{"id":318270,"date":"2025-11-30T09:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318270\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T09:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:22:10","slug":"verstappen-secures-f1-title-despite-fourth-place-finish-in-qatar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318270\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen secures &#8216;F1 title&#8217; despite fourth-place finish in Qatar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/max-verstappen\" title=\"Max Verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen<\/a> topped the sprint event standings, thanks to his fourth-place finish in the Qatar sprint race.<\/p>\n<p>While waiting to see if he can push the championship fight to the final race in Abu Dhabi like in 2021, the four-time world champion can at least take comfort in being the 2025 sprint champion.<\/p>\n<p>The five points he scored yesterday were enough to secure the top spot in the mini standings after all six sprint events of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Joining him on the podium is George Russell, who has consistently delivered strong sprint results, including his second-place finish in Qatar, ending with 30 points. Lando Norris rounds out the top three, tying on 29 points with his teammate.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251129-0481-692b4ccb7ae61.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"verstappen-qatar-red-bull-jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n<p>Fifth place goes to Lewis Hamilton, boosted by his early-season win in China \u2014 the only real highlight in an otherwise disappointing season with Ferrari so far.<\/p>\n<p>At the bottom of the standings is Isack Hadjar, who, unlike in the Grands Prix, hasn\u2019t managed to rack up enough points in the sprint events.<\/p>\n<p>Final 2025 Sprint standingsMax Verstappen \u2014 32<br \/>\nGeorge Russell \u2014 30<br \/>\nLando Norris \u2014 29<br \/>\nOscar Piastri \u2014 29<br \/>\nLewis Hamilton \u2014 21<br \/>\nCharles Leclerc \u2014 17<br \/>\nKimi Antonelli \u2014 15<br \/>\nYuki Tsunoda \u2014 12<br \/>\nCarlos Sainz \u2014 10<br \/>\nFernando Alonso \u2014 5<br \/>\nLance Stroll \u2014 4<br \/>\nEsteban Ocon \u2014 4<br \/>\nAlex Albon \u2014 3<br \/>\nOllie Bearman \u2014 2<br \/>\nPierre Gasly \u2014 2<br \/>\nIsack Hadjar \u2014 1Drivers&#8217; standings situation ahead of Qatar GP<\/p>\n<p>While he has been the standout in the sprint events, Verstappen isn\u2019t in control of his own destiny in the drivers\u2019 standings and will need another slip-up from Norris to have a chance at a fifth consecutive title in the final race in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutchman lost another point yesterday in the sprint, finishing just behind the Briton, and dropped three more compared to his other rival, Oscar Piastri, who looks back to full competitiveness in Losail after a string of less impressive races.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/f1-drivers-standings-piastri-closes-the-gap-with-sprint-win-in-qatar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Here\u2019s the drivers\u2019 championship situation with two rounds remaining.<\/a>Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1\" title=\"F1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a> paddock? Then GPblog&#8217;s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog&#8217;s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen topped the sprint event standings, thanks to his fourth-place finish in the Qatar sprint race. While&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,35119,813,816,179613,176737,825,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-318270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-f1-news","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-gp-qatar","15":"tag-losail-international-circuit","16":"tag-max-verstappen","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}