🔗 Share this article Lando Norris' Title Wait Continues as Verstappen Triumphs in Qatar The Red Bull driver claimed his 7th victory of the campaign Lando Norris, Red Bull's Verstappen and McLaren's Piastri will contest a decisive championship showdown in Yas Marina after the Dutch driver won a thrilling Qatar GP The championship contender benefited from a strategy call from McLaren that flew in the face of decisions made by all other squads during an early race safety car period This proved to be a expensive choice that sacrificed track position to the Red Bull driver in the closing laps and retrospectively threw away the race win for the Australian driver Grand Prix Outcome and Title Consequences Verstappen won to take his 7th victory of the campaign, equalling Norris and Piastri, while the Australian was second and the British driver fourth behind the Williams of the Spanish driver The McLaren driver won himself an additional points by passing the Mercedes driver's Mercedes on the second-to-last lap The championship leader has been maintained a 12-point advantage over Verstappen, who overtook Piastri by four points heading to the final race on December 5-7 To secure the title, Norris must secure a podium position at Yas Marina if his rival wins the race next race day Key Moments of the Thrilling Race The team's decision not to stop when a safety car was called on lap seven for a collision between Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Sauber's Hulkenberg A decision led by the Australian to advance his final stop in a desperate attempt to catch the leader proved unsuccessful A surprise podium finish for Sainz gifted by McLaren's strategy call How The British Team Missed Out in Qatar The fateful moment for McLaren was when the two drivers came together as the German tried to overtake the Frenchman around the outside of Turn One on lap seven Hulkenberg's car was damaged beside the circuit That brought out the safety car The critical part of the timing was that it meant there were 50 laps left in the grand prix With Pirelli imposing a 25-lap safety limit on the tires, that meant anyone who pitted at that moment was committed to a rigid strategy with a second stop on lap 32 Competitor Reactions and After the Event Comments No words Piastri commented in his after-race interview: Obviously we made mistakes tonight I drove the best race I could, as quick as I could, but there was no more pace out there Tried my utmost but didn't get it done Verstappen stated: This was an amazing performance for us Our team executed the right call to box It was intelligent And extremely pleased to win here and remain competitive to the end, remarkable Ultimate Race Positions 1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 2. Piastri (McLaren) 3. Carlos Sainz (Williams) 4. Lando Norris (McLaren Racing) 5. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes-AMG) 6. George Russell (Mercedes) 7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin F1) 8. Charles Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari) 9. Lawson (RB F1 Team) 10. Tsunoda (Red Bull) Looking Ahead The crucial championship finale at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina This venue does not produce the most exciting racing, but once again this twilight race hosts an contest which appears set to become every bit as dramatic as Sebastian Vettel's maiden championship in twenty-ten, or Verstappen's highly controversial initial championship in twenty-twenty-one