The Dutchman from Red Bull is ready to go all out in the last race of the season, while in the McLaren garage there is clear disappointment due to the wrong management after the Safety car came out. Ferrari, on the other hand, is already thinking about 2026
Max Verstappen wins the Qatar Grand Prix and takes the world fight to the final race in Abu Dhabi. In second place was Oscar Piastri, very disappointed after leading a good part of the race. Like the Australian, Lando Norris is also a victim of McLaren’s strategic disaster, with the world championship leader finishing in fourth position. The first of Leclerc’s two Ferraris was eighth, Hamilton twelfth. The red car is thus mathematically fourth in the constructors’ championship. Here are the words of the protagonists of Lusail.
VERSTAPPEN
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“In Abu Dhabi I will try everything.” Enthusiastic is Verstappen, who not only managed to keep the world championship open, but will arrive at Yas Marina with just 12 points behind the leader of the rankings Norris. The Dutchman was able to exploit the excellent strategy devised by the Red Bull garage, sending the McLaren wall into crisis: “The decisions of my strategists made us win the race, I’m very happy because honestly when I woke up this morning I didn’t expect it.” “What happened today shows that anything is possible – added Verstappen – we expected a boring race and instead the Safety Car added some spice. I hope it happens in Abu Dhabi too. I will give everything and we will try everything. We have nothing to lose”.
norris
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“I made bad choices, but I have faith in the team.” Long faces at McLaren. Lando Norris is fourth and thus wastes a very important world match point. “We should have done things differently – explains the Englishman –. We both should have stopped together with Max even if, being behind Oscar, I would probably have been slowed down by the double pit stop. In any case we have to review the situation”. Despite the second race not going according to plan after the disqualification in Las Vegas, Lando still tries to remain calm: “I have to trust that the team is making the right decisions. Max is still in the game, so we will simply try to beat him like every weekend. Nothing different.”
plates
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Oscar Piastri, who had dominated for a good part of the race before finishing behind Verstappen, is “speechless”. “Clearly the team didn’t make the right choices – explains the Australian -: our pace was phenomenal and I think I drove really well for this race and this weekend. Precisely for this reason not winning in the end is really frustrating”. Looking, then, at the conservative strategy adopted by his team, Piastri added that “today’s result is not due to fairness (within the team, ed.). We have always had full freedom and sometimes this has given benefits to one of the two. Today I don’t think it is due to this”.
leclerc
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Ferrari driver Leclerc resigned after finishing eighth. Charles did not hesitate to define the weekend in Qatar as “a terrible weekend. There wasn’t a single good lap. I had no confidence after what happened yesterday (the spin in Q3, ed.). I can’t wait to go to Abu Dhabi and try to end the season on a more positive note, hoping to give us a little more happiness before going on holiday”. The Losail weekend relegates the reds to fourth place in the constructors’ standings, a result that places Ferrari behind all the top teams. “It hurts me a lot, I’m very sorry – admits the Monegasque – it’s not that I like to create false expectations, but at the beginning of the year I was truly convinced that we had done a good job”. And then all that remains is to look to 2026: “We are already working: we have sacrificed two thirds of this season to prepare for the next one.”
hamilton
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“We suffer to keep a Williams behind us” Lewis Hamilton is also on the same line as his teammate Leclerc, who says he is hopeful about the team’s choice to “stop development early to look to 2026”. The Englishman is 12th in Qatar, more than a minute behind winner Verstappen. “Charles and I gave everything, but I think this race highlights that the others have developed longer and much more this season. We are suffering a lot to keep teams like Williams behind us. I just hope our sacrifices are worth it next year.” And with a view to 2026, the Ferrari driver is convinced that “there are many areas where we need to improve”.
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