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The championship contender capitalized on a strategy call from the British team that contradicted decisions made by every other team during an initial safety car period

It was a expensive choice that gave up track position to the Red Bull driver in the final stages and retrospectively threw away the race win for the Australian driver

Grand Prix Results and Title Consequences

Verstappen won to take his seventh victory of the season, equalling Norris and Piastri, while the Australian was second and the Briton in fourth behind the Williams car of the Spanish driver

Norris won himself an additional points by passing the Mercedes driver's Silver Arrow on the penultimate lap

Norris has been left with a twelve point lead over Verstappen, who moved ahead of his teammate by four points heading to the final race on 5-7 December

To win the championship, the British driver must finish at least third at Yas Marina if his rival takes victory next Sunday

Critical Events of the Dramatic Grand Prix

• McLaren's choice not to stop when a safety car was deployed on lap seven for a collision between Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Swiss team's Hulkenberg
• A strategy initiated by Piastri to bring forward his final stop in a desperate attempt to catch the leader came to nothing
• A unexpected second podium for the Williams driver gifted by the team's strategy call

How The British Team Lost Out in Qatar

The fateful moment for the team was when Gasly and Hulkenberg collided as the German tried to pass the Frenchman around the exterior of Turn One on the seventh lap

Hulkenberg's car was left damaged beside the circuit That brought out the safety car

The crucial part of the timing was that it meant there were 50 laps left in the grand prix

With Pirelli imposing a twenty-five lap safety limit on the tires, that meant anyone who made a stop at that time was locked into a rigid strategy with a second stop on lap 32

Driver Responses and After the Event Statements

No words

The McLaren driver commented in his post-race interview: Clearly we didn't get it right tonight My driving was the best race I could, as fast as I could, but there was no more pace out there Attempted my best but couldn't secure victory

The race winner stated: That represented an amazing performance for us Our team executed the correct decision to pit It was intelligent Furthermore super-happy to triumph in Qatar and remain competitive to the end, remarkable

Final Race Positions

• 1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
• 2. Piastri (McLaren Racing)
• 3. Sainz (Williams Racing)
• 4. Lando Norris (McLaren Racing)
• 5. Antonelli (Mercedes-AMG)
• 6. Russell (Mercedes-AMG)
• 7. Alonso (Aston Martin)
• 8. Charles Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari)
• 9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
• 10. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull Racing)

What's Next?

The crucial championship finale at the Yas Marina This venue does not create the most exciting racing, but once again this evening event hosts an event which appears set to become every bit as thrilling as Vettel's first title in 2010, or Verstappen's much-debated initial championship in twenty-twenty-one