Motorsports

Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen closed to within 12 points of leader Lando Norris heading into final round in UAE next weekend.

Four-time Formula One (F1) world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing kept the three-way 2025 drivers’ championship battle alive with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after securing victory in the penultimate race of the season at the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday.

Verstappen closed to within 12 points of McLaren’s Norris, who finished fourth at Lusail Circuit, heading into the 24th and final round in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

Norris’s teammate Piastri finished second in the race after starting on pole position and is now 16 points behind in the championship battle. But the Australian is still in with a chance to win the drivers’ title.

Carlos Sainz of Williams finished third in Qatar to round out the podium behind Verstappen and Piastri.

The victory was Verstappen’s 70th grand prix career victory.

The top three drivers now each have seven wins for the 2025 season.

McLaren get it wrong on early safety car call

Piastri won the holeshot to the first corner with Norris alongside him on the front row, only to be overtaken by Verstappen, who began the race from third spot on the grid.

During lap seven, Red Bull pitted Verstappen under a safety car, resulting in a free pit stop, unlike McLaren, which kept its two drivers out on the track, resulting in Norris and Piastri losing valuable time later when they made their final stop.

This played into Verstappen’s hands, with the Dutchman able to control the race for the remainder of the 57-lap contest, crossing the finish line ahead of Piastri by just under eight seconds.

“Clearly, we did not get it right tonight,” conceded Piastri.

“I drove as fast as I could, but it wasn’t to be. In hindsight, it is pretty obvious what we should have done, but we’ll discuss that as a team. [It’s] a little bit tough to swallow at the moment,” the Australian added.

Verstappen said: “An incredible race for us. We made the right call to box under that safety car. A strong race for us on a weekend that was tough.”

The McLarens now head to Abu Dhabi with a hard-charging Verstappen looking to repeat history by clinching a championship in the last race at Yas Marina, having done so when he overtook Lewis Hamilton on the final lap after a controversial finish in 2021.

“It’s possible now, but we will see,” said Verstappen, who had written off his chances earlier this season. “I don’t really worry about it too much.”

Lando Norris closes in on first Formula One Drivers’ championship after finishing second to Max Verstappen in Nevada.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday, but McLaren’s Lando Norris has one hand on the Formula One title after finishing second and stretching his lead over teammate Oscar Piastri to 30 points.

Piastri finished fourth after Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who was ahead of the Australian at the chequered flag, had five seconds added for jumping the start.

George Russell, last year’s winner of the floodlit race and, like Norris, making his 150th start, completed the podium for Mercedes.

With two grands prix and a sprint remaining, worth a maximum 58 points, Norris has 408 points to Piastri’s 378 with four-time world champion Verstappen still mathematically in contention on 366.

Norris finished 20.741 seconds behind but can now secure his first title in Qatar next weekend, with McLaren having already clinched the constructors’ crown for the second year in a row.

Quite a decent gap

“The car was working pretty well, much more to my liking,” said Verstappen, ferried to the podium with Norris and Russell in a LEGO pink Cadillac convertible driven by actor Terry Crews as fireworks lit up the sky over the strip.

“It was at the end quite a decent gap.”

It was the 69th win of Verstappen’s career and his sixth of the season, as well as his 125th podium and eighth in a row in the 150th Grand Prix of Red Bull’s partnership with Honda.

Norris lost the lead to Verstappen at the start, dropping to third when he ran wide at the first corner and opened the door for the Dutch driver and Russell.

He retook second from Russell on the 34th of 50 laps but then had to manage fuel to the finish.

“I let Max have a win,” he joked. “I let him go, let him have a nice race. No, I just braked too late,” he added, with an expletive on the live television feed that could land the Briton in trouble with the governing FIA.

“It was not my best performance out there, but when the guy wins by 20 seconds, it’s because he has just done a better job and they’re a bit quicker.”

Antonelli finished fifth with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc sixth and Williams’ Carlos Sainz seventh. Isack Hadjar was eighth for Racing Bulls, and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton completed the top 10.

Piastri dropped from fifth to seventh on the opening lap after contact with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, who plunged to last with a badly damaged car.

Verstappen was 20 seconds clear of the field by lap 23 and pitted at the halfway point, rejoining in the lead after Russell and Norris had already switched to the hard tyre.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was taken out by Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, as the Brazilian rookie dived aggressively into the first corner and ran out of road, with both retiring immediately.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was also a spinner at the start, and the virtual safety car (VSC) was triggered on the second lap for marshals to retrieve debris between turns one and four.

The VSC was deployed again on lap 16 for more debris on track after Williams’ Alex Albon and Hamilton collided, with the latter racing from 19th and last on the grid to 13th on the opening lap.

Albon, whose team lost radio contact with the car from the start, was handed a five-second penalty for causing the collision and also reprimanded for a starting procedure infringement.