{"id":4091,"date":"2025-12-01T02:35:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T02:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/verstappen-wins-qatar-gp-to-keep-f1-world-championship-alive-with-norris\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T02:35:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T02:35:18","slug":"verstappen-wins-qatar-gp-to-keep-f1-world-championship-alive-with-norris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/verstappen-wins-qatar-gp-to-keep-f1-world-championship-alive-with-norris\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen wins Qatar GP to keep F1 world championship alive with Norris"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen closed to within 12 points of leader Lando Norris heading into final round in UAE next weekend.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Four-time Formula One (F1) world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing kept the three-way 2025 drivers\u2019 championship battle alive with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after securing victory in the penultimate race of the season at the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen closed to within 12 points of McLaren\u2019s Norris, who finished fourth at Lusail Circuit, heading into the 24th and final round in Abu Dhabi next weekend.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/11\/30\/messi-inter-miami-defeat-new-york-to-reach-first-mls-cup-final\">Messi, Inter Miami into first MLS Cup final after New York rout<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/11\/30\/yamal-olmo-score-goals-as-barcelona-rallies-to-beat-alaves\">Yamal, Olmo score as Barca recovers to beat Alaves 3-1 in La Liga<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/11\/29\/palmeiras-defeat-flamengo-to-win-copa-libertadores-title\">Flamengo beat Palmeiras to win Copa Libertadores title<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/11\/25\/real-madrids-new-ownership-plan-divides-fans-at-worlds-richest-club\">Real Madrid\u2019s plan for new ownership stirs fan base at world\u2019s richest club<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Norris\u2019s teammate Piastri finished second in the race after starting on pole position and is now 16 points behind in the championship battle. But the Australian is still in with a chance to win the drivers\u2019 title.<\/p>\n<p>Carlos Sainz of Williams finished third in Qatar to round out the podium behind Verstappen and Piastri.<\/p>\n<p>The victory was Verstappen\u2019s 70th grand prix career victory.<\/p>\n<p>The top three drivers now each have seven wins for the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4141815\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4141815\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SOR04460-1764525374.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C513&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Max Verstappen in action.\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4141815\">Max Verstappen leads the race during the Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail Circuit, Qatar on November 30, 2025 [Sorin Furcoi\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"mclaren-get-it-wrong-on-early-safety-car-call\">McLaren get it wrong on early safety car call<\/h2>\n<p>Piastri won the holeshot to the first corner with Norris alongside him on the front row, only to be overtaken by Verstappen, who began the race from third spot on the grid.<\/p>\n<p>During lap seven, Red Bull pitted Verstappen under a safety car, resulting in a free pit stop, unlike McLaren, which kept its two drivers out on the track, resulting in Norris and Piastri losing valuable time later when they made their final stop.<\/p>\n<p>This played into Verstappen\u2019s hands, with the Dutchman able to control the race for the remainder of the 57-lap contest, crossing the finish line ahead of Piastri by just under eight seconds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly, we did not get it right tonight,\u201d conceded Piastri.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI drove as fast as I could, but it wasn\u2019t to be. In hindsight, it is pretty obvious what we should have done, but we\u2019ll discuss that as a team. [It\u2019s] a little bit tough to swallow at the moment,\u201d the Australian added.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen said: \u201cAn incredible race for us. We made the right call to box under that safety car. A strong race for us on a weekend that was tough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The McLarens now head to Abu Dhabi with a hard-charging Verstappen looking to repeat history by clinching a championship in the last race at Yas Marina, having done so when he overtook Lewis Hamilton on the final lap after a controversial finish in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s possible now, but we will see,\u201d said Verstappen, who had written off his chances earlier this season. \u201cI don\u2019t really worry about it too much.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4141804\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4141804\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AFP__20251130__86MD48L__v1__HighRes__AutoPrixF1QatRace-1764525103.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C513&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Max Verstappen in action.\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4141804\">Max Verstappen crosses the finish line to win the Formula One Qatar Grand Prix at the Lusail International Circuit [Karim Jaafar\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen closed to within 12 points of leader Lando Norris heading into final round in UAE next weekend. Four-time Formula One (F1) world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing kept the three-way 2025 drivers\u2019 championship battle alive with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after securing victory in the penultimate race &#8230; <a title=\"Verstappen wins Qatar GP to keep F1 world championship alive with Norris\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/verstappen-wins-qatar-gp-to-keep-f1-world-championship-alive-with-norris\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Verstappen wins Qatar GP to keep F1 world championship alive with Norris\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}