A title decider, chaos at the start and a mandated two-stop: What to expect in the Qatar Grand Prix
- Meghana Sree
- 23 minutes ago
- 4 min read
The penultimate round of the 2025 season is upon us, with massive implications for the Drivers’ title. A rejuvenated Oscar Piastri starts on pole, with championship leader Lando Norris close behind, keen to seal the title in Qatar. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen in third will do anything to remain in the title conversation. Here's everything to look out for in the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix.
After a crucial qualifying session with Oscar Piastri taking pole from Lando Norris, the grid is set for a race that will either see a new champion crowned, or will take the fight to Abu Dhabi.
Piastri returns to the front row for the first time since the Dutch Grand Prix back in August, while his championship rivals line up right behind him, ready to pounce for the lead at the start.
With a tantalising start on the cards for the penultimate round, here are five things to watch out for in the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix.
Norris eager to seal the title, Piastri and Verstappen keen to take the fight to Abu Dhabi
Norris has never won a race from second on the grid, but the Briton will be determined to make that statistic redundant with a clear shot at securing the title in Qatar.
Following the sprint dominated by Piastri, Norris’ lead has been slashed down to 22 points. However, a win in Qatar will guarantee the title for Norris, but if he fails to score points, the championship will go on to Abu Dhabi.
Fortunately for Norris, even if things go south in Qatar, he is the only championship protagonist who will remain in title contention at the final round no matter what.
Meanwhile for Piastri, to prolong the title fight he must either win the Grand Prix, or finish directly behind Norris in any other position outside the top two.
This will ensure that Piastri is not outscored by Norris by four or more points, taking the fight to the final round.
Verstappen on the other hand, after a troublesome weekend thus far plagued with instability and bouncing across the kerbs, finished fifth in the sprint, behind both Piastri and Norris.
This means that to remain in contention for a fifth consecutive championship, Verstappen must outscore Norris at any cost in Qatar, failing which it will no longer be mathematically possible for Verstappen to win the title.
Championship protagonists starting on the front rows
With our championship’s top three all starting on the front rows, Piastri followed by Norris and Verstappen, the start will be incredibly crucial in determining the title’s fate.
As seen in the sprint, overtaking during the race has been difficult owing to the flowing, medium- and high-speed corners as well as the singular DRS (Drag Reduction System) zone.
With overtaking opportunities limited to either down the start-finish straight or capitalising on errors, the top-three driver with the best launch off the grid has higher odds of taking the win.
Piastri will therefore hope to replicate his sprint fortunes, while Norris and Verstappen will be eyeing the 374-metre run to Turn 1 as their prime chance to take the race lead.
Mercedes ready to upend the order
It won’t just be the championship protagonists eager to jump into the lead at the start.
Mercedes duo George Russell and Kimi Antonelli line up fourth and fifth respectively, and have shown promising pace throughout the weekend thus far.
Russell missed out on sprint pole by just 0.032s, and after hanging on to second in the sprint ahead of Norris, he will be eager to unleash more of the Mercedes W16’s performance to set the cat among the pigeons for the championship leaders.
His teammate Antonelli comes off the back of an impressive result in Las Vegas, taking a third podium of his rookie season and eager to continue his momentum into the closing rounds.
The Silver Arrows pair will be focused on securing P2 in the Constructors’ Championship ahead of their rivals, taking advantage of Red Bull’s inconsistent weekend thus far and Ferrari’s desolate performance.
Pirelli’s mandated two-stop
To mitigate a repeat of last year’s puncture-ridden Qatar Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz the main victims (along with the cause being debris on track), Pirelli has enforced a mandated two-stop ruling for this year’s edition.
Each set of the C1, C2, and C3 tyres will have a 25-lap limit, inclusive of laps done in practice, sprint qualifying, the sprint, and qualifying (not including formation laps, laps to the grid, or laps following the chequered flag).
This means that the expected pit windows across the field will be from Laps 21-25 for the first stop, and Laps 40-46 for the second.
While on-track action might look bleak past the first corner, evidenced by the sprint, expect the pit lane to be a flurry of activity during these pivotal moments in the race.
Track limit violations
Along with tyre wear, track limits has been one of the key words this round, with gravel out to punish the slightest snaps of oversteer across the circuit.
Catching out many drivers throughout the weekend, including during the sprint with Yuki Tsunoda and Antonelli who were subsequently handed time penalties, expect the race to have similar incidents to spice up the action.
More gravel strips have been added to the circuit, effectively making Turn 7 as the only corner without gravel at the exit, to combat the excessive track limit violations issue, recently seen with 51 laps deleted in the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix.
While this number has been significantly brought down, the risk of collecting a time penalty for track limits remains at large with two drivers being caught during the sprint, opening the possibility of more drama during the race — especially if a front-runner or one of our championship protagonists are at the receiving end of a penalty.
Catch all the action in this high-pressure penultimate round when the lights go out at 16:00 GMT.
