2025 Qatar Grand Prix

Max Verstappen made the point recently that he’s in title contention only because McLaren has let him in. Qatar proved that point again. Verstappen took his seventh victory of the season in a Red Bull that looked nowhere near McLaren for much of the weekend. But he was handed it by McLaren’s bizarre decision not to pit either race leader Oscar Piastri or third-place Lando Norris under a lap-seven safety car. The rest of the field – including second-place Verstappen – drove into the pitlane for their free stop and that was Piastri’s victory gone. It really was as simple as that.

Piastri was never going to make up the time lost by not pitting. He was fit to be tied afterwards. Norris – not quite on Piastri’s pace all weekend – managed to pressure Kimi Antonelli into relinquishing fourth on the last lap but the third-place Williams of Carlos Sainz was safe.

So Verstappen heads to Abu Dhabi next week 12 points behind Norris and four in front of Piastri. The numbers still favour Norris but there does seem to be an inevitability about the way events are conspiring to give Verstappen opportunities.