Piastri wins crucial Qatar sprint to cut Norris' championship lead

Written by Maham Mir

Piastri and Norris celebrate a 1-3 finish in the final sprint of the season | Credit: Formula One

For round 23 of 2025, Formula One returned to the Lusail International Circuit for the final sprint race of the season. 19 laps under the lights in the desert had eight points on offer for the winner of the race and on this occasion, it was Oscar Piastri who finished ahead of the rest in an otherwise uneventful race.

Piastri returned to form with sprint pole position, his second in Qatar while setting a new lap record. His teammate Lando Norris started in P3 with George Russell from Mercedes splitting the two McLarens.

Only 16 cars took to the starting grid as both Alpines started from the pitlane alongside Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. Despite their lack of pace throughout 2025, it is the first occasion all season that the Alpines were the two slowest cars on the grid.

It was a clean start with the top three retaining their positions however, crucially for his championship, Max Verstappen was able to get past teammate Yuki Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso for P4. Meanwhile Charles Leclerc lost four places on the opening lap as he went off-track, he finished Lap 2 in P13. 

Verstappen kept within Norris’ DRS in the hopes of making a move in the first few laps of the sprint. As a reminder, there is only one DRS zone in Qatar. Despite the limited helping hand given by DRS around this circuit, a DRS train quickly developed starting from Kimi Antonelli in P7 to Alex Albon in P10. 

Out in front, Piastri calmly controlled the action and remained safely out of reach from the threat of Russell behind. By Lap 8, Norris safely saw off the threat of DRS from Verstappen behind who seemed to be dealing with handling issues in his Red Bull.

Norris and Verstappen on-track where Verstappen was unable to progress past P4 | Credit: Formula One

Further behind, Antonelli continued to put pressure on Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso as the rookie kept within the Spaniard’s DRS. Another rookie seeing action was Ollie Bearman who stayed ahead of Leclerc for P12.

The influence of the changing track conditions, mainly wind, was noted as multiple drivers were seen going off-track and potentially dealing with issues on track limits. One of the drivers seen to be going off-track was Liam Lawson who rejoined the track ahead of Leclerc.

Lawson was told to give the position back to Leclerc, saving the Ferrari driver from staying in P14 for too long. Meanwhile, his former teammate Tsunoda was the first driver to be given the black and white flag for track limits before being referred to the stewards for investigation. 

On Lap 13, Antonelli was able to capitalise on Alonso going wide and moved into P5. Tsunoda, who was under investigation for track limits, was given a five second time penalty. 

Stroll, unusual for a sprint race, came into the pit lane for a pit stop where he changed his medium tyres for soft tyres. Although not required for a sprint race, Stroll’s pit stop was slow and saw him rejoin in last place.

In the closing stages of the race, Antonelli was given a black and white flag for track limits. His fellow rookie Bearman was one of the last drivers to take an adventure off-track although it did not affect his final position.

On Lap 18, both Alpine cars came in for a pit stop which saw them split by Stroll. Pierre Gasly ended the sprint in P18 while Franco Colapinto completed the pack in P20.

For Piastri, with his first pole position in any format in eight race weekends, it was a crucial lights out to flag victory. Russell and Norris finished in their sprint qualifying positions and completed the top three in P2 and P3 respectively.

Top three of Piastri, Russell and Norris for the final sprint of 2025 | Credit: Formula One

Russell’s teammate Antonelli was noted, investigated and penalised with a five second penalty for exceeding track limits after the chequered flag. Even with the penalty, Antonelli finished in the points and behind Tsunoda who also received a penalty for the same issue.

While McLaren enjoyed success with a P1 and P3 finish, Ferrari finished P13 with Leclerc and P17 with Hamilton. In the fight for P2 and the title for best of the rest, this result meant they lost crucial points to both Mercedes and Red Bull. This was Ferrari’s first failure to score points in a sprint since Monza 2021.

With qualifying up next later on today, Piastri will be hoping to repeat his success throughout this weekend and continue his return to form to keep his championship bid alive.