Verstappen Qatar win takes title fight to final race

Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri will contest a final-race championship showdown in Abu Dhabi after the Red Bull driver won a gripping Qatar Grand Prix.

Verstappen benefited from a strategy call from McLaren that flew in the face of decisions made by every other team during an early race safety car.

It was a costly decision that sacrificed track position to Verstappen in the final stages and in hindsight threw away the race win for Piastri.

Verstappen won to take his seventh win of the season, equalling Norris and Piastri, while the Australian was second and the Briton fourth behind the Williams of Carlos Sainz.

Norris won himself an extra two points by passing Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes on the penultimate lap.

Norris has been left with a 12-point lead over Verstappen, who moved ahead of Piastri by four points heading to Abu Dhabi on 5-7 December.

To win the title, Norris must finish second at Yas Marina if Verstappen wins the race next Sunday.

The key moments of a dramatic race in Qatar were:

• McLaren's decision not to stop when a safety car was called on lap seven for a crash between Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg.

• A decision led by Piastri to bring forward his final stop in a desperate attempt to challenge Verstappen came to nothing.

• A surprise second podium for Sainz gifted by McLaren's strategy call.