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Verstappen benefited from a strategy call from McLaren that contradicted decisions made by all other squads during an early race safety car deployment

It was a costly decision that sacrificed track position to the Red Bull driver in the closing laps and in hindsight threw away the victory for the Australian driver

Grand Prix Outcome and Title Consequences

Verstappen triumphed to take his 7th win of the season, matching Norris and Piastri, while the Australian was runner-up and the Briton in fourth behind the Williams car of Carlos Sainz

The McLaren driver won himself an additional points by overtaking the Mercedes driver's Silver Arrow on the penultimate lap

Norris has been left with a 12-point lead over his rival, who overtook Piastri by four points heading to the final race on 5-7 December

To secure the title, the British driver must finish at least third at Yas Marina if Verstappen takes victory next Sunday

Critical Moments of the Dramatic Grand Prix

• McLaren's choice not to stop when a safety car was deployed on lap seven for a crash between Alpine's Gasly and Sauber's Hulkenberg
• A strategy led by Piastri to bring forward his last pit stop in a desperate attempt to challenge Verstappen came to nothing
• A unexpected podium finish for the Williams driver handed by McLaren's strategy call

How The British Team Lost Out in The Race

The critical moment for the team was when the two drivers came together as the Hulkenberg tried to overtake the Gasly around the outside of Turn One on the seventh lap

The German's car was left damaged beside the track That brought out the safety car

The crucial part of the timing was that it left exactly 50 laps left in the race

With the tire manufacturer enforcing a 25-lap maximum usage on the tires, that signified anyone who pitted at that moment was locked into a fixed plan with a second stop on the thirty-second lap

Competitor Responses and After the Event Comments

Speechless

The McLaren driver commented in his post-race conversation: Clearly we made mistakes tonight My driving was the best race I was capable of, as fast as I possible, but there was no more pace out there Attempted my best but didn't get it done

The race winner stated: This was an amazing performance for us We made the correct decision to box That proved intelligent Furthermore extremely pleased to triumph in Qatar and stay in the fight to the end, remarkable

Ultimate Race Standings

• 1. Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
• 2. Piastri (McLaren)
• 3. Carlos Sainz (Williams Racing)
• 4. Norris (McLaren)
• 5. Antonelli (Mercedes-AMG)
• 6. Russell (Mercedes-AMG)
• 7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
• 8. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
• 9. Liam Lawson (RB F1 Team)
• 10. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)

Looking Ahead

The all-important title decider at the Yas Marina The circuit itself does not produce the most thrilling competition, but once again this twilight race hosts an contest which appears set to become every bit as thrilling as Sebastian Vettel's maiden championship in 2010, or Verstappen's highly controversial initial championship in 2021