🔗 Share this article

The championship contender benefited from a strategy call from McLaren that contradicted decisions made by every other team during an initial safety car deployment

This proved to be a expensive choice that sacrificed track position to the Red Bull driver in the closing laps and retrospectively threw away the race win for Piastri

Grand Prix Results and Championship Consequences

The race winner won to take his seventh victory of the season, equalling the McLaren drivers, while the Piastri was runner-up and the Briton fourth behind the Williams car of Carlos Sainz

Norris earned an extra two points by passing the Mercedes driver's Mercedes on the penultimate lap

The championship leader has been maintained a 12-point advantage over Verstappen, who overtook Piastri by four points heading to Abu Dhabi on December 5-7

To secure the championship, the British driver must finish at least third at Yas Marina if Verstappen wins the race next race day

Key Moments of the Thrilling Race

• The team's decision not to pit when a yellow flag was deployed on the seventh lap for a crash between the French team's Gasly and the Swiss team's Hulkenberg
• A decision led by the Australian to bring forward his final stop in a last-ditch effort to catch the leader came to nothing
• A unexpected second podium for Sainz handed by McLaren's strategy call

The Way McLaren Lost Out in The Race

The critical point for the team was when the two drivers came together as the German tried to pass the Frenchman around the outside of Turn One on the seventh lap

The German's car was damaged beside the track That brought out the safety car

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

With the tire manufacturer imposing a twenty-five lap safety limit on the tires, that meant anyone who pitted at that time was locked into a fixed plan with a second stop on the thirty-second lap

Competitor Responses and After the Event Comments

No words

Piastri commented in his post-race interview: Clearly we made mistakes tonight My driving was the strongest performance I was capable of, as fast as I could, but there was no more pace out there Tried my utmost but didn't get it done

The race winner stated: This was an amazing performance for us We made the right call to pit That proved intelligent Furthermore extremely pleased to triumph in Qatar and remain competitive to the head, incredible

Final Grand Prix Standings

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

Looking Ahead

The all-important title decider at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit The circuit itself does not create the most exciting racing, but once again this twilight race hosts an contest which promises to be every bit as thrilling as Sebastian Vettel's first title in twenty-ten, or the Dutch driver's much-debated initial championship in twenty-twenty-one