🔗 Share this article

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

This proved to be a costly decision that sacrificed track position to Verstappen in the final stages and retrospectively threw away the victory for Piastri

Grand Prix Outcome and Championship Implications

The race winner won to take his seventh win of the campaign, matching Norris and Piastri, while the Australian was runner-up and the British driver in fourth behind the Williams car of Carlos Sainz

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

Norris has been left with a twelve point advantage over Verstappen, who overtook Piastri by four points heading to the final race on December 5-7

To win the championship, Norris must finish at least third at Yas Marina if his rival takes victory next race day

Critical Events of the Dramatic Grand Prix

• The team's decision not to stop when a yellow flag was deployed on the seventh lap for a collision between the French team's Gasly and Sauber's Hulkenberg
• A decision initiated by Piastri to advance his last pit stop in a desperate attempt to catch Verstappen came to nothing
• A unexpected podium finish for Sainz handed by the team's tactical decision

The Way McLaren Lost Out in Qatar

The fateful moment for McLaren was when the two drivers collided as the Hulkenberg tried to pass the Gasly around the exterior of Turn One on the seventh lap

Hulkenberg's car was left damaged beside the circuit This triggered the yellow flag

The crucial part of the timing was that it left exactly 50 laps left in the grand prix

With the tire manufacturer imposing a 25-lap safety limit on the tyres, that meant anyone who made a stop at that time was locked into a fixed plan with a second stop on the thirty-second lap

Competitor Responses and Post-Race Statements

Speechless

Piastri commented in his after-race interview: Obviously we made mistakes 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 best but didn't get it done

The race winner said: That represented an amazing performance for us We made the correct decision to pit It was smart And extremely pleased to win here and remain competitive to the end, remarkable

Ultimate Grand Prix Standings

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

What's Next?

The all-important championship finale at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina This venue does not create the most exciting racing, but once again this twilight race features an event which appears set to become every bit as dramatic as Sebastian Vettel's first title in twenty-ten, or Verstappen's highly controversial first title in 2021