Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix, while McLaren blew it, to take the Formula One title battle with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to a season-ending showdown in Abu Dhabi next weekend.
Championship leader Norris finished fourth, behind the Williams of Spaniard Carlos Sainz, with the Briton’s advantage slashed to 12 points as McLaren paid a heavy price for a strategy blunder when the safety car was deployed early on.
Verstappen’s third win in a row in the night race moved the four-times world champion up to second in the standings, now four points clear of Norris’s Australian teammate Piastri who started on pole but finished second.
The top three drivers each have seven wins for the season.
“We stay in the fight until the end,” said Verstappen, who has been champion since a controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix duel with Lewis Hamilton.
“It’s still possible now,” added the Dutchman, who has staged an astonishing comeback from 104 points off the lead at the end of August when his hopes of remaining in the reckoning right down to the wire looked over.
–Reuters–
