After the sprint race on Saturday, action resumed under the floodlights at the Lusail International Circuit for the FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS QATAR GRAND PRIX 2025. With the three drivers still in contention for the championship title and the season ticking down, this was an important race.
The top three drivers in the championship were the top three on the starting grid, with Lando Norris potentially able to secure his first title by the end of the race. He led the championship by 22 points, meaning he just has to outscore the other two contenders by 3 points. But his teammate Oscar Piastri started from pole position, and the sprint race showed just how difficult overtaking is at this circuit.
The reaction time was equal at the front of the field, but Norris had the slowest acceleration. This allowed Max Verstappen to climb to P2 before the first corner. But the race quickly turned into a tyre-saving venture.
The safety car was deployed on lap seven for a collision between Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly at the first corner. Hulkenberg tried to overtake around the outside, but Gasly washed wide and tapped the Sauber. Hulkenberg had been having a strong race, which included the bizarre sight of a Sauber overtaking the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Gasly had damaged the floor of his Alpine in the opening laps after taking a trip through the gravel, causing some sparks as a small piece dragged the ground.
Lap seven was an excellent time for a safety car. Due to tyre concerns, Pirelli mandated a 25-lap maximum stint, effectively forcing every team to take a two-stop strategy. Seven laps was the shortest first stint possible to get away with only two pit stops in the race. This prompted every team to call their cars into the pit lane, except for both McLaren drivers.
This effectively meant that, while all the other teams would have to make only one more stop on lap 32, McLaren would have to make two more stops at lap 25 and before lap 50. The benefit was that McLaren had some additional flexibility in their strategy to pit anywhere between lap 32 and lap 50.
When the race restarted on lap 11, McLaren’s goal was to push as hard as possible to build as large a gap as they could before their first pit stops.
They were initially outpacing Verstappen significantly, but the pace quickly equalized. Piastri pitted first on lap 24, rejoining in P5 comfortably ahead of Fernando Alonso. Norris pitted on the following lap, also rejoining narrowly ahead of Alonso. Piastri also managed to overtake Kimi Antonelli, helping his track position.
The rest of the field pitted on lap 32, putting the two McLarens back in the lead. Piastri was the first to make his final pit stop on lap 43, rejoining in P2 ahead of Carlos Sainz. Norris pitted two laps later, rejoining P5. Critically, McLaren didn’t gamble on the soft tyres on either car, taking the hard tyres for the final stint.
Norris caught up to Antonelli, hanging into DRS range in the closing laps of the race. It looked like Norris wouldn’t be able to get by the Mercedes, but Antonelli ran wide in turn 10 after suffering a snap of oversteer on the penultimate lap, promoting Norris to P4. Those two additional points could prove critical in the championship battle.
Verstappen cruised across the finish line comfortably in the lead of the race, jumping Piastri in the championship standings. Sainz stood on the podium alongside Verstappen and Piastri, despite suffering some damage in the closing laps, nearly falling into the clutches of Antonelli and Norris.
With that result, Norris still leads the championship by 12 points over Verstappen and 16 over Piastri, but the three-way championship battle will be decided at the season finale under the lights in Abu Dhabi on December 7.
| Pos. | Driver | Laps | Time | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 57 | 1:24:38.241 | 25 | ||
| 2 | 57 | +7.995 | 18 |  | |
| 3 | 57 | +22.665 | 15 | ||
| 4 | 57 | +23.315 | 12 | ||
| 5 | 57 | +28.317 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 57 | +48.599 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 57 | +54.045 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 57 | +56.785 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 57 | +60.073 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 57 | +61.770 | 1 | ||
| 11 | 57 | +66.931 | |||
| 12 | 57 | +77.730 | |||
| 13 | 57 | +84.812 | |||
| 14 | 56 | +1 Lap | |||
| 15 | 56 | +1 Lap | |||
| 16 | 56 | +1 Lap | |||
| DNF | 55 | ||||
| DNF | 55 | ||||
| DNF | 41 | ||||
| DNF | 6 |
| 1 | L. Norris | 408 |  | |
| 2 | M. Verstappen | 396 | -12 |  |
| 3 | O. Piastri | 392 | -16 |  |
| 4 | G. Russell | 309 | -99 | |
| 5 | C. Leclerc | 230 | -178 | |
| 1 | McLaren | 800 |  | |
| 2 | Mercedes | 459 | -341 | |
| 3 | Red Bull | 426 | -374 | |
| 4 | Ferrari | 382 | -418 | |
| 5 | Williams | 137 | -663 | |
