This past weekend, December 5th-7th, was the second-to-last round of the 2025 F1 season: the Qatar Grand Prix. It is a night race on a desert circuit originally built for motorcycle racing, so drivers have to be careful on the technical, high-speed turns. Fans came from all over the world to see the Driver’s Championship get even closer.

Sprint 

Saturday was the final sprint race of the season. The Lusail International Circuit is 3.367 miles long, with the sprint lasting 19 laps.

Sprint Qualifying

Hamilton was again out of Q1, making this the second time in a row for the Ferrari driver. Max Verstappen struggled with his car jumping and bouncing, only qualifying 6th. This was the first time that his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, qualified higher than Verstappen.

1st- Piastri

2nd- Russell

3rd- Norris

Sprint Race

Verstappen gained 2 places right at the start, going from P6 to P4. Piastri had a great start to the weekend, leading the race the entire time in addition to being the fastest in free practice and being first in sprint qualifying. This was the first sprint win of the season for him, a much-needed comeback for his championship contention. Furthermore, he set a new track lap record time. Tsunoda deserves some recognition as well. In this sprint race, he finished P5, his highest finish of the season.

Qualifying- 

This Grand Prix was round 23 out of 24 for this season. A good track position is absolutely crucial for this race, as most winners come from pole position. Yet Max Verstappen, as always, was the exception to this norm.

Hamilton again was out of Q1, both for the sprint and the Grand Prix. During Q3, a red flag stopped the session to remove a sticker that got stuck on Sainz’s car in the garage, which then fell onto the track.

Piastri got pole, absolutely dominating everything leading up to the race itself. Norris was not able to complete a second flying lap since he abandoned it early on. The three championship contenders were the first three to line up on the grid, so much was to come at turn one.

Grand Prix

A regulation set dictates that tires are only allowed to cover a maximum of 25 laps on this track, so the pit stop strategy was incredibly crucial this race.

At turn 1, Verstappen passed Norris, going up to P2.

Safety Car

On lap 7, Hulkenberg went off the track and was out of the race after contact with Pierre Gasly at turn 2. 17 of 20 cars pitted on lap 32 under the safety car. Piastri and Norris did not, which was a detrimental decision from McLaren. Since no more safety cars were deployed, the McLaren drivers needed to gain a 26-second gap to maintain their lead, which they failed to do.

Throughout

Many drivers exceeded track limits at turn 10 due to the racing line being difficult to see there.

Since so many cars pitted on lap 7, they needed to pit again on lap 32. Collisions were incredibly close to occurring due to the packed pit lane. Unfortunately for Ollie Bearman, he ran over something in the pit, forcing him to stop. The time his Haas team spent dealing with the problem led to him losing lots of places. After receiving a 10-second penalty for this incident, he retired from the race.

Laps 56 and 57

On lap 56 with only 2 laps to go, Isack Hadjar sadly got a puncture despite a great race for him, going all the way from P6 down to P18.

Antonelli went wide on lap 56, which allowed Norris to finish P4.

Conclusion

Thanks to Red Bull’s pit stop strategy, Max Verstappen won the race. Verstappen still took the victory despite struggling with the car throughout the weekend. He was 104 points off the championship following the Dutch Grand Prix, now only 12. Carlos Sainz got his second podium of the season, starting P7 and finishing P3.

With just one round left, there are still 3 drivers in the running for the 2025 Drivers’ Championship. This season will end with either Verstappen getting his 5th championship or one of the McLaren drivers getting their first. Only time will tell how this season finishes over the upcoming weekend at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.