Qatar Grand Prix: Verstappen wins, Title fight drags to Abu Dhabi
F1 NewsSunday, 30 November 2025 at 18:29
Max Verstappen won the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix keeping his chances to retain his Formula 1 Title on a day when McLaren dropped the ball.
Verstappen led Piastri home by almost eighth seconds as Carlos Sainz was a superb third for Williams as Lando Norris was fourth at the flag.
The means, the Dutchman heads to the season finale in Abu Dhabi, 12 points behind Norris and now second in the Drivers' Championship, four points ahead of Piastri.
Verstappen started his attack from the opening lap, overtaking Norris for second place and keeping race leader Piastri honest on the opening laps.
The first few laps of the race saw no major changes aside from some driver losing positions, others gaining on the start lap, mostly down which side of the track they started on, the dirty or the clean.
But then came Lap 7 as Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly were fighting for ninth place and the German tried to pass on the outside of Turn 1 and despite leaving enough space, the Frenchman understeered into the Sauber, tagging its rear right tyre sending it into a spin and out of the race - Safety Car in.
And at that fateful moment, McLaren dropped the ball, and kept their drivers out on track opting for track position as Verstappen and the rest of the top ten boxed for fresh Medium tyres.
From there on, McLaren's fate was sealed as from there on, they had to pit twice while Verstappen needed to pit once and manage his pace to take the lead when the two Papaya cars pitted again.
From there on, both Piastri and Norris drove a monstrous stint to try and make up for their team's fumble and managed to stay in contention as they rejoined fourth and fifth respectively after pitting on Laps 24 and 25 and started pushing again.
Verstappen then boxed for his final time on Lap 33 and took on the Hard tyres, as Red Bull played it safe trying to ensure he had enough rubber towards the end should the McLarens launch an attack.
From there on, the Red Bull ace just made sure he stayed in touch with the McLarens who called Piastri for a second time on Lap 42 and put him on Hard tyres while he asked for Softs. Norris went for his second stop on Lap 44.
And while Piastri rejoined over 15s behind Verstappen while Norris rejoined in fifth behind Kimi Antonelli but could not make his way past the Italian until the final lap after a bizarre moment from the Mercedes driver.
Sainz, who started the race from seventh on the grid after a superb qualifying performance where Williams were experimenting with their car.
The Spaniard made two positions at the start and from there on kept out of trouble and drove a solid race making the best out of McLaren's mistakes to take third.
Behind the top three
With Norris fourth, Antonelli came home in fifth place for Mercedes, and despite the mistake which cost him a position to Norris, he drover a solid race, making positions at the start.
George Russell, who started ahead of Antonelli, finished in sixth after losing positions for starting on the dirty side of the track from which he could not recover.
Fernando Alonso also made positions at the start, but then a spin towards the end of the race cost him two positions. The double F1 Champion will be kicking himself for that error.
Charles Leclerc capped off a tough weekend for Ferrari, and finished in ninth at the end of the 57-lap race after starting from tenth and losing one position to Hulkenberg at the start but then benefitted from the German's crash with Gasly.
Lewis Hamilton, in the sister Ferrari, drove and anonymous race from 17th on the grid to finish 12th.
Liam Lawson came in ninth for Racing Bulls while his teammate, Isack Hadjar suffered a puncture with one lap to go and finished in 18th, an unfortunate end to his race after a strong performance.
Yuki Tsunoda drover a solid race as well to take the final point and finish in tenth.
What the top three said
After taking his seventh win this season, and now being level with Norris and Piastri, Verstappen said: "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. 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.
"I was like that's an interesting move!" the defending F1 Champion said of McLaren's decision not to pit under the Safety Car. "I knew we had a gap but you still need to keep the tyres alive. The tyre wear is high around here and luckily it all worked out."
And when asked about his Title chances with one race to go and 12 points behind Norris, Verstappen said:
"It's all possible now! We will see. I don't worry about it too much."
"It's all possible now! We will see. I don't worry about it too much."
A cast down Piastri added: "Clearly we didn't get it right tonight. I drove the best race that I could and as fast as I could. There was nothing left out there.
"I tried my best but it wasn't to be tonight unfortunately," he added. "I think in hindsight it's pretty obvious what we would have done, but I'm sure we'll discuss it as a team.
"It's not all bad. It's been a really good weekend and the pace has been very strong. Obviously it's a little bit tough to swallow at the moment," the Australian concluded.
But then came the beaming Sainz who said after taking his second podium for Williams; he said: “I’m so happy, so proud of the whole team, of what we’ve done today because we came into this weekend thinking it was going to be the most difficult weekend of the year and suddenly we came out with a podium.
“We nailed the race pace. I was super quick, much quicker than expected. We nailed the strategy, nailed the tyre management, the start, the defending and management – and that brought us an unexpected podium, so I cannot be more proud.
“We got everything right today. We had a tough first half of the season when things didn’t come together, but we improved in so many areas during the year and today there were a few opportunities out there to grab, and we grabbed all of them by executing a perfect race.
“I’m over the moon with this podium because I absolutely didn’t expect it," the Spaniard concluded.
Qatar Grand Prix Provisional Classification
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