F1 Qatar Grand Prix 2025 Recap: Verstappen storms to victory to set up final-day drama in Abu Dhabi

Max Verstappen capitalised on McLaren’s strategic fumble to win the 2025 Formula One Qatar Grand Prix, thus keeping his championship hopes alive.

Pole-sitter Oscar Piastri finished second ahead of Carlos Sainz, as Williams capitalised once again on incidents around them to pick up their second podium of the season. Lando Norris, who started P2, finished a disappointing P4, leaving Qatar with a 12-point lead over Verstappen, with Piastri a further four points behind.

Only 16 points separate the top three drivers heading into the final race of the season, with a three-way final-day battle to ensue for the first time since 2010, when Sebastian Vettel picked up his maiden title with Red Bull.

Oscar Piastri got the grid off the line, but it was Max Verstappen behind him with the best start as he breezed past Lando Norris to move into P2 heading into the first turn, going around the Brit to take second place.

Kimi Antonelli also had a strong start and moved up to P4, as George Russell dropped two places in the opening couple of corners and saw Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso move up to P5 and P6, respectively. By the second lap itself, Piastri was over a second and a half clear of Verstappen in second, with Norris almost three seconds behind in third.

On Lap 7, the race saw the Safety Car come out as Pierre Gasly and Nico Hülkenberg came together. Hülkenberg crashed out at Turn 1 after being spun around by Gasly’s front-left tyre. Verstappen came in instantly for his pit stop, and the entire grid followed barring the McLaren cars.

Racing resumed on Lap 11, after Hülkenberg’s stalled car was removed from the track. Piastri caught Norris off guard at the restart and, within a few corners, was more than a second clear of his teammate. The two Mercedes drivers suffered the most from the early stop, though, as a double stack, which turned out to be slow, saw them lose position to Sainz, Alonso, and Isack Hadjar, with Antonelli and Russell having rejoined in P5 and P8, respectively.

Piastri was well clear of Norris as the race entered its 20th lap, holding a comfortable 3.5s gap over his teammate, with Verstappen a further four seconds behind, seemingly looking in tyre management mode.

McLaren called in Piastri for his first stop on Lap 24. The Australian came out in P5, as Norris was called in the following lap. He rejoined behind his teammate in P5 but had Alonso all over his back before he took a couple of corners to put in some gap between himself and the two-time world champion.

While the McLaren drivers got their stops out of the way, Verstappen inherited the lead of the race, with Sainz and Antonelli behind him. Piastri swooped past Antonelli heading into Turn 1 on Lap 30 to move into the podium places, showing some strong pace on his new set of tyres.

Verstappen came in for his second stop on Lap 32 and switched to the hard compound for the remainder of the race, returning to the track in P3 as the remainder of the grid — barring the McLaren cars — also came in for their second stop at the start of Lap 33. Piastri took the lead of the race in the meantime, with his teammate almost five seconds behind him.

By Lap 40, a rapid Verstappen was under two seconds behind Norris, who looked like he was nursing a slight issue. McLaren called in Piastri for his second stop on Lap 42, and an incredible 1.8s stop from the McLaren crew saw him return quickly in P3, 17 seconds behind Verstappen, who had broken into the DRS range of Norris, who would return to the track in P5 after his second stop following a slowish stop from his crew, with Piastri a good 15 seconds behind Verstappen with ten laps to go.

Despite coming close on multiple occasions, Norris struggled to make a clean pass on Antonelli, who put in a stunning defensive drive to keep the championship leader at bay. Hadjar, meanwhile, suffered a puncture on his front-left tyre and had to drop out of the race.

Norris finally got Antonelli on the final lap; the rookie Italian went wide, allowing Norris to move up to P4. Up ahead, Verstappen was unbothered and untouched as he eased to his seventh win of the season, winning the race from Piastri.

McLaren’s early gamble to keep both cars out didn’t pay off. Despite having the fastest car all weekend, only one of their drivers finished on the podium. Sainz picked up his second podium for Williams with a strong race ahead of Norris and Antonelli, with George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc, Liam Lawson, and Yuki Tsunoda rounding out the points places, in that order.

With his win in Lusail, Verstappen has overtaken Piastri in the Drivers’ Championship standings. The reigning world champion now has 396 points, with Lando Norris in the lead with 408 points. Oscar Piastri’s second place, meanwhile, has seen him drop to third place with 392 points.

We are in for a literal three-way title race as the 2025 Formula One season moves to its concluding chapter in Abu Dhabi next weekend.