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2025 Qatar GP Preview – After Max Verstappen beat championship leader Lando Norris to claim victory at the Las Vegas GP and following a post-race investigation saw both McLaren’s of Norris and Oscar Piastri disqualified bringing the Dutchman back into the title fight, the penultimate round of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship heads straight to the Losail International Circuit in Lusail, Al Daayen, Qatar for the Formula 1 Qatar Airways Qatar Grand Prix 2025. This weekend features the final Sprint Format of the season and the middle part of the final triple header of the campaign with the previous Las Vegas and the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.

 

 

2025 Qatar GP Preview – A Look At The Losail International Circuit

 

 

Losail International Circuit is a permanent racing facility located just outside in the town of Lusail, north of Doha, Qatar.

 

Built in just under a year by 1,000 workers at the cost of $58 million US dollars, the track opened in 2004 and hosted the inaugural 2004 Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix, won by Spaniard Sete Gibernau.

 

The track is 5.419 kilometres (3.367 miles) in length, with a main straight of 1,068 metres (3,504 ft). It is surrounded by artificial grass to stop the sand encroaching on the track.

 

In 2007, Losail installed permanent outdoor lighting for night racing. At the time, the lighting of the Losail Circuit by Musco Lighting was the largest permanent venue sports lighting project in the world, a title, which now belongs to another Persian Gulf motorsport facility, the Yas Marina Circuit in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. The first night race in MotoGP history was the season-opening 2008 Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix in March 2008.

 

In February 2009, a GP2 Asia Series night race took place at the circuit with the qualifying lap record posted by Nico Hulkenberg with a 1:35.741.

 

The World Superbike Championship visited Losail in 2005–2009 and 2014–2019; whilst the World Touring Car Championship visited the venue in 2015–2017.

 

The Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021 took the place of the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix after the event in Melbourne was cancelled for the second time due to the coronavirus plague.

 

This is the fourth night race on the Formula 1 calendar following the Singapore, Bahrain and Sakhir Grands Prix. The Inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix (the penultimate round of the championship) will be the fifth night race on the Formula 1 calendar.

 

The circuit runs in a clockwise direction and is 5.419km (3.367 miles) in length with 16 corners.

 

The race distance is 308.611 kilometres (191.762 miles) with 57 laps in total.

 

Championship leader Lando Norris holds the record of the fastest lap from the 2024 event, posting a 1:22.384 in his McLaren Formula 1-Mercedes MCL38 entry.

 

Sir Lewis Hamilton was the winner of the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix for Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team and Max Verstappen of Oracle Red Bull Racing was the winner of the 2023 race and last year’s event.

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2025 Qatar GP Preview – Onboard Lap Of The Losail International Circuit

 

 

Here is an onboard lap of the Losail International from last year’s event, with Max Verstappen posting a 1:20.520 in his Oracle Red Bull Racing Honda-RBPT RB20 racer. This was the original pole lap before the Dutchman lost his pole position time due to receiving a one-place grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly in Q3. You can watch the footage right here at the link: Max Verstappen’s Pole Lap | 2024 Qatar Grand Prix | Pirelli

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2025 Qatar GP Preview – Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing with them to Qatar, the hardest compounds in its range. The C1 white side-walled Hard compounds, the C2 yellow-marked Medium tyres and the C3 red-branded Soft rubber. F1’s sole tyre supplier will also take along the green-branded Intermediates and the blue-branded Wet tyres in case of rain.

 

All drivers will have six sets of the C3 softs, four sets of the C2 mediums and two of the C1 hards.

 

For this weekend, Pirelli has limited each tyre set to a maximum of 25 laps at this weekend’s Qatar GP due to tyre wear level predictions.

 

Each tyre set will be limited to 25 laps across the race weekend due to tyre wear concerns.

 

Following a decision in agreement with the FIA, Formula 1 and the teams, each tyre set has been given the distance restriction of 25 laps of the Lusail International Circuit after an analysis from last year’s event.

 

It means the 57-lap Qatar Grand Prix will force drivers into a minimum of a two-stop race, but the 100km Sprint won’t need to be interrupted by pitstops given the 19-lap length.

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2025 Qatar GP Preview – DRS Zones

 

There will be just one DRS zone at the Losail International Circuit with the DRS Detection Zone just before the final corner with the Activation Zone from the beginning of the main straight.

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2025 Qatar GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits

 

Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

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ICYMI: Verstappen scores dominant Las Vegas GP victory as Norris, Piastri disqualified post-race

 

 

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen overtook championship leader Lando Norris at the start after the McLaren driver ran too deep into turn one to take a dominant victory at the Las Vegas GP to remain in the title fight. Following a post-race investigation the two McLaren’s of Norris and Piastri were disqualified after the two MCL39 entries were found to have their rearmost skid wear below the minimum 9-millimetre thickness by technical delegates on inspection.

 

This was Verstappen’s 69^th-career victory and after the disqualification of the two McLaren’s brings the Dutchman to 24 points behind championship leader Norris in the standings keeping the Red Bull driver still mathematically in contention and now equal on points with second-placed Piastri with two Grands Prix and a Sprint to go with 58 points still up for grabs.

 

Norris (390) – Piastri (366) – Verstappen (366).

 

When the 50-lap Las Vegas GP began, pole-sitter Norris got a good start with Verstappen being tucked behind the McLaren into turn one as the former ran wide into turn one allowing Verstappen to take the lead and Russell into second place.

 

Further back other championship contender Piastri dropped down to seventh behind Hadjar and RB’s Liam Lawson.

 

Lawson also suffered front wing damaged from contact with Piastri and the Kiwi started to fall down the pack.

 

At the beginning of the second tour, Verstappen held a 1.2 second lead over Russell with Norris third, Sainz fourth, Hadjar fifth, Piastri up to sixth, Bearman seventh, Leclerc eighth, Alonso ninth as Hulkenberg completed the top ten.

 

Double-waved yellows were waved to clear the debris from Lawson’s front wing damage and then became the deployment of the virtual safety car.

 

At the start, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was also tagged into a spin

 

Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also made contact at the start with the latter being the first retiree, Williams’ Alexander Albon also had a tangle with a Haas too – likely Esteban Ocon.

 

Piastri and Lawson’s incident was noted by the race stewards.

 

When the race went back to green running, Verstappen pulled away. The Dutchman was leading Russell by 1.4 seconds and was already out of DRS range. Bortoleto had retired also, along with Stroll – and the incident between those two and Colapinto had been noted.

 

Piastri was up to sixth and needed to start chasing down Hadjar.

 

On the sixth tour Russell was back in DRS range to race leader Verstappen with the gap down to 0.817 seconds with championship leader Norris a further 2.501 seconds off the leading Red Bull.

 

A bit further back – Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified out of position, and he was trying to recover, picking off Haas’s Oliver Bearman easily. The Monegasque driver was up to seventh place behind Piastri, who was not closing in on RB’s Isack Hadjar at this stage.

 

Lap seven – Race leader Verstappen was holding on, the Dutchman and Russell with fresh air behind to Norris who in turn has gapped Williams’ Carlos Sainz.

 

Then there was a bit of a train down to Albon, before you get a gap to Colapinto, another gap to Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli and a further gap to Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, Gasly and Lawson.

 

On lap eight, the stewards deemed no further action in the incident between Lawson and Piastri.

 

Russell knows keeping his tyres alive was important, and the Briton had dropped back out of the dirty air and out of DRS as a result. This bought Verstappen some breathing space, the Red Bull driver 1.4 seconds ahead.

 

But after one lap, Russell was going to close in again on the RB21 entry.

 

Lap nine – With Piastri unable to close up behind Hadjar, it is left to the Frenchman to try and attempt a move on Sainz. The rookie had DRS in the battle for fourth. Big points on offer for the midfield teams.

 

Up-front on the tenth tour – Verstappen had maintained the gap to 1.4 seconds again over Russell with Norris third, Sainz fourth, Hadjar fifth, Piastri sixth, Leclerc seventh, Bearman eighth, Alonso ninth as Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten runners.

 

Also, Antonelli had been noted for jumping the race start – The Mercedes driver having swapped from the softs to the hards under the VSC.

 

The 11^th lap – Albon had also been noted by the stewards for a starting procedure infringement. He was 13th and had DRS as he chases down Hamilton in-front, who in turn is trying to find a way past Ocon’s VF-25 entry.

 

Antonelli had just picked off Colapinto for 14^th place.

 

Up-front, Verstappen’s lead grew – up to 1.8 seconds at this stage of proceedings.

 

On the 12^th tour, Leclerc was seventh and was 1.2 seconds behind Piastri. Who had finally found some pace on the C4 yellow-branded mediums and had DRS on Hadjar.

 

At this stage, Piastri would score eight points, Norris 15.

 

Leclerc radioed to say he was “pushing like an animal.” With the Ferrari driver making his way ahead of Piastri.  Leclerc came up behind, pulled out, side by side down the straight and Leclerc got the McLaren before turn 16.

 

Piastri wounded up on the dirty side of the grid which wasn’t ideal for the championship contender and slid out of turn 16 as a result, needing to clean his tyres. The Australian was down in seventh.

 

Lap 14 – Second-placed Russell was complaining about the same steering issues that hit during Qualifying. He was 1.9 seconds behind Verstappen at the front.

 

Further back, Leclerc had pace to burn – he had picked off Hadjar, late on the brakes. The Monegasque driver was up to fifth, with former team-mate Sainz next on his chase.

 

And Albon had pitted on the C3 white-branded harder compounds and emerged at the rear.

 

On the 15^th tour – Albon pitted – replays showed he hit Hamilton after the Ferrari man went past the Williams, Albon just cut back in behind the seven-time world champion too early. That had left some debris on the track too. Hamilton remained in 12th; Albon was down to last after the front wing change.

 

On lap 16 – the VSC was brought out again and to clear the debris left behind from Albon. Verstappen led the race by 3.3 seconds from Russell who was struggling with a steering issue. Norris in third just seemed to lack some pace with his MCL39 entry, Sainz in fourth had been a distant fourth and Leclerc was just 1.6 seconds behind his former team-mate.

 

Antonelli was hit with a five-second-timed-penalty for his jump start.

 

Lap 17 – Piastri got Hadjar for sixth place. But the Australian did not seem to have the pace to hunt down Leclerc with his front tyres already graining.

 

On the 18^th lap, Russell pitted from second to swap his mediums for hards and came out in seventh place and with clear air behind Hadjar.

 

Bearman came in too from further back. C3 hard tyres also on the Haas. The Briton was down in 15^th, so he had lost out to Alonso.

 

The situation the 19^th tour – Verstappen lead from Norris and that gap was down to three seconds as the championship leader posted a new fastest lap. Sainz was back up to third, in-front of Leclerc and Piastri.

 

Verstappen’s lead on the 20^th lap was down 2.667 with Norris slowly gaining towards the Red Bull with Sainz a further 12.4 seconds back in third, Leclerc fourth, Piastri fifth, Russell sixth, Hulkenberg seventh, Hamilton eighth, Ocon ninth whilst Antonelli completed the top ten.

 

Albon was under investigation for both a jump start and the crash with Hamilton. Meanwhile, Antonelli was told about his penalty from Race Engineer Bono – “How?!” was his response.

 

On the 22^nd lap, Piastri stopped from fifth for his fresh set of the harder compounds and emerged in tenth place behind Antonelli’s Silver Arrow.

 

Albon was hit with a five-second-penalty for his collision with Hamilton.

 

Lap 23 – Championship leader Norris pitted from second to switch his mediums for the hards along with Sainz (who released Leclerc) and both came out in fourth and ninth respectively.

 

Piastri then with DRS range and warmer tyres made his way ahead of Sainz to move up into eighth place.

 

At the halfway point of the race – The yet-to-pit Verstappen held a 21 second lead over Russell after Leclerc pitted for his set of harder tyres with the Ferrari driver down in ninth place behind Piastri.

 

Championship leader Norris was third, Hulkenberg fourth, Hamilton fifth, Antonelli sixth, Ocon seventh, Piastri eighth, Leclerc ninth as Sainz completed the top ten.

 

Verstappen pitted on lap 26 for his fresh set of the C3 harder tyres, having a 3.0 second stop and came out 1.4 seconds clear of Russell who just posted the fastest lap of the race this stage of proceedings.

 

The 27^th tour – The situation was Verstappen leading from Russell and Norris so that is as you were, with the former having the freshest rubber.

 

Hulkenberg was fourth and Hamilton in fifth both having yet to pit after started on the C3’s.

 

Antonelli was sixth but needed to pit again, and Ocon in seventh was yet to pit.

 

Then came Piastri, who jumped Leclerc in the pit-stops, and Sainz, who lost out to both drivers.

 

Lap 28 – Ocon pitted from seventh to put on his fresh set of the harder tyres and came out in 13^th place behind team-mate Bearman. Ocon’s stop released Piastri for the McLaren driver to try and chase down Antonelli. Antonelli could technically go to the end, but having pitted early, the Italian likely needed to stop again for more harder rubber.

 

The 29^th lap – Up front, Verstappen was 2.6 seconds ahead of Russell – the Dutchman seemed on course for victory at this stage, given his tyres were eight laps newer than Russell’s.

 

Norris in third was on the charge to try and get Russell late on, with his tyres five laps fresher than the Mercedes drivers.

 

The 30^th tour – Hamilton pitted for the medium compounds. It was early though. The Briton came out ahead of Alonso in 10^th place.

Hulkenberg then stopped for his fresh set of the medium tyres and came out just ahead of Hamilton on the 31^st lap. Both were left with a long stint on the mediums.

 

All of these stops released Antonelli up into fourth place, Piastri was fifth and Leclerc sixth in-front of Sainz and Hadjar.

 

On lap 32 – Bearman had lost out here, the Briton was running eighth and then dropped to 11th after the pit stops. he was 12th but he managed to pick off Alonso quickly for 11^th.

 

Sainz also lost out, he was fourth behind Norris and was sitting seventh behind Piastri and Leclerc at this stage of the race.

 

Lap 33 – The Dutchman was flying in fresh air, and he was leading Russell by 3.9 seconds. But behind, Russell had Norris for company, the championship leader much happier on the hard compound than the mediums.

 

Norris had DRS, so was very much battling for second – whether he can chase for the win remains to be seen, first he needed to get past the Mercedes.

 

The 34^th tour – Norris and Russell were both celebrating their 150th Grand Prix start, and they were in a mighty battle for the podium.

 

“Do you want me to overtake?” said Norris. “Overtake, we want to go get Max,” his Race Engineer confirmed.

 

Lap 35 – With DRS, Norris was able to pull out and get the move done on Russell before the chicane.

 

Good news for Norris, bad news for Verstappen. With the McLaren driver flying at this stage. In terms of the World Driver’s Championship this was bad news for Piastri too. Now Norris had a de-facto 18 points, Piastri only 10.

 

The 36^th lap – “Lando has been told to come and get you,” Lambiase told Verstappen, before informing him which corners Norris was lifting into. The gap was 5.6 seconds.

 

The 37^th tour – Third-placed Russell was still struggling with that steering problem, and somehow Antonelli was faster than his Mercedes team-mate despite his tyres being 34 laps old. Piastri had DRS behind Antonelli.

 

Albon went into the pits at this stage to retire the car being the third retiree of the Grand Prix.

 

Lap 39 – Piastri remained with DRS on Antonelli but was yet to make his way past the Mercedes. And the result was that Leclerc is right on the McLaren’s tail also with DRS. Piastri attacked and Antonelli gave the Aussie a squeeze, the Italian defending impressively from the championship leader.

 

With ten laps remaining – All eyes were on Antonelli, but up-front, second-placed Norris was not closing that gap to Verstappen – it was sitting at 5.5 seconds.

 

But this was all about the three-way battle for fourth. Piastri needed to get this move done quickly, to have time to chase down a possibly steering-issued Russell.

 

Nine laps left – Up-front, Verstappen took a few tenths out of Norris. The championship leader was running out of time to catch up to the Red Bull, given the Briton need to get past when he gets there.

 

Further back, somehow Antonelli was keeping Piastri and Leclerc at bay. With a five-second-penalty still for the Italian to serve.

 

Eight laps remaining – Piastri could be a de-facto fourth at this stage thanks to Antonelli’s penalty, but Russell was now 10 seconds further up and with the laps ticking down – If he can’t get a move done soon, the Australian would not have time to fight for the podium.

 

And once again, Antonelli defended from Piastri perfectly, deploying his battery brilliantly.

 

Seven laps left – Russell lost seven tenths to his team-mate Antonelli last time around, despite having tyres that were 15 laps fresher than the Italian. The Briton has had no pace of late, despite showing good speed earlier in this stint, but he had stopped complaining about the steering issue aboard his F1 W16 racer.

 

The situation on lap 44 – Norris had been told to just “do more” but that was not an option with Verstappen flying out-front, managing his tyres in fresh air. The Dutchman was close to hitting some traffic in the next lap or two.

 

Behind, Norris had six seconds to catch up to the leading Red Bull.

 

With five tours remaining – Fifth-placed Piastri’s tyres would be going off in the dirty air being stuck behind Antonelli’s Silver Arrow. When that five second penalty is applied to Antonelli, the Mercedes driver will drop to seventh behind Sainz.

 

Four laps left – Verstappen was heading for the victory and would take a few points out of Norris’ Championship lead. But Norris crucially would extend his advantage over his team-mate Piastri.

 

With three laps to go – Hadjar was on course for points again for Racing Bulls, Hulkenberg and Hamilton were both in the top 10 also, making that C3 hard tyre start work.

 

Ocon was set to miss out in 11^th, with Bearman in 12^th losing out in the pit window after an excellent start, which saw him climb into the top 10.

 

The 48^th lap – Second-placed Norris lost nearly three seconds last time around. As such, Verstappen lead was almost 12 seconds – Norris was losing time this tour as well.

 

Further back, fourth-placed Antonelli was still lapping fast and as such, might not drop behind Sainz when his penalty was applied at the end of the race.

 

On the penultimate lap – Race leader Verstappen’s lead was up to 15.7 seconds now. Norris was dropping fast, Russell just 6.5 seconds behind.

 

Verstappen crossed the line to take the Las Vegas GP victory by 20.741 second victory over championship leader Norris who just held on to second place by 2.805 seconds over Russell who rounded out the top three.

 

Piastri was promoted to fourth after Antonelli’s five-second-time penalty was applied to the Mercedes drivers’ time as Leclerc brought his Ferrari home sixth.

 

Sainz was next in seventh place and ahead of Hadjar who finished the Las Vegas Grand Prix eighth whilst Hulkenberg and Hamilton completed the top ten.

 

The article of the post-race penalty for Norris and Piastri can be found here: Official: Both McLaren drivers disqualified from Las Vegas GP.

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2025 Qatar GP – The Situation

 

 

Excitement is building with the unknown of what is going to happen next in Formula 1’s increasingly dramatic three-way battle for the 2025 Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship as the Qatar GP stages the penultimate race weekend – and the final Sprint – of the 2025 campaign.

 

The post-race disqualifications of McLaren’s title-hunting drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Las Vegas has brought Red Bull’s Max Verstappen back into the fight with two rounds left after the Dutchman’s brilliant victory on Sin City streets.

 

With still a healthy-advantage of 24 points over both his fellow rivals, Norris does have the initial opportunity to secure his maiden world title crown in Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix to avoid a final race-showdown at the Yas Marina Circuit next week.

 

Norris will become champion if he finishes this weekend with 26 points or more.

 

However, the Briton’s Vegas disqualification means there is suddenly no room for error for the title-leading driver or McLaren if they can hold off a charging Verstappen resurgence with the Dutchman now within the points equivalent of a Grand Prix win of Norris.

 

After another difficult outing in Las Vegas even before his own exclusion from fourth place, Piastri also will feel that he is still not out of it yet either if he can somehow rediscover his form from earlier in the season.

 

And added into the championship mix on the sport’s fourth visit to the Lusail International Circuit is that the Sprint format returns for the last time this campaign, meaning crucial points are still up for grabs for the title contenders in Saturday’s shorter 100-kilometre race.

 

Norris heads to Qatar on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 390 points and a 24-point lead over both McLaren’s team-mate Piastri and Red Bull’s Verstappen who are both second and tied on 366 points.

 

McLaren Formula 1 Team comes to Lusail with the World Constructor’s Championship standings secured and on 756 points and a massive 325-point advantage over nearest rivals Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team who are second on 431 points whilst Oracle Red Bull Racing are third and a further 365 points behind the Woking based-outfit on 391 points.

 

Click here for the 2025 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

 

The Formula 1 Qatar Airways Qatar Grand Prix 2025 weekend begins Friday November 28 with Free Practice 1 and Sprint Qualifying, followed by the 100km F1 Sprint Race and Qualifying Saturday November 29 and the 57 lap Race Sunday November 30.