All Roads Lead to Abu Dhabi - Max Verstappen wins the Qatar Grand Prix, the Title Charge is going down to the Wire!
Updated: Mar 12
The Qatar Grand Prix saw stress, anger and jubilation for multiple teams, the Championship title still being undecided. For the first time since 2021, the Driver's Championship goes all the way to Abu Dhabi, as Lando Norris is unable to capitalise this weekend following less-than-ideal wins from his championship rivals Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.
After the single practice run leaving the McLaren boys on top, Friday night saw the Sprint Qualifying take place, with everything riding on this weekend for Lando Norris who could potentially win it all under the Qatari sky. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris both found issues going into the high-speed corners of the Lusail International Circuit, struggling for pace with reports of the car bouncing for Max. This led to a P6 and P3 finish for the Sprint race, with Piastri finding the pace and the ability to land himself on pole for the first time since the Dutch Grand Prix, vitally outqualifying his Championship rivals.
George Russel qualified second, separating the two McLarens, while Yuki Tsunoda outqualified his teammate Max Verstappen, breaking his thirty-seven streak of beating his teammates to an end. Fernando Alonso found himself in P4, the Williams drivers also found pace, qualifying in P8 and P10, with Antonelli and Leclerc finishing the top 10 in P7 and P9. Ferrari is still struggling for any pace, Lewis Hamilton just unable to handle the car, seeing another Q1 exit and P18 start for the seven-time world Champion.
The Sprint results saw not much change to the starting grid, Fernando Alonso dropping to P7, allowing the Redbull drivers and Kimi Antonelli to move up a place. To aid Verstappen's championship battle, Tsunoda let through his teammate to finish 4th, leading the bottom half of the top ten to consist of Carlos Sainz, Isack Hadjar, and Alex Albon. Charles Leclerc suffered in the first few laps of the race, unable to make up valuable places for a points finish in a short nineteen-lap race, finishing down in P13.
Qualifying for the Grand Prix started on Saturday evening after the sprint race, which saw more disappointment for Lando Norris but hope for Oscar Piastri's title contention. Lewis Hamilton for the second time this weekend was knocked out in Q1, again finishing in P18, him being ready for the season to end for a long time. Lando Norris, going onto his final flying lap, sat in pole position while Piastri was getting ready for his. He unfortunately had to abandon the lap and was unable to cross the line again to complete his flying lap again, Piastri having a strong last lap which gave him pole for Sunday's race. With the way things were looking, he still had the chance to win the Championship in the race the following day.
Max Verstappen followed shortly behind in P3, and both Mercedes drivers right behind him. Iscak Hadjar once again found himself in the top ten, with a car much less comptitive than Kimi Antonellis, it was much more often than not that the two drivers found themselves in Q3. Carlos Sainz had a great qualifying session, looking to continue his points streak this weekend, the top ten finishing up with Fernando Alonso again, another guest appearance from Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc in P10.
Sunday's race was looking hopeful for Lando Norris who sat second, with being in this position and his competitors being in the places that they were, he would still get granted the Driver's Championship title. However, things did not play out in Norris' way this weekend either.
In the very first lap, Lando Norris concedes his place to Max Verstappen, his two championship rivals now being ahead of him, but the title would still be his if things did stay the same. Disaster struck in the hands of Lance Stroll colliding into Niko Hulkenberg in the seventh lap of the race. With the mandatory two-stop in place due to Pirelli's assessment on their tyre wear being dangerous after being used longer than twenty-five laps, all teams but McLaren went in for a "free" pit-stop, cutting the time in the pits in half, including Mx Verstappen who was the first one in the pits. This gamble for McLaren would have major consequences later on, seeing as their competition had pitted.
After the Red flag was cleared, the race played out in Verstappen's favour: not only was there not another red flag which would have a
ided McLaren, but it meant that them staying out and not pitting at the same time as the other drivers relied on the driver's abilities to overtake the driver's in front to get to Verstappen - which was proven very difficult for Lando Norris. Going into the closing laps of the race, after all pit stops were taken, the order was Verstappen, Piastri after being pitted before Norris, Sainz, Antonelli and then Norris, running in P5, meaning he would not score enough points to win the championship. Not only that, Verstappen and Piastri would close the gap to him to the point that it does need to go to Abu Dhabi.
Going into the penultimate round, Norris was battling hard to pass Antonelli in front of him, the valuable two points he would pick up in P4 could be the difference between the Championship. While Kimi defended well, as a young and also F1 Rookie driver, he oversteered into one of the corners, allowing Norris to easily pass him into P4. He was, however, unable to catch up to Carlos Sainz, who was providing incredibly entertaining radio messages in the last laps of the Qatar Grand Prix. With his competitors a good few places above him, Norris just did not have enough points to end the battle this weekend, which means the action will continue, leading to a nail-biting end of the 2025 season.
Oscar Piastri post-race almost felt as if a race win was robbed from him. After a spell of bad qualifying sessions in the second half of the season, leading him to concede his title position to Norris, he had this to say after the decision not to pit in lap seven:
"I asked, what are we doing? Because we were getting pretty close to the pit entry and I hadn’t had a call yet.
"So, you know, I think when you don’t get a call instantly when the Safety Car comes out, clearly there’s probably some discussions going on about what to do.
"And in that situation, you have to trust the team because they have a lot more information than the driver in the car on where gaps are and stuff like that. So, yeah, I mean, in that scenario I have to trust what the team decide."
Carlos Sainz secured his second podium of the season this weekend, converting his seat loss at Ferrari into something of a victory for himself and Williams. Williams not have a guaranteed P5 position in the Championship, all thanks to the dedication of the two drivers and the changes made within the team really impacting the results. This is an exceptional result from a team rebuilding their name and place in the F1 grid, after finishing ninth last year the jump in performance is almost unprecedented. James Vowles was overjoyed with the news, sharing this on the Williams F1 Official Website:
"Exceptional. Really fantastic performance from Carlos and the team when it counted and every detail adds up. Getting on the podium by milliseconds really is such a just reward for the incredible work the whole team is putting in this year.
"I was proud of Carlos and the team when we got our first podium in Baku; the second is a dream come true, but perhaps more importantly at a track that was almost our worst last year. And we've come back, we've reinvented ourselves and the result is there for everyone to see. For Alex, we will come back fighting in Abu Dhabi.
"We haven't got it all together this weekend, but I'll reiterate that his performance across the season is why we've secured fifth in the constructors' championship today. And more so than that, his pace is still there. We just need to bring it all together.
"Finally, fifth would have been a dream come true just 12 months ago when we were languishing in ninth in the Constructors' Championship.
The rest of the top ten consisted of Mercedes, who have solidified their place in P2 in the constructors Championship, securing P5 and P6 for Antonelli and Russel, Fernando Alonso, able to take more points home for Aston Martin, Charles Leclerc, Liam Lawson, who managed to get into the points after an unfortunate puncture sending Isack Hadjar out of the points and near the bottom of the grid, and lastly Yuki Tsunoda, picking up points at both races this weekend while his futures at Red Bull remain unknown.
McLaren's strategy is what put them in jeopardy this weekend, and going into the final race of the season where everything is riding on the correct strategy for both drivers - the pressure is on for McLaren. Max Verstappen, the nonchalant firth-title contender sits in the best position - with nothing to lose, he still has it all to play for - will he secure his fifth? Or will Lando Norris clinch it at the end? What if it's Piastri? We go to the last race of the season, Abu Dhabi, for the finale of what was a season of intense ups and downs.
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