Verstappen clinches Qatar GP as title battle goes to the wire

Doha, Qatar: Max Verstappen continued his brilliant comeback and kept his bid for a fifth consecutive Drivers’ World Championship alive with a stunning victory at the Qatar Grand Prix – his third straight triumph at the Lusail International Circuit under lights yesterday.

The Red Bull star capitalised on McLaren’s alternative strategy to shake up the three-way title battle, leaving the championship wide open ahead of next Sunday’s season finale at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit.

Fresh from a Las Vegas setback, where both cars were disqualified for technical infringements, McLaren’s world title contenders Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris paid heavily for a key strategy call.

The team decided against pitting when a Safety Car was deployed on lap seven following a crash between Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, while the rest of the field took advantage of a ‘free stop’ during the first of two mandatory pit stops in the 57-lap race.

That decision proved costly as Verstappen drove with trademark precision to complete his hat-trick of wins in Qatar, with Piastri settling for second and championship leader Norris finishing fourth behind Williams driver Carlos Sainz.

It was Verstappen’s seventh win of the season – drawing level with Norris and Piastri – and the 70th victory of his illustrious career. Remarkably, after trailing Norris by 104 points at the start of September, the Dutchman is now just 12 points behind the Briton and four ahead of Piastri.

“This was an incredible race for us. We made the right call as a team to box under that Safety Car. That was smart. I’m super happy to win here,” Verstappen said.

“We stay in the fight until the end. Incredible. It was a very strong race on a weekend that was a bit tough, but we won the race and that was important,” added the defending champion, who has won four of the last five Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.

Pole-sitter Piastri made a perfect start, and despite winning Saturday’s sprint, his weekend ended in frustration.

“I’m speechless. I have no words. Clearly, we didn’t get it right tonight. I drove the best race I could and there was nothing left out there,” he said.

“In hindsight, it’s pretty obvious what we should have done, but we’ll discuss it as a team… It’s obviously tough to swallow.”

Norris, overtaken by Verstappen at Turn One, fought back strongly, overtaking Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in the late stages to earn two valuable points.

He still remains in control of the title race, as even a third-place finish in Abu Dhabi will secure his maiden world crown.

“It’s tough, we just have to have faith in the team to make the right decision. It was a gamble… Now it’s the wrong decision. Oscar lost the win and I lost P2, so we didn’t do a good job today,” Norris admitted. “We’ve done plenty of good jobs in other races… Not our finest day, but that’s life.”

Benefiting from McLaren’s strategy, Sainz earned his second podium of the season with a powerful performance.

“I’m so happy and so proud of the team for what we have done today,” he said. “We came into this weekend thinking it was going to be the most difficult of the year, and suddenly we came out with a podium. We nailed the race pace; I was super quick, much quicker than expected.”