2025 Qatar Grand Prix Race Review

Linus O'Howell
Nov 30, 2025
4 min read

Verstappen Stuns McLaren to Take Title Fight to Abu Dhabi

Just when it looked like it could be over once again, Max Verstappen took advantage of a McLaren blunder to take victory in Qatar to keep his Championship hopes well and truly alive! Oscar Piastri was left reeling after the win got away from him (through no fault of his own), whilst Carlos Sainz rounded out the Podium with a brilliant result for Williams!

The Biggest Talking Points

Oscar Piastri got the best start possible to remain in the lead into Turn 1, whilst Max Verstappen did exactly what he needed to do by dispatching Lando Norris for second! George Russell didn’t get a very good start at all, dropping 3 places to 7th, whilst Pierre Gasly was seemingly running with damage after running wide at Turn 14! Speaking of Pierre, he made contact with Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 1, resulting in Hulkenberg being out of the Race whilst a Safety Car was brought out! Now, this was the big moment in this Race as with 50 laps to go, everyone was able to pit behind the Safety Car, allowing them two 25-lap stints to the end! However, everyone decided to do that, except McLaren! This was clearly the wrong way to go, as when we got back underway, McLaren told their two drivers to push flat out in order to not drop a huge amount of places once they made their first pit stops! Oscar was clearly quicker than Lando, pulling out a gap, but both guys were fortunate that Fernando Alonso was holding the rest of the field up, meaning both Piastri and Norris came out ahead of Alonso’s Aston Martin, whilst Max Verstappen now found himself in the lead!

The McLarens continued to try and push back through the field, but they were helped by the fact that everyone had to stop on Lap 32! Things didn’t exactly go to plan for Oliver Bearman, as an unsafe release took him out of action, whilst Fernando Alonso’s hard work took a hit after a spin put him back behind Isack Hadjar and George Russell! Speaking of George, he wasn’t having a fun time at all, but he would eventually find his way back up to 6th after Isack Hadjar suffered a cruel puncture with just a couple of laps to go! Back to McLaren now, and Oscar Piastri looked pretty comfortably second, whilst the same could not be said for Lando Norris, as the World Championship leader’s lack of pace found him behind both Carlos Sainz and Andrea Kimi Antonelli once he left the pitlane for a second time! Concerningly for Lando, he struggled massively to make a move on Kimi Antonelli, looking destined for 5th, but a late-Race mistake by Antonelli allowed Norris up to 4th! Still, this wasn’t a good day at all for Norris, who now leads the Championship by just 12 points (after being 49 points clear of Verstappen just 2 rounds ago)!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve given out three 10’s for the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, and the first one is obviously for Max Verstappen! Max and Red Bull got everything right today, and somehow, Verstappen still finds himself in with a shot of becoming a 5-time World Champion! The second driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Oscar Piastri, and yes, he may not have won today, but that had nothing to do with him; Oscar was absolutely superb today, and he has every right to feel like another win has gotten away from him! And the final driver I’ve given a Perfect 10 to is Carlos Sainz, and wow, another brilliant drive from the Smooth Operator! The fact that Carlos has had two Podiums in his debut year for Williams is actually pretty incredible! Elsewhere, Fernando Alonso will be happy with two P7 finishes across the weekend, whilst Isack Hadjar was so unfortunate to suffer a late-Race puncture because he’d put in another great performance!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

In total, I haven’t given a single 1 for the penultimate Race of the season, and I think that’s because I didn’t see anyone who was absolutely horrendous! Both Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll had bad days, but I’m not fully sure as to whether the Hulkenberg incident was fully Pierre’s fault, whilst Lance Stroll ran a completely different strategy to everyone else (another brilliant job by Aston Martin)! Oh, and it was not a good day for Haas, whilst Ferrari came out of the weekend with just 4 points!