Max Verstappen seeks Qatar desert hat-trick, but Lando Norris remains F1 title favourite

DOHA – Max Verstappen is seeking a hat-trick of wins at the Qatar Grand Prix this weekend as the 2025 Formula One world championship reaches boiling point in the Arabian Gulf.

But he will know that even with luck on his side, he is unlikely to overhaul a 24-point deficit that separates him from McLaren’s Lando Norris as they approach the final two events of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

“Just trying to enjoy, have a good time, and when you can win, you try to win,” the 28-year-old Verstappen said.

Despite being disqualified

– along with McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar PIastri – after finishing second at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Nov 22, Norris arrives in Qatar as favourite to lift his first title and clinch McLaren’s first team-and-driver double since Mika Hakkinen’s success in 1998.

The 26-year-old Briton, on 390 points, needs only to hold his nerve and outscore his rivals – both on 366 with Piastri ahead by virtue of seven wins to six – by two points to leave Qatar as champion on Nov 30.

Of the three, Norris is the only one who has an opportunity to take the crown this weekend.

A multitude of scenarios have been thrown up as possibilities, but it is clear that with a substantial cushion, Norris has the simplest task and least reason to take risks as they go wheel to wheel in Saturday’s sprint race and Sunday’s floodlit grand prix.

Almost amazingly, Verstappen has closed a 104-point gap behind then leader Piastri since the start of September with a phenomenal surge of form that has left McLaren fans biting their nails and considering the wisdom of the team’s honourable decision to allow their drivers to fight each other.

Such sporting stances have often brought conflict and disappointment in the past, a fact not lost on team boss Andrea Stella who has been adamant that McLaren will support both men equally until one is mathematically ruled out of the title race.

“We’re not going to close the door unless it is closed by mathematics,” he said earlier in 2025, ruling out any “team orders” scenario in support of Piastri or Norris.

Piastri should not be ruled out.

Returning to circuits and conditions that may help him, he can yet deliver a performance that lifts him back into serious contention on a fast and flowing track, where Pirelli has insisted on two pit stops in the race due to heavy tyre wear.

Each set of tyres will be limited to 25 laps, a cap that is likely to produce thrills and unexpected tactics and put a premium on pit-wall decision-making in the heat of competition.

That could see Mercedes or Ferrari upsetting forecasts and creating unpredictable results that might even mean Norris, Piastri and Verstappen travelling to Abu Dhabi for a season-ending showdown where, as in 2021, the winner takes all.

In other news, Adrian Newey, Formula One’s star designer, will take over as Aston Martin team principal next season, with Andy Cowell moving into a strategy role.

The Silverstone-based team announced the senior management restructuring in a statement ahead of the weekend’s race.

Newey, whose cars have won numerous drivers’ and constructors’ titles for three different teams, joined Aston Martin from Red Bull earlier in 2025 as a shareholder and managing technical partner of the team. AFP, REUTERS