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Verstappen benefited from a tactical decision from the British team that flew in the face of decisions made by every other team during an initial safety car deployment

It was a expensive choice that gave up track position to Verstappen in the final stages and in hindsight threw away the race win for the Australian driver

Race Results and Title Implications

Verstappen triumphed to take his 7th victory of the season, matching Norris and Piastri, while the Piastri was second and the British driver fourth behind the Williams of the Spanish driver

The McLaren driver earned an additional points by overtaking the Mercedes driver's Mercedes on the second-to-last lap

Norris has been left with a twelve point lead over Verstappen, who overtook Piastri by four points heading to the final race on December 5-7

To win the championship, Norris must secure a podium position at Yas Marina if his rival wins the race next Sunday

Key Moments of the Dramatic Race

• The team's decision not to stop when a yellow flag was called on the seventh lap for a crash between the French team's Gasly and the Swiss team's Hulkenberg
• A strategy initiated by the Australian to bring forward his last pit stop in a last-ditch effort to catch the leader came to nothing
• A surprise second podium for the Williams driver gifted by the team's tactical decision

The Way McLaren Missed Out in The Race

The fateful point for McLaren was when Gasly and Hulkenberg collided as the German tried to pass the Gasly around the outside of the first corner on the seventh lap

The German's car was damaged beside the track That brought out the yellow flag

The critical part of the timing was that it left exactly 50 laps remaining in the race

With Pirelli enforcing a twenty-five lap safety limit on the tyres, that meant anyone who made a stop at that moment was committed to a rigid strategy with a additional pit stop on lap 32

Driver Responses and Post-Race Comments

Speechless

Piastri added in his post-race conversation: Clearly we made mistakes tonight My driving was the strongest performance I was capable of, as fast as I possible, but there was no more pace out there Tried my best but didn't get it done

The race winner said: That represented an amazing performance for us We made the correct decision to box That proved intelligent And super-happy to triumph in Qatar and remain competitive to the head, remarkable

Final Race Standings

• 1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
• 3. Sainz (Williams)
• 4. Norris (McLaren Racing)
• 5. Antonelli (Mercedes-AMG)
• 6. Russell (Mercedes)
• 7. Alonso (Aston Martin)
• 8. Charles Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari)
• 9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
• 10. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)

Looking Ahead

The all-important championship finale at the Yas Marina Circuit The circuit itself does not create the most thrilling racing, but once again this twilight race features an event which promises to be every bit as dramatic as Sebastian Vettel's first title in 2010, or the Dutch driver's highly controversial first title in 2021