Oscar Piastri is a winner once again by finishing in P1 in the final sprint race of the season. The McLaren driver took the chequered flag ahead of George Russell, with Lando Norris holding off Max Verstappen to take P3.
The 19-lap sprint at Qatar’s twisty Losail circuit was decided at the start, with polesitter Piastri safeguarding his lead from Russell and Norris, while fourth-placed Fernando Alonso losing out to both Red Bulls of Yuki Tsunoda and Verstappen.
Tsunoda then left the door open for his title contending teammate to take into fourth, as Verstappen set chase on Norris. But the reigning world champion soon started complaining of bouncing and jumping issues, which also affected him in sprint qualifying.
Either way, there was no chance for Verstappen to threaten Norris, as the dirty air on Doha’s motorcycle circuit ensured that cars would all fall away from each other due to the dirty air, and the lack of pitstops ensured they were nearly guaranteed to finish in the positions they held on the opening lap.
The notable exception was Alonso, who made a mistake coming out of the final corner on lap 12 and Andrea Kimi Antonelli went past into Turn 1, taking away sixth position.
Antonelli looked set to be promoted to fifth after a five-second track limits penalty for Tsunoda, but a late track limits penalty for the Mercedes driver reversed that impending position change. Behind seventh-placed Alonso, Williams driver Carlos Sainz claimed the final point in eighth, holding off Isack Hadjar and Alex Albon.
Charles Leclerc lost out by dropping from ninth to P13 early on, while Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton was one of four cars to start from the pitlane and was stuck in P17.
After the sprint race, Norris now leads teammate Piastri by 22 points, with Verstappen 25 points behind. It means that a victory in the main Grand Prix for Norris would secure his maiden world championship.
This sprint event was not the most exciting with the action only happening on the very first lap. With fast, flowing corners and only a single DRS zone, overtaking is going to be tricky. The all-important qualifying is up next and getting a good grid spot will decide the outcome of the main race.
Qatar Grand Prix, sprint race results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 26:51.033
2 George Russell Mercedes +4.951s
3 Lando Norris McLaren +6.279s
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +9.054s
5 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +19.327s
6 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +21.391s
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +24.556s
8 Carlos Sainz Williams +27.333s
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +28.206s
10 Alexander Albon Williams +28.925s
11 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +32.966s
12 Oliver Bearman Haas +34.529s
13 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +35.182s
14 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +36.916s
15 Esteban Ocon Haas +38.838s
16 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +39.638s
17 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +46.171s
18 Pierre Gasly Alpine +69.534s
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +77.960s
20 Franco Colapinto Alpine +80.804s
Oscar Piastri stormed to a commanding victory in the Qatar Sprint, comprehensively beating George Russell and the second McLaren of Lando Norris in the 19-lap event.
Piastri led the field away confidently from pole position and came under little threat, with the exception of the tyre performance dropping off in the later laps, while the lead Mercedes kept Norris at bay to maintain second place.
The third title contender Max Verstappen could only improve from sixth to fourth as he continued to experience a frustrating issue with porpoising, while Kimi Antonelli initially took fifth place after Yuki Tsunoda was handed a time penalty for exceeding track limits.
However, Antonelli was also dealt a five-second penalty after the chequered flag, dropping the Mercedes rookie back to sixth and leaving Tsunoda with four points. Alonso and Carlos Sainz rounded out the points-paying positions in a Sprint dictated by tyre management and staying cleanly on the track.
There was just one hour of practice on offer on Friday, increasing the pressure to put together a perfect lap in Sprint Qualifying to dictate the order for the 19-lap event. Piastri stormed to pole position on his final attempt, putting him in the best position to claim the maximum eight points for a win.
The Australian edged out the lead Mercedes of Russell by just 0.032s, while an error saw Norris find the gravel at the final corner, dropping him out of contention for the top spot. Alonso was an impressive fourth for Aston Martin, with Tsunoda taking P5, unexpectedly outqualifying his Red Bull team mate Verstappen.
The Dutchman typically excels in Sprint Qualifying, having secured 10 pole positions in this format, but he settled for sixth on the grid on this occasion.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-charges-to-dominant-sprint-victory-in-qatar-ahead-of-russell-and.5XW6yngL9eTjArBU97yDdu
Lewis Hamilton has confirmed the sheer scale of Ferrari’s issues after a challenging Qatar Grand Prix sprint left both him and his team-mate Charles Leclerc without the performance to even finish in the points.
While Oscar Piastri controlled the 19-lap race on the Losail circuit with Mercedes’ George Russell and Lando Norris rounding out the top three, the Scuderia team was left wondering where it had gone wrong after Hamilton could do no better than 17th following a start from the pitlane.
Following his struggle, the seven-time champion revealed the issues he identified after a number of changes were made overnight.
“Well, I mean, we started from the pitlane because we wanted to explore and make some changes,” he said. “They had some things they found on the simulator last night, so we implemented those changes. And yeah, the car was really in the wrong direction and very, very difficult for whatever reason,” he said, after joking that he would “be here all day” if he listed everything he wanted improved.
The Briton’s main complaint came in the shape of a lack of rear-end traction.
“We just don’t have any stability. So when I say that, it’s the rear end is not planted. So it’s sliding, snapping a lot. Then we have bouncing. So when you’re going into corners like Turn 10, the thing starts bouncing.
“We have a lot of mid-corner understeer. And then you apply the steering and then it snaps and you try and catch it. So it’s different between low, medium and high. And it’s a fight like you couldn’t believe,” Hamilton explained.
On the other side of the Italian outfit’s garage, Leclerc had similar complaints after he finished 13th. He was asked if he agreed with Hamilton’s opinion that the car got worse between yesterday’s qualifying and today.
“It definitely did. I have no idea how that happened from qualifying to today. The feeling has changed completely to yesterday and I don’t really know from where it’s coming from,” Leclerc said when asked if his car also felt worse.
“The first lap was just, I was struggling to keep the car on track. Lost four or five positions and then still lots of mistakes because it was extremely difficult to drive. So I don’t quite understand what happened there.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lewis-hamilton-details-snapping-ferrari-after-qatar-f1-sprint-disaster/10780909/
Lando Norris could win the Formula 1 title on Sunday in the main race of the Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the 2025 season.
Having finished third in the sprint, Norris will go into the race as the title favourite with 396 points to his name. Team-mate Oscar Piastri, who won the sprint, has collected 374 points so far, with reigning world champion Max Verstappen on 371 after taking fourth place on Saturday.
This makes the equation rather simple: if Norris is outscored by either driver on Sunday, the title battle will go down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
For Norris to win the title as early as tomorrow, he needs to maintain his advantage on Verstappen; if they go into the final round with a 25-point difference, Norris will be out of reach, having secured one more victory and three more second places in the event of a tie-breaker.
The Briton also needs to bring the gap to Piastri from 22 points to 26 points; they are level on race wins, so the Australian would be ahead in that metric if he were to triumph in Abu Dhabi and create a tied result
In other words, if Piastri finishes in the top nine positions, Norris needs to be at least two positions ahead – or one place ahead if Piastri is second.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/how-lando-norris-can-win-2025-f1-title-in-qatar-gp/10780890/