If Oscar Piastri can take one thing away from the Qatar Grand Prix disaster, it’s that he’s still in with a chance to win the championship in Abu Dhabi. And he showed in Qatar that he had the fastest car.
Piastri should have won the penultimate race of the F1 season if not for a horrible mistake by McLaren when they decided not to pit the Aussie and Lando Norris during an early safety car. Everyone else pitted, and it allowed Max Verstappen to claim the victory and cut Norris’ championship lead to just 12 points.
Oscar Piastri (L) can still win the F1 championship, while Mercedes have refuted suggestions from Red Bull that Kimi Antonelli let Lando Norris pass (R). Image: Getty/F1
Piastri was all-but robbed of the win, but a silver lining comes in the shape of Norris’ struggles. Piastri cut Norris’ lead to 16 points, even though he’s now third in the championship behind Verstappen.
Norris could only manage fourth in Qatar as Piastri upstaged him all weekend. And because the gap between Piastri and Norris is now just 16 points, the Aussie can still win the championship in Abu Dhabi on the final weekend of the season.
Max Verstappen (R) won the Qatar Grand Prix as Oscar Piastri had to settle for second (L). (Photo by Karim JAAFAR / AFP via Getty Images)
Permutations for all three drivers in Abu Dhabi
Norris will clinch the championship with a podium finish in Abu Dhabi, but anything less would open the door for Verstappen and Piastri. The Aussie will be F1 champion if he wins in Abu Dhabi and Norris finishes sixth or lower. Piastri can also win with a second-place finish, but that would require Norris to finish P9 or lower and Verstappen P4 or lower.
For Verstappen, he’ll win the championship if he claims victory in Abu Dhabi and Norris is P4 or lower. Verstappen will also win with a P2 if Norris is P6 or lower and Piastri P3 or lower. If Verstappen finishes P3 he’d need Norris to be P9 or lower and Piastri P2 or lower.
If Norris doesn’t make the podium, he’d still win the championship if neither of Piastri or Verstappen wins the race in Abu Dhabi. There’s a plethora or permutations, but the good news for Piastri is he’s still alive. If you told him before the race that he wouldn’t win in Qatar but still be alive in the championship, he probably would have taken that.
Mercedes slam ‘brainless’ allegation from Red Bull
Meanwhile, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has fired back at an allegation from Red Bull that Kimi Antonelli let Norris pass in the dying stages of the Qatar Grand Prix. Norris was coming fifth late in the race, but managed to get around Mercedes driver Antonelli for a higher finish and two valuable extra points.
Red Bull engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said on team radio: “I am not sure what happened to Antonelli there. It looked like he just pulled over and let Lando through.”
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko claimed it was “so obvious” that Norris was “waved” through by Antonelli. McLaren use Mercedes engines, which is the link that Red Bull are hinting at.
But Wolff tore the accusation to shreds, saying: “This is total, utter nonsense that blows my mind. We are fighting for second in the constructors’ championship, which is important for us.
“Kimi is fighting for a potential third in the race. I mean, how brainless can you be to even say something like this? And it annoys me. Because I’m annoyed with the race itself, how it went. I’m annoyed with the mistake at the end. I’m annoyed with other mistakes. And then hearing such nonsense blows my mind.”
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Wolff spoke to Antonelli after the race and explained his mistake. “He just went off. He had a bit of a moment in the previous corner and then less entry speed into the left-hander. It can happen,” Wolff said.
“So with GP (Gianpiero Lambiase) everything is clear. We cleared the air. He said that he didn’t see the situation. But why would we do this? Why would we even think about interfering in a driver championship? You really need to check yourself and whether you are seeing ghosts.”