🔗 Share this article Lando Norris' Championship Wait Goes On as Verstappen Wins in Qatar Verstappen secured his 7th win of the season McLaren's Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri will battle for a decisive championship clash in Yas Marina after the Dutch driver won a thrilling Qatar Grand Prix The championship contender capitalized on a strategy call from McLaren that contradicted decisions made by every other team during an early race safety car deployment This proved to be a expensive choice that gave up track position to Verstappen in the closing laps and retrospectively threw away the victory for Piastri Grand Prix Results and Title Consequences The race winner triumphed to take his 7th victory of the season, equalling Norris and Piastri, while the Australian was runner-up and the British driver in fourth behind the Williams car of the Spanish driver Norris earned an additional points by overtaking Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes on the second-to-last lap The championship leader has been maintained a 12-point advantage over his rival, who overtook his teammate by four points heading to the final race on 5-7 December To win the title, Norris must finish at least third at Yas Marina if his rival wins the race next race day Critical Moments of the Dramatic Grand Prix The team's decision not to pit when a safety car was deployed on the seventh lap for a collision between the French team's Gasly and Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg A decision initiated by the Australian to advance his final stop in a last-ditch effort to challenge Verstappen came to nothing A unexpected second podium for Sainz gifted by McLaren's tactical decision How The British Team Missed Out in Qatar The fateful point for McLaren was when Gasly and Hulkenberg collided as the Hulkenberg tried to pass the Frenchman around the exterior of Turn One on the seventh lap Hulkenberg's car was damaged beside the track That brought out the yellow flag The critical part of the timing was that it meant there were 50 laps left in the race With Pirelli enforcing a twenty-five lap maximum usage on the tires, that meant anyone who pitted at that moment was locked into a rigid strategy with a additional pit stop on lap 32 Driver Responses and After the Event Comments Speechless Piastri added in his after-race interview: Clearly we didn't get it right tonight My driving was the best race I was capable of, as fast as I could, but there was no more pace out there Attempted my best but didn't get it done The race winner stated: That represented an incredible race for us Our team executed the right call to box It was intelligent And super-happy to triumph in Qatar and remain competitive to the head, incredible Final Race Positions 1. Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) 2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren Racing) 3. Sainz (Williams) 4. Norris (McLaren Racing) 5. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 6. Russell (Mercedes) 7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 8. Charles Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari) 9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) 10. Tsunoda (Red Bull Racing) Looking Ahead The all-important championship finale at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit This venue does not create the most exciting competition, but yet again this twilight race features an event which promises to be every bit as dramatic as Sebastian Vettel's first title in twenty-ten, or Verstappen's much-debated first title in twenty-twenty-one