Max Verstappen kept the Formula One title race alive with a ruthless, opportunity-grabbing victory at the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, slicing Lando Norris’ championship lead in half and setting up a three-way, winner-takes-all showdown in Abu Dhabi.
The defending four-time champion seized control the moment McLaren fumbled its strategy under an early safety car.
Verstappen pitted immediately on Lap 7 – taking a free stop in a race that required two tire changes – and emerged with a tactical advantage he never surrendered.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Norris stayed out, a decision that proved fatal.
From there, Verstappen drove with a cool precision reminiscent of his championship-defining runs.
He passed Norris in Turn 1 at the start, shadowed pole-sitter Piastri in the early laps, and then built an ironclad lead as McLaren scrambled to recover from its miscalculation.
By the time Piastri and Norris made their eventual stops on Laps 24 and 27, the damage was irreversible.
Verstappen crossed the line in 1:24:38.241, nearly eight seconds clear of Piastri, earning his seventh win of the season, his third straight in Qatar, and the 70th victory of his career.
Carlos Sainz steered his Williams to third, while Norris salvaged fourth after a late pass on Kimi Antonelli, limiting the championship bleed to 12 points.
“It’s all possible now!” Verstappen said. “We made the right call, stayed in the fight, and I don’t worry too much about the rest.”
But the storyline belonged as much to McLaren’s self-inflicted wounds as to Verstappen’s execution. A week earlier, both Norris and Piastri were disqualified in Las Vegas, losing 30 combined points. In Qatar, with a front-row lockout and the fastest car, they threw away another golden chance. Had Norris won, he would’ve secured his maiden World Drivers’ Championship.
“Now it’s the wrong decision. We shouldn’t have done it,” Norris said. “It wasn’t our greatest day. But I put myself in this position with the run I’ve had, and we’ll take it on the chin.”
Piastri, who had driven flawlessly from pole, didn’t hide his frustration.
“Speechless... Clearly we didn’t get it right,” he said. “We’ll discuss it, but it’s tough to swallow.”
The pivotal moment unfolded when Nico Hulkenberg spun after tangling with Pierre Gasly on Lap 7. With tire limits capped at 25 laps due to extreme degradation, the safety car presented a no-brainer: pit immediately or risk being forced into two later stops. Red Bull did. McLaren didn’t.
Verstappen’s strategy chief Hannah Schmitz even joined him on the podium – an unmistakable nod to the call that transformed the race.
When the McLarens finally stopped again on Laps 43 and 45, Verstappen’s lead was unassailable.
Piastri rejoined 15 seconds behind, Norris stuck in fifth, unable to reel in Sainz. Antonelli and George Russell claimed sixth and seventh for Mercedes, with Alonso, Leclerc, Lawson, and Tsunoda rounding out the points.
Lewis Hamilton’s nightmare Ferrari season continued with a quiet 12th.
Now the calendar turns to Abu Dhabi, where Verstappen has won four of the past five races and famously snatched the 2021 title on the final lap. Norris still controls his fate: a top-three finish secures Britain's first champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020 – regardless of what Verstappen or Piastri do.
Verstappen, once 104 points adrift in late August, now stands 12 behind Norris and four ahead of Piastri.
The desert drama is far from over.
“It’s possible now,” Verstappen said. “We’ll see.”
