🔗 Share this article

The championship contender capitalized on a strategy call from the British team that flew in the face of decisions made by every other team during an early race safety car period

It was a costly decision that sacrificed track position to the Red Bull driver in the closing laps and retrospectively threw away the race win for Piastri

Race Results and Title Consequences

Verstappen triumphed to take his seventh victory of the season, matching Norris and Piastri, while the Piastri was runner-up and the Briton fourth behind the Williams of Carlos Sainz

Norris won himself an extra two points by overtaking the Mercedes driver's Silver Arrow on the second-to-last lap

Norris has been left with a twelve point advantage over his rival, who overtook Piastri by four points heading to Abu Dhabi on December 5-7

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

Key Moments of the Thrilling Race

• The team's choice not to pit when a safety car was deployed on the seventh lap for a collision between the French team's Pierre Gasly and Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg
• A strategy initiated by Piastri to bring forward his final stop in a last-ditch effort to catch the leader proved unsuccessful
• A surprise podium finish for the Williams driver gifted by McLaren's strategy call

How McLaren Missed Out in The Race

The fateful moment for McLaren was when the two drivers collided as the German tried to overtake the Frenchman around the exterior of Turn One on the seventh lap

The German's car was damaged beside the circuit This triggered the yellow flag

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

With Pirelli enforcing a twenty-five lap safety limit on the tyres, that meant anyone who pitted at that time was committed to a fixed plan with a additional pit stop on the thirty-second lap

Driver Responses and After the Event Comments

No words

The McLaren driver commented in his after-race conversation: Clearly we didn't get it right tonight I drove the best race I could, as fast as I possible, but there was no more pace out there Attempted my utmost but didn't get it done

Verstappen said: That represented an amazing performance for us We made the correct decision to pit It was intelligent And extremely pleased to win here and stay in the fight to the end, remarkable

Final Race Positions

• 1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
• 2. Piastri (McLaren)
• 3. Sainz (Williams Racing)
• 4. Norris (McLaren Racing)
• 5. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes-AMG)
• 6. George Russell (Mercedes)
• 7. Alonso (Aston Martin F1)
• 8. Charles Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari)
• 9. Liam Lawson (RB F1 Team)
• 10. Tsunoda (Red Bull Racing)

What's Next?

The crucial championship finale at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit The circuit itself does not create the most thrilling racing, but yet again this twilight race features an event which appears set to become every bit as dramatic as Vettel's first title in 2010, or Verstappen's highly controversial first title in twenty-twenty-one