Abu Dhabi Decider: Norris Has the Points, Verstappen Has the Track

The Lap 7 Safety Car kept both cars out, but Red Bull blinked first. The call under yellow turned a race that Verstappen "didn't expect to win" into one that he did, which kept his title defense alive for Abu Dhabi.

The championship is still led by Norris, but the gap has shrunk to 12 points. Verstappen is now in second place, and Piastri is only four points behind him after Qatar.

There is a lot of stress in the paddock and a lot more screens and slips when there is a three-way shootout like that on a track where Verstappen has already won four times, and Red Bull has won seven times. F1's own mid-season data for 2025 already showed that TV audiences were growing. Thirteen of the first 14 races saw year-over-year growth, and the Australian opener alone drew over 60 million people around the world.

In that kind of global shop window, it’s no surprise that fans who do bet on F1 are drifting towards the best crypto sportsbooks. In the days before Qatar, books had Verstappen at around 2.2 and 2.9 and Norris between 2.4 and 3.1 in the win market.

Other than that, reviews of Bitcoin betting sites say that the best ones focus on instant payouts, large markets, and mobile-first design. These are all important factors when one Safety Car call can change the chances for the Grand Prix in just one lap.

On paper, Norris holds the strongest card. He goes to Yas Marina needing a top-three finish to guarantee the title regardless of what Verstappen or Piastri does. The McLaren has been the most important car for most of the last third of the season. Las Vegas and Qatar felt more like missed opportunities than damage control.

Verstappen believes that McLaren had messed up quite a lot this season and that the title would have been his already if he had been in the MCL39. Qatar only emphasized what he already said.

Norris is having trouble with where the finale is being held. In order for Verstappen to get back to his home track, he has to fly to Zandvoort. He won the race in 2020 and then won three races in a row at Yas Marina from 2021 to 2023. This gave him a total of four wins at the track and made Red Bull the most powerful team there during the ground-effect era.

With its long back straight and updated slow-corner parts, Yas Marina's current layout is perfect for a car that is slippery on the straights but stable when it comes to traction. This is exactly the type of car that made Red Bull scary here before the latest aero cycle.

The title race comes down to two questions. Can McLaren recover quickly from their second high-profile planning mistake? And can Verstappen keep doing what he did in Qatar, which is to use other drivers' small mistakes to gain big points?

The story from Lusail after the race called it "a three-way title showdown" and said that all three contenders now have seven wins between them this season. That's about as clean a slate as you can get going into the 58 laps at Abu Dhabi.

From a race point of view, there isn't much difference. In terms of the standings, Norris has the clearest path to the title. However, he will be racing at a track where Verstappen's muscle memory is ridiculous and where Piastri has every reason to believe he can win by outright pace.

Andrea Stella, the boss of McLaren, said, "We got it wrong" in Lusail and that both drivers "deserved better." This was a rare public apology on a night when the team could have wrapped up the title.