Qatar Grand Prix 2025: Race Review

Despite delivering an Oscar-winning performance, the Australian was ultimately let down by his McLaren team, after a miscalculated strategic decision gifted Max Verstappen Qatar Grand Prix victory and, crucially, a place advantage in the drivers’ championship battle.

Key Moments

During the opening lap, Max Verstappen comfortably overtook championship leader Lando Norris to gain P2 position. Meanwhile, on the other side of the McLaren garage, Oscar Piastri dominated, after curating a strong racing start ahead of the pack.

The fate of the Australian was, however, soon to change.

During Lap 7, Niko Hulkenberg collided with the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, spinning off towards the barriers and prompting the release of a safety car.

While this is primarily too early for strategists to ever consider making a pit stop, a mandatory two-stop race – due to safety concerns over tyre wear – ultimately flipped the traditional script on its head.

While most used the incident to their advantage, making the first of two required pit stops, and generating two equally-weighted 25-lap stints, McLaren did not.

Crucially, all but the constructors’ champions opted to take advantage of the reduced safety car conditions.

While McLaren protested that not following suit would provide themselves with more “flexibility”, as the Grand Prix developed, it was soon made obvious that this decision would, in fact, have the opposite effect.

Many – myself included – feel that this reasoning is merely an excuse, in the name of maintaining Papaya Rules.

Oscar Piastri could easily have been pitted under a traditional split strategy, with the aim of maintaining his advantage over Max Verstappen, had McLaren truly held concern that pitting during Lap 7 would be a risky strategic call.

However, doing so would have simultaneously made the choice to disadvantage Lando Norris, which goes against their so-called ‘equality’ ethos.

Focusing so hard on prioritising the ‘fairness’ felt between both drivers has ultimately left McLaren vulnerable to external forces, giving Max Verstappen an ‘in’ several times over the course of the last few weeks, with this being the latest example of such.

McLaren failures have been made so often, and to such an extent, that the Dutchman is now ahead of Piastri in the championship and just 12-points behind leader Lando Norris, despite being 104-points behind just seven races prior.

While Piastri fiercely dominated the competition all weekend – breaking the circuit lap record twice; gaining and securing pole position during both the Sprint race and Qualifying, and getting away strongly on the opening lap of the Grand Prix – such miscalculated team orders meant that Grand Prix victory was no longer a tangible possibility for the Australian.

As such, the hopes of Piastri achieving his first world championship title have been greatly shattered.

Having proven himself throughout, with his calm and subdued ability placing the prioritisation of McLaren’s drivers into contention, I am truly heartbroken for the Australian, whose fighting chances have been knocked time and time again by his own team.

Likewise, this strategic call also disadvantaged Lando Norris, who lost his opportunity to fight for a podium position during the closing stages of the race, finding himself in P5 position after pitting a second time during Lap 45.

Crucially, however, the British championship leader was able to overtake Kimi Antonelli during the penultimate lap, finishing the Grand Prix in P4 position, and gaining a critical additional 2-points towards his drivers’ championship fight.

The Qatar Grand Prix ultimately concluded with Max Verstappen in P1 position, moving up to second in the drivers’ championship rankings, with Oscar Piastri being forced to settle for P2 position, while Carlos Sainz found himself in P3 position for the second time this season.

Despite the growing media curiosity surrounding the drivers’ championship, it is important to celebrate Carlos Sainz and Williams for their increasing improvement over the 2025 season, with the Spaniard achieving the most podiums held by a Williams driver within a season since 2015.

Now that is what I call a smooth operator.

Qatar Grand Prix 2025: Final Thoughts

While not particularly interesting as a stand-alone race, the Qatar Grand Prix provided all the cinematic elements of tension necessary in the context of a looming drivers’ world championship result, and penultimate 2025 season race.

With just one race remaining, do McLaren have what it takes to secure the double, or will Verstappen capitalise on their misfortunes, to claim a fifth consecutive world championship title?

At this stage, I would truly not like to speculate…

The season concludes December 7th at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with either Lando Norris; Max Verstappen, or Oscar Piastri driving away with the 2025 world championship title.