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Motorsport

F1 Qatar GP: Five quick takeaways

Lando Norris Max Verstappen Qatar McLaren Oscar Piastri Charles Leclerc Lewis Hamilton Yuki Tsunoda Ferrari F1

Norris failed to use his match point

The championship battle goes on.

Lando Norris arrived in Qatar with an opportunity to clinch the title there and then – and would have been able to do so by simply outscoring Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri by two points.

Yet that task proved too difficult. Norris struggled to match his team-mate, and at times it looked as if he was being overly cautious throughout the weekend. Sunday turned out to be particularly challenging for the Briton – and not only because of McLaren’s strategy error. He lacked pace himself and failed to even reach the podium.

Both championship rivals not only kept their chances alive but closed the gap, and Norris’ advantage over Verstappen is now far from comfortable.

Lando Norris, McLaren (Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images)

The Dutchman and Red Bull, for their part, capitalised on yet another mistake from rivals to win another race, already fifth since the summer break.

- Oleg Karpov

Piastri is back in form – just in time

Piastri’s dreadful run has finally ended – and just at the right moment to keep his championship hopes alive. Having lost a huge lead and slipped behind his team-mate in the standings, the Australian arrived in Qatar level on points with Verstappen, who only a couple of months ago was more than 100 behind him.

Qatar has always suited Piastri – he has been quick at Losail since his rookie season – and those who expected a comeback were proven right. Piastri was the quicker of the two McLaren drivers throughout the weekend, and he finally started clawing back the points he lost relative to Norris on Saturday by winning the sprint from pole.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren (Photo by: Lars Baron / LAT Images via Getty Images)

The victory should have been his on Sunday as well, but McLaren’s pitwall decided otherwise…

- Oleg Karpov

Ferrari’s struggles turn into nightmare

Not so long ago, after the Mexico Grand Prix, Ferrari was in second in the constructors’ championship.

Since then, the Scuderia’s form has been nothing short of catastrophic. It has scored just 26 points in three grands prix, as many as Williams.

The SF-25’s behaviour is bafflingly unpredictable, which the drivers are far from enjoying, and that costs a significant amount of performance. But it’s not like the car, in its current state, could be a winner anyway.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari (Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images)

Both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton appeared demoralised when speaking to the media this weekend – a regular occurrence in 2025 as far as the seven-time world champion is concerned, but it was surprising coming from a resolute optimist like Leclerc.

In Qatar, Ferrari got its worst result of the season – excluding its double DNF at Zandvoort – with Leclerc eighth and Hamilton down in 12th. The team is now 43 points down on third-placed Red Bull, and therefore mathematically assured to finish an underwhelming fourth in the constructors’ championship.

- Ben Vinel

Tsunoda fails to deliver on his last opportunity

As Red Bull Racing closes in on deciding the driver line-ups for both of its teams, Yuki Tsunoda needed a strong weekend in Qatar. Not to continue with Red Bull – that ship has clearly sailed – but to stay on the F1 grid altogether by returning to RB.

The Japanese driver began the weekend strongly, narrowly beating team-mate Verstappen by 0.009s to take fifth in sprint qualifying. In doing so, he became the first driver to out-qualify the Dutchman since Sergio Perez in Azerbaijan last year – in other words, across 37 qualifying sessions.

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing (Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

However, the confident version of Tsunoda didn’t last long. He performed adequately in the sprint race, finishing fifth behind Verstappen despite a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits. But later that day, during the main qualifying session, he found himself back in familiar territory.

He lapped two and a half tenths slower than in sprint qualifying and was knocked out in Q1 for the third consecutive grand prix – and for the tenth time in 26 sessions since joining Red Bull Racing.

His climb from 15th on the grid to 10th at the chequered flag will surely not suffice, and he now stands on thinner ice than ever. Will the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix be his last in F1 for the time being?

- Federico Faturos

Enforced pitstops aren’t the answer

For the second time this year, Formula 1 mandated an additional stop for teams in the race. In Monaco, a two-stop strategy was called for to try and spice up the action, while Pirelli implemented a 25-lap cap on tyre stints in Qatar over safety concerns – effectively forcing teams into two stops over the 57-lap race.

In Monaco, it caused chaos that was tricky to keep track of and did nothing to improve the racing. In Qatar, an early safety car forced almost the entire field onto the same strategy – stopping on lap 7 and lap 32 to cover the race distance.

Drivers pit during the safety car (Photo by: Altaf Qadri / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

McLaren was the only team not to stop under the safety car, and this left its drivers effectively fighting back with one hand tied behind their backs after losing out to Verstappen. The stint cap took out all the unpredictability and left McLaren with no option to hold on in hope of another safety car, as it might have done on another given race weekend.

- Owen Bellwood