DOHA, Qatar — Oscar Piastri clawed back two valuable points on Formula 1 title rival Lando Norris with victory in a sprint race which left Max Verstappen clinging on to contention.
Championship leader Norris — who can wrap up the title this weekend — settled for third behind Mercedes’ George Russell in a tense race which saw F1’s other contender, Max Verstappen, finish one place back in fourth position.
Third place was not a disaster for Norris’ title bid and he will be world champion if he wins Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix.
With eight points handed out to the top eight finishers in F1’s sprint races Piastri heads into qualifying for that event, the penultimate round of the year, 22 points behind Norris, with Verstappen now 25 points behind the Englishman with 50 left to play for over the next two Sundays.
Verstappen spent the first eight laps of the 19-lap event within a second of Norris, meaning he had use of the Drag Reduction System (DRS) overtaking aid down the straight to get closer, but never looked to have a legitimate chance of forcing an overtake.
After that spell, he dropped back, finishing 2.7 seconds behind Norris and 9.054 seconds behind Piastri, suggesting Red Bull has work to do to be competitive for the rest of the weekend.
The reigning four-time world champion must now finish ahead of Norris on Sunday to still have any chance of winning a fifth world championship at next week’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Saturday’s sprint, the last of six this season, was a processional one lacking any major drama safe for a start made entertaining by the fast-starting Red Bull of Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who lept from fifth to challenging Norris for third at Turn 1. It was another poor advert for the shortened version of racing F1 introduced in 2021 to give certain races through the season three days of competitive action.
Tsunoda quickly dropped back to finish what looked set to be a season’s best fifth, only for a five-second penalty for repeated track limits violations dropping him back to sixth.
Even with the penalty, it was a refreshing showing of pace from the Japanese driver after a difficult year, and one that comes at a crucial point in his Formula 1 career.
Red Bull is believed to be promoting Isack Hadjar from the junior team to replace Tsunoda next year, but has not decided whether to keep the Japanese driver or Liam Lawson at the junior team, with rising company talent Arvid Lindblad expected to make the step up from Formula 2 in the other seat.
With a decision expected to come between the races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, Sunday’s race might be the final chance for Tsunoda to put an exclamation mark under why he deserves to stay within the company’s orbit.
Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli moved up to fifth after Tsunoda’s penalty was applied, although he himself received a five-second time penalty which dropped him to sixth.
Fernando Alonso finished seventh for Aston Martin, with Carlos Sainz taking the final points-paying position in eighth.
Ferrari’s weekend started in miserable circumstances.
Pierro Ferrari, son of company founder Enzo, watched on from the garage as Charles Leclerc finished 13th in an uncharacteristically sloppy display which involved multiple off-track excursions.
The struggling Lewis Hamilton finished 17th in the other red car. After crossing the line, a he told Ferrari on the radio: “I don’t know how, but we’ve made the car worse.”
