Max Verstappen dramatically increased his chances of winning the world championship at the final round by winning the Qatar Grand Prix.
He took advantage of a surprising strategy call by McLaren to come from behind both their cars to win.
Verstappen and the McLaren drivers will go to the final race of the season all in contention to win the championship. Oscar Piastri finished second while Lando Norris fell to fourth behind Carlos Sainz Jnr.
The race hinged on McLaren’s decision not to pit either of their drivers when the Safety Car was deployed seven laps into the race. It appeared to come at the perfect moment with 50 laps to go, as drivers were limited to maximum stints of 25 laps per set of tyres.
Red Bull pounced on the opportunity to pit Verstappen from second place, after he passed Lando Norris at the start. Every other team brought both their cars in.
McLaren’s hope that they could use their pace after the restart to build up enough of a gap over Verstappen was quickly dashed. Even after Piastri’s second pit stop he was still only 10 seconds ahead of the Red Bull driver.
That led McLaren to abandon any thoughts of leaving their drivers out until the final laps. McLaren brought Piastri in first but he was unable to close on Verstappen and had to settle for second place.
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It was even worse for Norris, who reported he damaged his car with a wild moment at turn 14 before pitting. He rejoined the track in fifth place and was unable to make any impression on Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz Jnr ahead of him.
Despite picking up floor damage over the final laps, Sainz clung on to take third place. Norris spent the final laps repeatedly closing on Antonelli in the DRS zone on the pit straight, to no avail, until the Mercedes driver made a mistake at turn 10 and the McLaren driver snatched fourth.
George Russell finished sixth after making a poor start from fourth on the grid and losing time in the pits. Fernando Alonso took seventh ahead of Charles Leclerc and Liam Lawson.
Isack Hadjar was running inside the points until he suffered a puncture on the final lap, which handed Tsunoda the final points place.
Hadjar joined Nico Hulkenberg in retirement after the Sauber driver’s collision with Pierre Gasly caused the race-changing Safety Car period. Oliver Bearman retired after being given a 10-second stop-go penalty for an unsafe release and Lance Stroll also dropped out of the race.
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