🔗 Share this article Norris' Title Wait Goes On as Max Verstappen Wins in Qatar The Red Bull driver secured his 7th victory of the campaign McLaren's Norris, Red Bull's Verstappen and McLaren's Piastri will battle for a final-race championship clash in Yas Marina after Verstappen emerged victorious in a gripping Qatar GP Verstappen capitalized on a strategy call from McLaren that flew in the face of decisions made by all other squads during an early race safety car deployment This proved to be a costly decision that sacrificed track position to Verstappen in the closing laps and in hindsight threw away the race win for Piastri Race Outcome and Championship Implications The race winner triumphed to take his 7th victory of the season, equalling the McLaren drivers, while the Piastri was runner-up and the Briton fourth behind the Williams car of the Spanish driver Norris earned an extra two points by passing the Mercedes driver's Mercedes on the penultimate lap Norris has been maintained a twelve point advantage over Verstappen, who moved ahead of Piastri by four points heading to the final race on December 5-7 To secure the title, the British driver must secure a podium position at Yas Marina if Verstappen wins the race next race day Key Moments of the Dramatic Grand Prix McLaren's decision not to stop when a safety car was called on the seventh lap for a collision between Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Swiss team's Nico Hulkenberg A strategy initiated by Piastri to bring forward his final stop in a desperate attempt to challenge the leader came to nothing A unexpected podium finish for Sainz gifted by the team's tactical decision How The British Team Lost Out in The Race The fateful moment for the team was when Gasly and Hulkenberg collided as the Hulkenberg tried to pass the Frenchman around the exterior of Turn One on the seventh lap The German's car was left damaged beside the circuit This triggered the safety car The critical part of the timing was that it left exactly 50 laps remaining in the race With the tire manufacturer enforcing a twenty-five lap maximum usage on the tyres, that signified anyone who made a stop at that time was committed to a rigid strategy with a second stop on lap 32 Competitor Responses and Post-Race Statements No words The McLaren driver commented in his post-race interview: Obviously we made mistakes tonight I drove the strongest performance I was capable of, as fast as I could, but there was no more pace out there Attempted my best but couldn't secure victory Verstappen stated: This was an amazing performance for us We made the right call to pit That proved intelligent Furthermore super-happy to triumph in Qatar and remain competitive to the head, remarkable Final Race Positions 1. Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) 2. Piastri (McLaren Racing) 3. Carlos Sainz (Williams) 4. Lando Norris (McLaren Racing) 5. Antonelli (Mercedes-AMG) 6. George Russell (Mercedes-AMG) 7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 8. Charles Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari) 9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) 10. Tsunoda (Red Bull Racing) What's Next? The all-important title decider at the Yas Marina Circuit The circuit itself does not produce the most exciting racing, but yet again this twilight race features an contest which appears set to become every bit as dramatic as Sebastian Vettel's first title in twenty-ten, or the Dutch driver's much-debated initial championship in 2021