Max Verstappen has offered his reaction to McLaren’s dramatic Qatar Grand Prix blunder ahead of next week’s F1 title decider in Abu Dhabi.
Lando Norris painfully missed out on becoming world champion in Qatar on Sunday after a shocking decision from McLaren early into the race.
With all other drivers heading for a pit stop when a safety car was called on lap seven, McLaren kept their two stars out on the track, in a call which ended up costing the team.
Verstappen, third at the start of the race, ended up winning the Qatar GP with Oscar Piastri, who was on pole, finishing as runner-up and Norris falling down from second to fourth, behind Williams’ Carlos Sainz.
British star Norris could’ve clinched his first career title with a race to spare on Sunday if he ended up 26 points, or more, ahead of McLaren teammate Piastri and 25 points in front of Red Bull’s Verstappen.
But a fascinating race in Qatar means Verstappen has now cut Norris’ lead in the F1 title race to just 12 points with just the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix left.
Speaking after the race, Verstappen was quizzed about the two McLarens not pitting early-on and said: ‘I was like, that’s an interesting move! I knew we had a gap but you still need to keep the tyres alive. The tyre wear is high around here and luckily it all worked out.’
The race to become Formula 1 world champion
With just one Grand Prix left to go, Norris has a 12-point lead over Verstappen as he looks to become Formula 1 world champion.
1. Norris – 408 points
2. Verstappen – 396 points
3. Piastri – 392 points
A F1 world champion will not be crowned until the Abu Dhabi GP has concluded on December 7, with Norris looking to become the first Brit to land the title since Lewis Hamilton and end Verstappen’s run of four in a row from 2021 to 2024.
‘I didn’t expect to win today, that’s for sure,’ Verstappen added. ‘Looking at pure pace, we were not on the same level as McLaren, but we made the right call, as most of the grid did, in boxing under the Safety Car.
‘That almost gives you a free pit stop and that made the race for me.
‘I knew after that pit stop it was going to be two long stints on the tyre in terms of tyre wear, but we managed that very well and they didn’t really catch up too much. It was all under control.
‘For sure, that call at the pit stop made me win the race today. It was another one [example of other people’s failures]. I don’t think it was about [McLaren] playing too fair today, it was about missing the whole pit stop opportunity.
‘On pure pace they are faster, but as it showed today again anything is possible.’
Verstappen: An incredible race for Red Bull
After cutting Norris’ lead to just 12 points heading into the final F1 race of the season, Verstappen continued: ‘It’s all possible now! We will see. I don’t worry about it too much.
‘This was an incredible race for us. We made the right call as a team to box under that Safety Car. That was smart. I’m super happy to win here. We stay in the fight until the end. Incredible!
‘It was a very strong race on a weekend that was a bit tough but we won the race and that was important.’
Norris makes ‘tough’ admission after Qatar GP
‘It’s tough,’ Norris said after his fourth-placed finish in Qatar. ‘We just have to have faith in the team in making the right decision.
‘It’s always a gamble. I feel like we’re the ones who took the gamble in a way [by not pitting early-on]. Now it’s the wrong decision and we shouldn’t have done it.
‘Oscar lost the win and I lost P2. We didn’t do a good job today, but we’ve done plenty of good jobs in other races and we won the constructors’ seven or six races ago because of that.
‘Not our finest day, but that’s life.’
Stella admits McLaren got it wrong in Qatar
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, meanwhile, said: ‘It’s a disappointing result overall. We had the potential to win the race with Oscar, he deserved that. He was fastest in qualifying and the sprint.
‘Certainly the podium was available for Lando but we lost the victory with Oscar and we lost the podium with Lando. Definitely not the outcome we wanted. Something we will review with the decision we made when there was the Safety Car on lap seven.
‘As usual we will learn from racing and will get stronger for the next event, which will become more important.’
Quzzed on if the decision not to pit was an error or a conscious decision, Stella added: ‘It was a decision not to pit. In fairness, we didn’t expect everyone else to pit.
‘Once everyone pitted, it makes that the right thing to do. When you have the lead car, you don’t know what the others are going to do. There could have been a loss for Lando if we pitted both cars with the double stack, but, effectively, the main reason was not expecting everyone else to pit.
‘It was a decision. As a matter of fact it wasn’t the correct decision.’
How Verstappen cut Norris’ lead to just 12 points
Australian star Piastri was on pole for the race in Qatar – ahead of Norris and Verstappen in second and third respectively – but the Dutchman moved ahead of the Brit into Turn One on the very first lap.
Verstappen headed for a pit stop when a safety car was called on lap seven with most of the other drivers but the two McLarens stayed out as Norris reclaimed second.
Norris could be heard on the team radio questioning why he did not pit with engineer Will Joseph claiming McLaren’s rivals had ‘lost all flexibility for the remainder of the race’.
Piastri headed for a pit stop on lap 25, temporarily handing the lead to teammate Norris, with the Briton then pitting on the following lap.
That saw Verstappen move into first as Piastri and Norris fell down to fourth and fifth respectively.
On lap 30, Piastri drove down the inside of Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli into Turn One to move up to third.
Two laps later, Norris was handed a second warning for breaching track limits – knowing that two more would result in a five-second penalty – as Antonelli fended off the struggling Brit from overtaking.
Verstappen, along with Antonelli and Williams’ Sainz, headed for a pit stop on lap 33 as the Dutchman fell to third behind race leader Piastri and second-placed Norris.
But Norris badly needed to pick up the pace with Verstappen, Piastri, Antonelli and Sainz all faster than than him.
After the McLarens pitted, it seemed like a Verstappen victory was inevitable with Piastri having a firm grip on second and Norris in a battle for third with Antonelli and Sainz.
With 10 laps to go, Verstappen was 14 seconds ahead of second-placed Piastri with Norris still down in fifth, behind Antonelli and Sainz.
On lap 52, fourth-placed Antonelli and fifth-placed Norris were closing in on Sainz.
Norris eventually passed Antonelli on the final lap to climb up to fourth – but he couldn’t land a podium finish as Sainz secured third behind race winner Verstappen and second-placed Piastri.
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