Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix when Schmitz made the call to stop him for his first tyre change <\/a>on lap 7 and McLaren elected not to pit.<\/p>\n It was the winning move.<\/p>\n Or, given every other team made the same call, it was the losing move from McLaren.<\/p>\n Verstappen said ahead of the weekend that he was only in with a shot of the title because of McLaren\u2019s mistakes.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother one!\u201d he enthused to Sky Sports after closing the gap to title leader Lando Norris to just 12 points, moving up to second in the championship.<\/p>\n McLaren\u2019s strategic howler piles real pressure onto the team to close the drivers title at this weekend\u2019s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.<\/p>\n But with Piastri dropping to third in the championship and trailing Norris by 16 points despite a dominant weekend, the Australian is the one who\u2019s bearing the brunt of the mistake.<\/p>\n READ MORE <\/p>\n \u2018SPEECHLESS\u2019: Piastri furious, Lando rocked as McLaren blunder sets up final race thriller <\/a><\/p>\n EXPLAINED: Every scenario \u2014 and how Piastri can still win title \u2014 as F1 braces for final cliffhanger <\/a><\/p>\n \u2018EVERYONE KEEPS THINKING THAT\u2019: Interview gets tense over elephant in room as F1 shocker explained<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018LET HIM PASS\u2019: F1 title race ignites over explosive Red Bull claim<\/a><\/p>\n “Got nothing to do with it” | 01:36<\/p>\n WHAT HAPPENED?<\/p>\n The Qatar Grand Prix was Piastri\u2019s return to form, as though the last four races had never even happened. Sprint pole led to a dominant sprint victory, and he eased to pole position for the grand prix to foreshadow much of the same in the feature race on Sunday.<\/p>\n The start of the grand prix went exactly to plan: a perfect start while Norris got an average one, allowing Verstappen to sweep through to second place.<\/p>\n With Norris a step behind in pace all weekend, it was the ideal scenario and would have seen Piastri cut his deficit to 12 points. Verstappen also would have remained in mathematical contention.<\/p>\n McLaren\u2019s strategic blunder, however, flipped that on its head.<\/p>\n The race hinged on lap 7, when Nico H\u00fclkenberg and Pierre Gasly tangled at the first turn and triggered a safety car.<\/p>\n It was the earliest possible moment in the 57-lap race that a driver could pit for a two-top strategy under Pirelli\u2019s 25-lap limit on tyre life, with the second stop then locked in for lap 32.<\/p>\n Only three drivers stayed out: Piastri, Norris and Esteban Ocon, who had to serve a five-second penalty and pitted on the following lap.<\/p>\n It had the effect of giving everyone a free first pit stop relative to McLaren at a track featuring one of the longest pit-loss times of the season.<\/p>\n Norris immediately queried the decision and was told the team preferred to keep its strategic options open rather than lock itself into having to stop again on lap 32.<\/p>\n The logic is understandable, but only to an extent.<\/p>\n For McLaren to be proved right, it would have needed a second safety car to interrupt the race either before lap 25 or in the narrow window after lap 32 but before the McLaren drivers taking their second stops.<\/p>\n And the presumption that another safety car would have forced other drivers into a three-stop race ignored the difficulty overtaking even with newer tyres \u2014 consider Norris struggling to pass Andrea Kimi Antonelli late in the race despite having 12-lap-fresher rubber.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly \u2014 at least in the opinion on nine of the 10 teams \u2014 that scenario did not come to pass.<\/p>\n McLaren engineered a two-four finish from what should have been a nailed-on victory and double podium.<\/p>\n \u201cSpeechless,\u201d Piastri said after taking the chequered flag. \u201cI don\u2019t have any words.\u201d<\/p>\n Piastri reacts to Qatar chaos | 01:25<\/p>\n WHY DIDN\u2019T McLAREN PIT?<\/p>\n To be fair to McLaren, sometimes even obvious calls are hard to make from the lead. The leader takes all the strategic risk.<\/p>\n Had Piastri taken the opportunity to pit, Verstappen could well have taken the opposite view and taken the lead, from where he might have had the chance to control the race had circumstances worked in his favour.<\/p>\n But there was a second reason that played a role beyond simple strategic risk.<\/p>\n If the team chose to pit, it would have had to have pitted both drivers to keep things fair.<\/p>\n That would have meant stacking Norris behind Piastri, which would have cost the Englishman time \u2014 he was only 4.5 seconds behind the Australian before the safety car.<\/p>\n Worse, though, is that McLaren was positioned at the start of the pit lane, near the entrance. That would have risked Norris\u2019s exit being delayed by the stream of cars entering the lane.<\/p>\n Given the whole field stopped, it would have been a considerable time loss that could have amounted to several places.<\/p>\n Stopping Norris on the following lap wouldn\u2019t have been an option, and splitting strategies around the safety car would have been actively disadvantaging one of its drivers \u2014 probably but not certainly Norris \u2014 at a crucial moment in the title fight.<\/p>\n \u201cThat could have been a loss for Lando in pitting in case we were pitting both cars in the double stack,\u201d McLaren principal Andrea Stella told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n \u201cBut effectively the main reason was related to not expecting everyone else to pit. It was decision, but as a matter of fact it wasn\u2019t the correct decision.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought that the pace in the car could have allowed us anyhow to open enough of a gap, but there wasn\u2019t much tyre degradation, and therefore we couldn\u2019t exploit entirely the pace of the car. Not the desired outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Ordinarily a driver in Piastri\u2019s position \u2014 pole position and in the lead of the race \u2014 would get strategic priority. Sometimes races unfold messily, and sometimes that means the second driver loses out more than they ordinarily would.<\/p>\n Piastri, as clearly McLaren\u2019s quicker driver this weekend, might have thought he was entitled to that privilege, particularly he was the team\u2019s only shot at victory.<\/p>\n Instead the decision was made to disadvantage both drivers to avoid the risk of hurting only one of them, in the process costing the team \u2014 costing Piastri \u2014 the win.<\/p>\n Just when he\u2019d finally broken his run of bad form and painful misfortune, Piastri was dealt another kick in the guts.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to anyone, but I\u2019m feeling pretty crap, as you can imagine,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cI don\u2019t really know what to say.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the pace was very strong, I didn\u2019t put a foot wrong. It\u2019s just a shame to not walk away with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n British television asked after the race whether McLaren must now prioritise Norris in Abu Dhabi given the looming threat of Verstappen to the championship double.<\/p>\n Piastri must surely feel as though in Qatar, even if inadvertently, the team already did.<\/p>\n Chaz champion after chaotic final race | 02:57<\/p>\n NORRIS DOESN\u2019T LOSE<\/p>\n While both McLaren drivers had their races negatively affected, only one of them had their championship negatively affected, and it wasn\u2019t Norris.<\/p>\n Had the drivers finished in the positions they held before the safety car \u2014 and given the difficulty overtaking, that\u2019s entirely believable \u2014 Norris\u2019s deficit would have still been reduced to 12 points, but Piastri would have been his closest challenger. Verstappen would have been still alive but an improbable 22 points adrift.<\/p>\n Instead those positions have essentially been reversed. Verstappen, in sizzling form, is just 12 points behind Norris, while Piastri is a far less likely 16 points adrift.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to understand, then, why Norris was the less frustrated of the two after the race. For him the loss was fixed so long as he followed Piastri at the safety car \u2014 he would either likely lose a place in the double stack or he would lose a place at the following pit stops, as proved to be the case.<\/p>\n \u201cNot our finest day, but that\u2019s life,\u201d he told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n It was only Piastri who really had something to lose given he was playing with a race victory and a big points swing.<\/p>\n Norris in fact was even handed a small gift late in the race when Andrea Kimi Antonelli slithered off the road at turn 10, handing him fourth place.<\/p>\n What would have been leads of 10 and 14 points over Verstappen and Piastri were extended by two points apiece.<\/p>\n Those two points could be absolutely crucial.<\/p>\n Verstappen\u2019s victory brings the Dutchman to seven wins for the season, equalling both Norris and Piastri. It means that in the event of a tie, the winner of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will claim the championship.<\/p>\n The difference between first and third is 10 points.<\/p>\n Before passing Antonelli, Norris would have had to have finished second to a victorious Verstappen in Abu Dhabi to clinch the title. Now he just needs to finish on the podium.<\/p>\n Given the parlous state of Ferrari, the nonentity of Red Bull Racing\u2019s second car and Mercedes\u2019s unpredictable form, that should be eminently achievable \u2014 Qatar was only the third time Norris saw the chequered flag outside the top three.<\/p>\n Norris is still in the box seat to claim the title this weekend.<\/p>\n Wood reflects on lap 1 clash with Feeney | 02:19<\/p>\n VERSTAPPEN IS REVELLING IN HIS POSITION<\/p>\n But Verstappen, who was 104 points down on the title lead only eight races ago, cannot be discounted.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all possible now,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/p>\n This is prime Verstappen territory. Having written off his hopes of defending his championship twice already, he\u2019ll head into the finale in superb form but with none of the baggage of expectation.<\/p>\n And you just know both him and Red Bull Racing will revel in that position in the days between now and Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n The games began in fact before the Qatar weekend had even started, with the Dutchman declaring that he\u2019d have already wrapped up the championship a long time ago had he been driving a McLaren.<\/p>\n \u201cMax generally has a good clue about a lot of things, but there\u2019s also a lot of things he doesn\u2019t have much of a clue about,\u201d Norris said, attempting to rebuff.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also Red Bull\u2019s way of going about things, this kind of aggressive nature and just talking nonsense a lot of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n The mind games continued with Red Bull Racing sending Schmitz onto the podium, with Verstappen ramming home the point in his post-race comments.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen strategy maybe comes into play or making the right calls at the right time, we might have the opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko also lobbed a bizarre grenade, accusing Antonelli of waving Norris through at the end of the race \u2014 something Mercedes boss Toto Wolff gave short shrift.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, how brainless can you be to even say something like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But it all has the effect of creating noise that could be detrimental to McLaren as the season reaches its climax, in the process taking the pressure off Verstappen ahead of a weekend on which Red Bull Racing will need everything to go right.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a lot more relaxed now,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cI go in there with just positive energy. I try everything I can.<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the same time, if I don\u2019t win it, I still know that I had an amazing season, so it doesn\u2019t really matter. It takes a lot of the pressure off. I\u2019m just out there having a good time, like I had today.\u201d<\/p>\n Chaz: “Thank god for finals” | 01:04<\/p>\n FERRARI FINISHES FOURTH, WILLIAMS FIFTH<\/p>\n Antonelli\u2019s lost two points late in the race weren\u2019t just to Norris\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton, who\u2019s clearly counting down the days until this wretched first season with Ferrari is finished, might also breathe a small sigh of relief.<\/p>\n Had Antonelli kept those points, the rookie would have overtaken Hamilton for sixth place in the drivers title.<\/p>\n Seventh on the title table would equal Hamilton\u2019s lowest championship finish, achieved just last year.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I\u2019m much stronger in the second half of the year,\u201d Antonelli told Sky Sports. \u201cIt has been a definitely another story compared to the European [rounds].<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re fighting more and more often at the front, which is very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately for the seven-time champion, the dispiriting Hamilton connections don\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n As he stares down the barrel of his first Formula 1 season without a podium, the man he replaced at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, took his second podium of the season for Williams.<\/p>\n Sainz started seventh, had a great start to rise to fifth and then gained from the pit lane drama during the first safety car to be running fourth, which became third when Norris made his final pit stop.<\/p>\n The result locked Williams into fifth in the championship, up from ninth last season, which will come with a bump in prize money worth approximately $50 million.<\/p>\n \u201cThis surpasses our expectations,\u201d Williams boss James Vowles told Sky Sports. \u201cI hope it shows the world the direction that we\u2019re on and the belief that we have in where we\u2019re going as well.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still here to win championships \u2014 we\u2019re a long way away from that, a long way away \u2014 but at least now the work we\u2019re doing is starting to pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Hamilton\u2019s non-scoring race, combined with Charles Leclerc\u2019s similarly uncompetitive eighth, means Ferrari is locked into a deeply underwhelming fourth on the championship table behind Mercedes and Red Bull Racing \u2014 and it would be behind Red Bull Racing even if you were to discount Tsunoda\u2019s 30 points.<\/p>\n It leaves precious little for Ferrari fight for in the final race of season the team will be eager to see the back of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every grand prix features four people on the podium. 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