Max Verstappen didn’t just win the Qatar Grand Prix Sunday—he filleted it, seasoned it, and served it back to McLaren with a polite note that read, “Thanks for the strategy blunder.” The Dutchman took a race that should have belonged to Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, turned it inside out, and walked away with his seventh win of the season and the 70th of his career. And now, just 12 points separate him from Norris heading into the finale. If Formula 1 wanted a dramatic showdown, this was the motorsport gods handing them a hand-written invitation.
At lights out, polesitter Piastri launched cleanly while Norris got mugged by Verstappen on the drag to Turn 1. That moment alone should’ve put McLaren on alert. Instead, they settled into their usual papaya-colored optimism, letting Piastri stretch away and Norris settle into an early rhythm as the first stint promised a nice, tidy afternoon.
But this is Qatar, where tires are treated like expired dairy products. With the FIA forcing a maximum 25-lap limit per set and everyone required to stop twice, the whole race was already a mathematical exercise waiting to explode. And explode it did—on lap seven—when Nico Hülkenberg and Pierre Gasly collided at Turn 1, dumping a Safety Car onto the track at the exact moment every strategist in every garage simultaneously blew a fuse.
Red Bull? They didn’t even blink. Verstappen dove in. So did the rest of the field.
McLaren? They froze like someone had unplugged the pit wall.
“I asked, what are we doing?” Piastri said later. “Because we were getting pretty close to the pit entry, and I hadn’t had a call yet. I think when you don’t get a call instantly when the Safety Car comes out, clearly there’s probably some discussions going on about what to do.”
The discussion produced the wrong answer.
Both McLarens stayed out. Everyone else boxed. And when the race reset, Piastri and Norris were suddenly tasked with pulling out an enormous cushion—enough to pit later and not end up stuck behind traffic. Fortunately for them, Fernando Alonso—a man who loves chaos almost as much as championships—decided to save tires and back up half the field like he was escorting a tour bus. That gave McLaren the breathing room they needed, allowing Piastri to pit on lap 24 and Norris on lap 25, both emerging ahead of Alonso with only Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, and Kimi Antonelli ahead.
But Verstappen was already looming—a shark cruising just behind the McLaren formation. When he stopped again on lap 32, the truth became painfully clear: the papaya pair were still in trouble. Verstappen had fresh Hard tires, clean air, and enough pace to make sure they couldn’t build another escape window.
McLaren driver Lando Norris dejected after the Qatar Grand Prix at the Lusail International Circuit. Picture date: Sunday November 30, 2025. (Photo by David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images)
So Piastri went early on his second stop—lap 42—hoping to undercut the Dutchman. Norris followed two laps later, but that’s where their fates split. Piastri came out with a clean plan to chase Verstappen down. Norris rejoined in fifth, stuck behind Antonelli and Sainz with a dwindling championship lead and a rapidly growing headache.
Antonelli defended like a veteran, not a rookie, placing his Mercedes exactly where Norris didn’t want it. With passing in Qatar limited to Turns 1 and 6, every lap was a study in frustration. Finally, with the Italian’s tires crying for mercy, Antonelli slid wide at Turn 10 on the penultimate lap, letting Norris through to salvage fourth. Two points saved. Ten lost somewhere else.
At the front, Piastri drove like a man trying to stop history. He slashed Verstappen’s lead in half, carving 15 seconds down to about eight with a string of blistering laps. But it wasn’t enough. Verstappen was simply too controlled, too consistent, too Verstappen. After 57 laps, he crossed the line with 7.9 seconds in hand, extending the title fight to a final-round showdown no one expected a month ago.
“This was an incredible race for us,” Verstappen said. “We made the right call as a team to box under the Safety Car. That was smart… We still won the race and that was the most important thing.”
Sainz delivered one of his best Sundays of the year to secure third for Williams—his second podium of the season—while Antonelli brought home fifth to keep Mercedes’ Constructors’ ambitions alive. George Russell recovered to sixth after an early shuffle, Alonso spun himself into a 360° highlight reel on his way to seventh, and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari limped home eighth. Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda cleaned up the final two points-paying spots.
Norris summed McLaren’s day with a sharp jab of honesty: “Nothing to complain about, just strategy as the second car is always a bit worse and had me over today. It wasn’t even the fact we were the second car, we shouldn’t have done what we did. Simple as that.”
Simple as that… except nothing about this title fight is simple anymore. Norris’s once-comfortable lead is down to 12. Piastri sits 16 back. Verstappen has thrown the door wide open.
Qatar should have been a McLaren cruise. Instead, it may be the moment we look back on and say: yep, that’s where Max started lighting the fuse.
And now the whole world gets to watch the explosion.
LUSAIL CITY, QATAR – NOVEMBER 30: Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing takes the chequered flag during the F1 Grand Prix of Qatar at Lusail International Circuit on November 30, 2025 in Lusail City, Qatar. (Photo by Mario Renzi – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS QATAR GRAND PRIX 2025 – RACE RESULT
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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