Mrhban, MiniFans! Saturday’s qualifying reinforced Piastri’s standing in Qatar, with the Australian grabbing pole position in front of his teammate once again. The third in contention, Verstappen, fared better than he had done on Friday, managing to snag a third place that allows him to still battle and put up a fight to delay the title decision to the last weekend of the year.
The start was clean from the front, with Norris not putting up a fight as Verstappen went to overtake him, allowing for a quick pass to settle back in third, behind his teammate, who started commanding the race and opening up a gap. Behind them, Russell had a bit of a worse time, conceding a couple positions to Alonso and Sainz, who took the opportunity as soon as it presented itself. The rest of the grid had a similar experience, with a few drivers going over track limits, but only Gasly seeing consequences in the shape of a piece of his car touching the track and leaving a shower of sparks in his wake.
The first big shock came barely in lap 7, with a safety car caused by Hulkenberg, whose rear tyre was touched by Gasly, making him spin out and be forced to retire. Neither McLaren went in, whereas the rest of the grid, save for Ocon, did pit. The 25 maximum laps per tyre set meant that they could get rid of the first stop, trading flexibility for one less stop to be made later on. Not quite agreeing to this, McLaren left both of their drivers on the same set of tyres they had started on, reassuring them that they were on the better strategy.
Once the safety car left, the race was restarted with the big question of whether McLaren had chosen the best or the worst strategy. As the laps went by, the situation loomed over their heads. Sure, they were still on their terms when it came to when to stop, but the win was in the air, given that at that point, tthe drivers who had stopped under the safety car were quite close.
In lap 25, McLaren was forced to pit their drivers. Piastri’s stop went well, allowing him to leave the pits in front of Alonso, whereas Norris, whose stop was faster and managed to also barely make it out in front of Alonso. After everyone had taken their first stop, they were settled in fourth and fifth, whereas Verstappen was now leading, followed by Sainz and Antonelli. Verstappen was holding on better, but both the Williams and the Mercedes couldn’t quite keep up the pace. Piastri quickly caught up and got past Antonelli without much trouble, but Norris wasn’t managing to do the same as his teammate. Stuck behind Antonelli, he decided to wait it out just a few laps.
Lap 32 marked the second big pitlane visit: most of the grid needed to do their second compulsory stop to comply with the maximum of 25 laps per tyre set, and the pitlane became mayhem once again. As it was expected, it wasn’t as disorganized as the first time had been, but it still was more populated than usual. Once everyone had done their second stop (save for McLaren), Verstappen was in third, just a few seconds behind Norris and fully ready to fight to the death. Seeing the better behaviour of the harder compound, McLaren had to make a choice on their strategy and so they did.
Piastri was the first one to be called in, still with around 15 laps to go, to get a fresh set of hards in a record time, and Norris followed a few laps later, with a bit of a slower stop but still quick enough to stay in contention, even if two cars (Sainz and Antonelli) had slotted themselves between the teammates, halting Norris temporarily. Back at the front, Verstappen was leading with an iron fist, not allowing anyone to even breathe in his direction. Piastri was comfortably settled in second, whereas Sainz had surprisingly climbed up to fifth, taking advantage of the mayhem in the pitlane and pulling out all the tricks up his sleeve to stay at the front.
The ending of the race was fully focused on the last step of the podium. Verstappen and Piastri were far ahead enough not to worry about what was going on behind, but Sainz had full eyes in his rearview mirrors, as both Antonelli and Norris had closed up the distance. His former teammate wasn’t quite managing to close up to the Italian rookie, but a problem for the Mercedes driver in the last lap allowed the championship leader to get past and up into fourth, but the win was secure in Verstappen’s hands, who’d be accompanied on the podium by Piastri and Sainz, who managed to keep Norris behind to obtain his second podium of the season.
The race was shaken up by the forced two-stop strategy on the drivers, but the safety car at the perfect moment made it so that McLaren made a bad choice and their race was turned upside down, going from 1-2 to 2-4. From the possibility of the celebration of a title, to a last chance for Verstappen, who’s now barely twelve points away from making history. The championship will be once again decided on the last race of the season, letting Abu Dhabi be witness to a first time champion or the celebration of a fifth.
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