Max Verstappen beats Piastri to take F1 title race to Abu Dhabi GP as Norris falters

Max Verstappen believed he had long since “checked out” from being able to defend his world championship. Yet the Dutchman, while down, was far from out and has, with victory in the Qatar Grand Prix, battled and bludgeoned his way back into contention just as McLaren have somehow contrived to leave Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri vulnerable to his late charge, as Verstappen forced the title race to the wire at the final round next weekend in Abu Dhabi. With Lando Norris, the title leader, fourth and his teammate Oscar Piastri second in Doha, after McLaren made an egregious strategy error, there will now be a three-way fight to the finish at the season finale, with 16 points separating all three drivers. Verstappen is 12 points back from Norris, with Piastri a further four worse off. It is a scenario that was all but unthinkable when Verstappen was 104 points behind Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix on 31 August and he had in effect written off his championship ambitions. Related: F1: Verstappen wins Qatar GP as three-way title race goes to Abu Dhabi finale – live reaction Earlier in the weekend the McLaren chief executive, Zak Brown, had jokingly compared Verstappen to the horror movie trope of a character that will simply not stay dead. The world champion’s response as he revelled in the sheer glee of lurching back into McLaren’s nightmares was simply: “You can call me Chucky.” Within whose fever dreams he must now loom larger than ever. What was considered to be McLaren’s party to close out the season is now set to be a nerve-jangling, pressure-filled finale, one where they are faced with having a fired-up Verstappen on a charge to try to take what would be the unlikeliest of titles and would stand as his greatest achievement. Verstappen won from third place after a superb drive but was given an enormous leg up when McLaren chose not to pit both their drivers under an early safety car when the rest of the field did so to take a free stop. It ensured Verstappen took the lead and as the stops played out he could not be caught. Norris took damage when he went off wide and was unable to stay with the two leaders and Carlos Sainz, who was third. Interactive Norris and Piastri decried the team’s strategy decision and, coming on the back of receiving a double disqualification for the pair at the last round in Las Vegas, it seems McLaren are engineering their own problems as they stumble and stagger toward the finish line. A once simple two‑horse race between the pair may now be snatched from their grasp at the death. There are 25 points for the winner in Abu Dhabi and Norris will still seal it if he finishes in front of his two rivals there or at least third, but the finale will be far more closely fought than he would have liked having gone into the race in Doha with a 24-point advantage over both Piastri and Verstappen. The defending champion had a mountain to climb to stay in the fight three months ago but when Red Bull brought upgrades to their car that addressed the balance issues that had plagued it for most of the season, he exploited it and as the two McLaren drivers took points from one another, the world champion came hurtling up the rails. McLaren, who have not won a drivers’ championship since 2008 and not done the drivers’ and constructors’ double since 1998, have left themselves exposed, promoting more questions about their policy of not choosing to favour one driver to close out the title. They have let them race throughout and the team principal, Andrea Stella, insisted after the race they would rigorously continue to do so in Abu Dhabi. Indeed it appears this fervent desire for scrupulous fairness to them both played a part behind the decision not to take the free pit stop, when every other team did so when a safety car was called on lap seven. Stella explained that it was a “­misjudgment”, where they been caught out expecting other teams to also stay out, which would have put the McLarens in traffic had they come in. He also admitted, though, that it was prompted by the fact that ­Norris would have lost time and places as they double-stacked both cars at once in the pits. It was compounded by the fact that there were two stops which had to be made so they could not adapt strategy on the hoof. Pirelli had limited the use of tyres for the race to a 25-lap stint, making the 57-lap contest a mandatory two-stop as a precaution against punctures on what is an enormously demanding circuit with high lateral loads on the rubber. This pursuit of fairness, then, has ultimately cost both drivers and allowed Verstappen in through the back door. Piastri, who had been on pole and demonstrated in the race how fearsomely quick he could be in Qatar, was palpably furious that what he felt had been a likely win had been snatched from his grasp, saying only at the end that he was “speechless” with a face like thunder and a square‑set jaw. Norris too felt the team had missed a trick but he might have made third but for taking damage to his car. Indeed he took fourth only at the death when Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli made an error and let him through; significantly, the extra two points mean third will be sufficient for Norris in Abu Dhabi. Verstappen’s engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, initially believed the Italian had simply moved over for Norris, an accusation for which he subsequently apologised and which the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, described as “brainless and total and utter nonsense”. It was a sideshow spat on a day of grand drama that McLaren will want to forget. They require a reset and to clear the air before going again in Abu Dhabi, where the entire season now hangs in the balance.