{"id":319111,"date":"2025-11-30T19:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T19:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319111\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T19:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T19:08:13","slug":"max-verstappen-wins-qatar-grand-prix-to-send-title-fight-to-final-race-oscar-piastri-comments-second-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319111\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen wins Qatar Grand Prix to send title fight to final race; Oscar Piastri comments, second place"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen has taken out the Qatar Grand Prix to send a tense Formula 1 title fight into the season\u2019s final race in Abu Dhabi next weekend.<\/p>\n

Championship leader Lando Norris would have clinched his first title with a win but finished in fourth place, with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri placing second.<\/p>\n

All three title contenders have won seven races this season. Verstappen is aiming for a fifth-straight F1 title, with Piastri and Norris chasing their first.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s a very lovely race – great job everyone,\u201d Verstappen said on team radio.<\/p>\n

Norris can still become the first British driver to win the championship since Lewis Hamilton clinched the last of his seven titles in 2020 – but having entered the Qatar GP weekend with a 24-point lead over both his rivals, Norris is now 12 points ahead of Verstappen and 16 clear of Piastri, who dropped to third overall.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A disappointed Oscar Piastri after the Qatar GP\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeechless. I don\u2019t know any words,” a dejected-sounding Piastri said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a little bit tough to swallow at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri started on pole position ahead of Norris, with Verstappen starting from third.<\/p>\n

Although Verstappen overtook Norris heading into turn one, Piastri made a clean start and took a comfortable lead early on.<\/p>\n

A strategy error cost McLaren after an early safety car prompted a flurry of tire changes, but both McLarens stayed out on track when Verstappen and the others came in.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly we didn’t get it right tonight,\u201d Piastri said. \u201cI think in hindsight, it is pretty obvious what we would have done. I am sure we will discuss it as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision played into Verstappen\u2019s hands and the elated Dutchman climbed out of his car and jumped into the arms of his mechanics and engineers after winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an incredible race for us, we made the right call as a team to box under that safety car and yeah that was smart,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n

“Super happy to win here, we stayed in the fight until the end. Incredible.”<\/p>\n

The safety car came out after Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber was sent spinning off the track on the seventh lap after being clipped by Alpine driver Pierre Gasly.<\/p>\n

The decision to stay out on track was questioned over team radio by Norris, in a race where drivers had to take two mandatory pit stops over the 57 laps \u2014 a measure imposed on safety grounds due to a high risk of tire degradation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lando Norris\u00a0Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Changing tires behind the safety car constituted the equivalent of a free change, with no time lost. McLaren gambled on holding track position, leaving them at risk later on.<\/p>\n

Desert battles seem to suit Verstappen, who clinched a third straight win in Qatar and has won four of the last five races in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n

Norris may take hope from the fact he won there last year.<\/p>\n

But the McLarens head to Abu Dhabi with a hard-charging Verstappen looking to repeat history by clinching a championship in the last race at Abu Dhabi, having done so when he overtook Hamilton on the final lap after a controversial finish in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s possible now but we will see,\u201d said Verstappen, who had written off his chances earlier this season. \u201cI don’t really worry about it too much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has taken out the Qatar Grand Prix to send a tense Formula 1 title fight into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-319111","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-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319111","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=319111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}