McLaren gamble costs Norris Title battle goes to final-race shootout after strategy error

Lando Norris, the championship leader, has decried the McLaren team strategy error at the Qatar Grand Prix that allowed Max Verstappen right back into the fight and forced a three-way battle at next Sunday's title-deciding finale in Abu Dhabi.

- Giles Richards

Verstappen won the race in Doha after McLaren chose not to pit their drivers under a safety car early in the race. It was a costly error that gave Verstappen the lead and the win. Norris could finish only fourth and his teammate Oscar Piastri, who was equally unhappy with the team, was second.

Norris had been 24 points ahead of both Piastri and Verstappen going into the weekend but now leads Verstappen by only 12 points and Piastri by 16. "Obviously not our greatest day, not our greatest weekend," said Norris, who believed McLaren should have pitted Piastri and him when Verstappen and the rest of the field were called in. "Both of us should have done. I would have been had over either way, because we would have double-stacked and potentially I would have lost time. A bit of time. I wouldn't have lost a position, I don't think."