Max Verstappen and Red Bull outsmarted McLaren through tyre strategy to win the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix, ensuring the World Championship will go down to the final round.
The Dutchman utilised an early Safety Car to pit earlier than the mandatory 25-lap maximum, and a third stint on Hard tyres, to leapfrog both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Piastri finished in second, with Norris appearing to suffer hugely during the race at the Losail International Circuit to finish fourth, seeing his title lead cut to 12 points.
Carlos Sainz drove a similarly shrewd race to take his second podium of the year.
The result ensures that it will be a three-way fight in Abu Dhabi next week, ensuring an enthralling conclusion to a rollercoaster title.
At lights out, Piastri got away cleanly. Norris did not. A sluggish start saw him level with Verstappen into Turn 1, and offered little resistance to the Red Bull.
Norris was soon all over his tail though, with Antonelli tucking in in fourth, with Russell back in seventh place. Hamilton was up to 13th and jostling with Liam Lawson, losing out to the Racing Bulls driver.
By Lap 2, Piastri was over 1.5 seconds ahead, Norris a second behind Verstappen, and likely wary of Antonelli within DRS range of the McLaren.
Charles Leclerc would have been feeling little reason to be any more cheerful than he was after qualifying, the Ferrari losing 10th place to Nico Hulkenberg on Lap 4.
Lap 5 and Verstappen was complaining of an imbalance in left-hand corners, but the race was settling into a rhythm, until Hulkenberg Hulkenberg and Gasly came together on Lap 7.
On a charge, the Sauber tried to send it past the Alpine into Turn 1, but the two touched, and the German was pitched into the gravel and out at once. Gasly limped back to the pits with a puncture.
The Safety Car was out, and Verstappen was in. Every team bar McLaren, Haas and Alpine double-stacked, leaving Ocon briefly third, before the Frenchman pitted on Lap 9.
With the Safety Car still out, the order was now relatively shaken out back into its previous order, with Antonelli dropping to fifth behind Sainz, the Mercedes crew being forced to hold him in his box as a flurry of other cars all came in.
Ocon, now last, was also handed a five-second penalty for a false start. Norris enquired as to why he didn’t follow Verstappen in for fresh rubber, but was informed that by pitting early, he had lost “all flexibility” in his strategy.
Verstappen takes on Hards to take the fight to McLaren
With the Safety Car ending on Lap 10, Piastri got away cleanly, pulling out a six tenths lead on Norris immediately.
The gap was over a second by the end of the lap, with Verstappen around seven tenths further back.
Despite the fresher tyres, Verstappen was falling back, now two seconds behind Norris, who was also trying to bridge a similar gap to Piastri.
By Lap 18, Piastri was 3.3s ahead of Norris, with Verstappen 4.4s behind the #4 McLaren. Sainz held fourth ahead of Piastri by two seconds.
Little happened between then and the end of Lap 24, when Piastri dove into the pits for a fresh set of Mediums, one lap before all other cars bar Lance Stroll.
Norris was in on the mandatory Lap 25, releasing Verstappen into the lead, rejoining in fifth, one place behind Piastri, but into the clutches of Alonso.
Piastri moved ahead of Antonelli on Lap 30, the Italian offering no recourse and letting the McLaren through, with Norris getting closer, but he and everyone else were just one lap away from their second pit stop, owing to the 25-second maximum.
17 seconds ahead of Sainz, Verstappen boxed on Lap 32 for a set of Hards, and rejoined third, with Piastri and Norris now back in first and second.
With virtually all other cars forced to pit at the same time, there was some inevitable close shaves with drivers being released closely into the paths of others.
Norris was urged to push to produce better lap times than Verstappen, who was told that he was now on a more “robust” compound.
On Lap 37, Norris reported that the car needed checking, as he went off the road. Replays showed he went wide on the exit of Turn 14, nearly losing the back end altogether. A scary moment for the title-leader.
Verstappen assumes unassailable lead to take Qatar GP win
Lap 41, and Piastri floated the idea of an earlier stop to quell the threat of Verstappen, the Dutchman now within a second of Norris.
After going wide shortly afterwards, the request was heeded and Piastri duly boxed on Lap 43, sending Norris into the lead, but just half a second in front of Verstappen.
Piastri, returning on Hards in third place and 17 seconds behind the leading pair, was pivoting to a new tactic: chase down Verstappen.
Two laps later, Norris was in, also for Hards, and rejoined behind Sainz and Antonelli. The Spaniard offered his own opinion on that decision to his Williams team, saying he would find it hard to overtake Antonelli their current pace.
Sainz himself was now engaged in what appeared to be a straight fight for third place now, urging his team to let him stay out to fight Antonelli.
Piastri was closing the gap to Verstappen, now 13.4s with eight laps to go – with Norris still over a second behind Antonelli.
With the McLaren getting closer, Sainz was now in push mode, opening up as a big a gap as he could to create a buffer as Antonelli would now have to commence defending of a robust kind from Norris.
But the Williams suffered a disaster, reporting understeering had left a piece of his car flying off, just like it did in the Sprint. He was told the front wing was fine, but the floor was put under considerable strain.
Piastri took another two seconds out of Verstappen with five laps to go, but on current pace, it seemed that the win would elude Piastri, but was still set to take a bigger chunk from Norris’ lead.
Norris was now just 0.6s behind Antonelli, who was now just over a second behind Sainz, whose damaged Williams caused him to drop a little further back than what he had been.
Isack Hadjar’s race was curtailed with just two laps to go, the Racing Bulls suffering a puncture, which let team-mate Liam Lawson into ninth and Yuki Tsunoda into the points in 10th.
Norris’ damage limitation job saw some positivity, breezing past Antonelli for fourth on the penultimate lap, seemingly just letting the McLaren overtake him.
Piastri was able to get the gap down to Verstappen to under 10 seconds, but it was no use. Verstappen executed a masterclass in opportunism through the pit window to claim victory, with Piastri second, and Sainz holding on for third.
Norris took fourth, with Antonelli and Russell fifth and sixth. Alonso was seventh, with Leclerc eighth, Lawson ninth and Tsunoda 10th, a good showing for the Japanese after starting towards the rear.
With the title now confirmed to go to the final round in Abu Dhabi – Norris would leave Qatar with a 12-point lead from Verstappen, with Piastri third, four points further back.
READ MORE – F1 2025 Qatar Grand Prix – Race Results
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