for them. We will react to this setback as we always have, learning from our mistakes and working as a united and cohesive group.”
Verstappen capitalised on McLaren’s error to secure his seventh win of the season, which ties him with Norris and Piastri on race wins. “We made the right call as a team there to box: it was definitely what made us win the race today, as I felt like we were not on the same level as McLaren in terms of pace,” said Verstappen.
“In Abu Dhabi, we have nothing to lose, and we are going to give it everything that we have. Of course, we are relying on another crazy race like we had today, but we are going in there with positive energy. We need to maximise the car and be as competitive as we can.”
Sainz earns second podium of 2025
Carlos Sainz made a strong start and was up to P5 after Isack Hadjar and George Russell lost positions. He then jumped Antonelli during the first round of pit stops and held position to finish third, securing his second podium result this season. The result also helped Williams secure fifth place in the constructors’ championship, handing the team its best finish since 2016.
The Mercedes duo of Antonelli and Russell finished P5 and P6, respectively, followed by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in P7. Charles Leclerc finished P8 for Ferrari, while Racing Bulls’s Liam Lawson and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10.
Next up is the 2025 F1 season finale – the Abu Dhabi GP, which will be held on December 5-7. This will be the first championship decider involving more than two drivers since 2010.
Dipan Sur
