The Formula One championship will be settled in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Qatar delivered exactly the kind of drama a penultimate round should, reshaping the title fight and jolting the season back to life. From strategy gambles to late-race mistakes, Lusail gave us tension, twists and a title race that now hangs by a thread.
Here are the most interesting storylines from Sunday’s F1 race:
Verstappen wins again to stay in title hunt
Seeing Max Verstappen and Rebecca Schmitz celebrate on the podium showed exactly what it means to take the title race down to the wire. Schmitz, Red Bull’s strategy chief, made the call that dragged Verstappen back into contention, and Verstappen did the rest. Her push to pit under the Safety Car on Lap 7 gave him the one opening he needed.
Verstappen had already done the first part on track, clearing Lando Norris off the line from P3 and settling in behind Oscar Piastri. But when Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber stopped at Turn 1 and the Safety Car emerged, the field hit its first realistic chance to bank one of the two mandatory tyre stops, with every stint capped at 25 laps. McLaren made the bizarre decision to keep both cars out. Schmitz told Verstappen to pit and the rest of the grid followed. That call catapulted Red Bull into the strongest strategic position and forced McLaren into a race they could no longer control.
Once the race restarted, Verstappen took over. He managed the pace with predictable strength and stretched the gap, finishing nearly eight seconds ahead of Piastri to seal his 50th career victory.
“This was an incredible race for us. We made the right call as a team to box under the Safety Car. That was smart,” he said. “I’m super happy to win here and stay in the fight until the end.”
Verstappen is now only 12 points behind Norris, a remarkable turnaround from the 104-point deficit he faced after the Dutch Grand Prix on August 31. And all this came at the end of a weekend where he battled bouncing in his sessions and missed the Sprint podium.
Asked whether winning a fifth world title is now truly possible, Verstappen nonchalantly replied: “It’s all possible now. We’ll see. I don’t worry about it too much.”
Abu Dhabi awaits.
McLaren score own goal
Piastri arrived in Qatar with expectations at their lowest point of the season. His recent form had been subdued and many had quietly written him out of the title conversation, but he responded with a weekend that demonstrated his calibre, reminding all of the quality he exhibited earlier in the season.
He took Sprint pole, won the Sprint and secured pole position for the race ahead of his teammate Norris, delivering the most complete performance he has produced in months. Unfortunately, McLaren let him down. The brilliance that should have defined his weekend was eroded by a strategic decision that took the result out of his hands.
The impact of the strategy call became clear as soon as the race order settled. Despite his pace, Piastri no longer held the track position his performance had earned, and second was all he could manage. Norris finished fourth, helped only by a late wobble from Kimi Antonelli that allowed him to overtake. Without that, he would have finished fifth.
Zak Brown accepted responsibility. “We made the wrong call. I feel terrible for Oscar and Lando. Oscar was impeccable all weekend, so we let them down.”
The team insisted they didn’t want to pit so early as they wanted flexibility. Papaya rules, however, added another layer of intrigue. Had McLaren stopped both cars, Norris would have been stuck behind Piastri and almost certainly lost out to Verstappen.
Their commitment to treating both drivers equally may have influenced the call. Hindsight suggests they should have at least pitted one of the drivers to guarantee a McLaren win. Norris was blunt afterwards. “It was a gamble. And it was the wrong one.”
Andrea Stella acknowledged the broader pattern. What should have been an easy path to the final in Abu Dhabi has suddenly been made a lot more complicated, first by the double disqualification in Las Vegas and now by the poor strategy call. “We are haemorrhaging points in the last two events. Our drivers are performing at a very high level. It is the team that needs to elevate its game.”
Norris is still in control of his fate and heads to Abu Dhabi holding a 12-point advantage over Verstappen, while Piastri sits a further four points behind the Dutchman.
Sainz claims a second podium
Carlos Sainz delivered another immense performance in Qatar, becoming the first Williams driver in a decade to take two podiums in a single season and sealing fifth place for the team in the Constructors’ Championship.
The smooth operator has transformed the team’s year and, in many ways, its identity. His arrival has been a pleasure for Williams, a steadying force and a catalyst for belief, and it was no surprise to see team principal James Vowles visibly emotional as Sainz crossed the line. He has done what few thought possible at the start of the season, lifting Williams to their best finish since 2016 and done it with a level of consistency that has eluded the man who replaced him at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, who has yet to score a single podium this year.
Qatar showcased everything that makes Sainz so valuable. After jumping to P5 on the opening lap, he took full advantage of the Safety Car window, but he was quick to remind everyone that his achievements were down to a team effort.
“I’m so happy, so proud of the whole team for what we’ve done today,” he said.
Williams nailed the pit stop that vaulted him ahead of Antonelli, and from there, Sainz delivered the rest. “We nailed the race pace … nailed the strategy, nailed the tyre management, nailed the start, nailed all the defending,” he added. Ten laps from the end he pushed flat out to keep Norris out of reach, and even when Norris dipped into DRS range on the final lap, Sainz never wavered.
For a team that expected Qatar to be one of its toughest weekends, the result felt extraordinary. It was a day that belonged to all of them and the hard work they have put in all season.
Mercedes shut down conspiracy theory
Antonelli had fourth place all but secured. He had driven with the control that has seen him been a hall mark of an impressive rookie season. But when Norris closed in during the final laps, the pressure told. On the penultimate lap Antonelli lost the rear at Turn 10 and drifted off-line, handing Norris fourth place.
The Mercedes driver's mistake allowed Norris to gain two extra points over race winner Verstappen heading into the final race in Abu Dhabi. The incident ignited a conspiracy theory at Red Bull. Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappen’s race engineer, suggested over the team radio that Antonelli had let Norris pass. Helmut Marko, advisor to Red Bull Racing, backed it up, saying "it was obvious".
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff hit back at the accusations, explaining that the situation was nothing more than a young driver making an error under pressure, not some orchestrated twist. “Of course he made a mistake,” Wolff said. “But this is how you learn. These situations are part of growing into Formula 1.”
It was a harsh way to lose what should have been another good result heading into the season finale, but it was still an impressive race from the young Italian, who finished ahead of his teammate George Russell in sixth.
