F1 Qatar GP live commentary and updates - Race

Welcome

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the 2025 F1 world championship.

Is this also going the round that will crown a new world champion? Then Lando Norris will have to find a way past McLaren team-mate and polesitter Oscar Piastri, all while keeping Max Verstappen at bay.

Norris basically has to finish ahead of both of his title rivals to force a decision today. After Piastri's sprint win the Australian trails him by 22 points, with Verstappen now 25 points in arrears.

That's easier said than done, because Norris starts on the dirty side of the grid in second. And Max Verstappen has already promised to go full attack at the start from third.

The reigning world champion has no other choice, as overtaking proved pretty much impossible in yesterday's 19-lap snoozefest of a sprint.

As McLaren's Zak Brown said yesterday, "you won't want to miss the start" of this one.

Then there's the old chestnut of Pirelli's tyre woes in Qatar. The manufacturer has mandated a maximum tyre life of 25 laps as a precaution against a repeat of last year's punctures. Those are caused by the tyre tread wearing down too much  in volume and providing less protection against the underlying construction. Losail's copious gravel traps have also caused some damage to the tyres this weekend.

The net result is that the 57-lap race will be a mandatory two-stop race, locking teams into very similar strategies.

Starting grid

1 Piastri
2 Norris
3 Verstappen
4 Russell
5 Antonelli
6 Hadjar
7 Sainz
8 Alonso
9 Gasly
10 Leclerc
11 Hulkenberg
12 Lawson
13 Bearman
14 Albon
15 Tsunoda
16 Ocon
17 Hamilton
18 Stroll
19 Bortoleto
PL Colapinto

Yesterday was another woeful day for Ferrari, then, with Charles Leclerc just about making it to Q3. No such luck for Lewis Hamilton, who was dumped out of Q1 on consecutive weekends. 2026 can't come soon enough for the Scuderia.

Ferrari boss John Elkann may want to look at the onboards of his drivers having to tame their bucking bronco before wanting drivers who "drive more, talk less".

Alpine's Franco Colapinto starts from the pitlane after taking his car out of parc ferme to make set-up changes. Not that it's going to change his life, with how tough it will be to move up.

Pierre Gasly did excel yesterday with ninth in qualifying, which he was delighted with. Fair play to the Frenchman after an abysmal year for the squad, which basically gave up on this season to focus on 2026.

Also fair play to Leonardo Fornaroli by the way, who is the new Formula 2 champion. The only title contender not to be affiliated with an F1 team, funnily enough, and there won't be any seats available for the Italian to move up straight away.

But second place in the Qatar feature race was enough to build up a 41-point buffer on Jak Crawford and Richard Verschoor, so he can't be caught in Abu Dhabi.

So, why is Losail such a difficult circuit for cars to race? Much has been made of the lack of DRS zones, with just one short zone on the main straight.

But as Russell said after the uneventful sprint: "I didn’t even get DRS one single lap, so it doesn’t matter if it was three times the length or shorter.

“Obviously, when you go around a corner almost flat out with three high-speed corners before the straight, it’s challenging to stay close. And then Turn 1, we’re braking around 40 metres before the corner, whereas at other tracks we’re braking at 100 or 110 metres.

"So yeah, it’s definitely one of the best tracks on the whole calendar to drive. Overtaking? It’s one of the toughest.” 

You do wonder if it that will inspire Max Verstappen, who has little to lose, to make one of his famous Turn 1 lunges.

What are the odds of the Dutchman leading after Lap 1? Would you bet against it?

"Max is probably going to make a big swing around the outside," reckon F1 TV pundit, former F1 driver and two-time Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, no stranger to some ferocious wheel-to-wheel racing.

Yep, can totally see that.

The top 10 will all start on medium tyres, so no surprises there.

Hulkenberg and Hamilton are on softs to capitalise on the start. Albon and Colapinto are on hards.

Start formation lap

We're off for the formation lap. Lando Norris becomes McLaren's longest-serving driver today with 151 starts. Will he also become the team's first world champion since Lewis Hamilton? Time to find out.

No incidents that we can see, but it's a poor start from most drivers starting on the dirty side.

Russell has gone from fourth to seventh, Hadjar loses two places and Albon is paying the price for his hard-tyre start by dropping to P17.

Verstappen has kept his promise then, but there was no need for any elbow work. He simply got a much better launch from third and had the pass made well before Turn 1.

Lewis Hamilton has gained three places and is up to 14th.

So that's half the job done for Piastri, as it stands he would gain 10 points on Norris. Now he needs a clean race and two solid pitstops from McLaren.

Verstappen was worried about being able to keep up given the understeer he is struggling with on his RB21. Can he keep within undercut territory?

Hulkenberg - in the Sauber - has snatched 10th way from Leclerc - in the Ferrari. Oof.

Damage for Gasly

Pierre Gasly has gone onto the gravel and has damaged the underbody of his Alpine car. He is still ninth, for now, but is also being looked at for an unsafe rejoin. 

Piastri in control

Piastri takes two seconds on Verstappen, who reports "extreme balance shifts" on his car. Norris is another two seconds behind. As Russell said, there's no chance of even staying within DRS range without hitting dirty air and killing your tyres.

Verstappen pits

Now this is interesting. Max Verstappen is pitting from second! We're entering lap 8 of 57, so they can do two more 25-lap stints and get to the end on two stops.

Pretty much everyone has pitted, actually. Other than the McLarens and Ocon. 

Has McLaren messed up here?

And yes, there was a collision between Hulkenberg and Gasly as the German was trying to pass the Alpine driver around the outside.

"This is unbelievable, I gave him loads of space!", Hulkenberg groans.

It looks like Gasly just understeered into the right-rear of the Sauber.

Norris is inevitably questioning why he didn't just follow Verstappen in.

"They have lost all flexibility for the remainder of the race," is the reply from his race engineer Will Joseph.

Yes, but... a free pitstop is what, 26 seconds?

Ocon has also pitted now, and has been handed a five-second penalty for a false start.

It means Piastri will lead the restart from Norris and Verstappen. Verstappen has lost one single position for a free pitstop.

Maybe Piastri can use the clear air to bolt away, but not sure how this is going to work out for Norris at all.

So what is the upside for McLaren? Everyone else must do a full 25-lap stint on the mediums, and then another full 25-lap stint on different compound, come what may. McLaren could do a shorter stint on, say, the softs.

Lap 13/57 - Piastri and Norris break free

Piastri gets his two-second buffer back. Verstappen is already shipping six seconds, losing a second per lap.

I mean, if McLaren is going to be this quick, then they will look like geniuses...

Verstappen is cutting his deficit to around six tenths per lap, while the rest of the runners are being relegated to a different class. Sainz is already 10 seconds behind Piastri.

Sainz being fourth in the Williams is working in Piastri's and Norris' favour. They might be able to get in his pit window at this rate.

The rest of the top 10 is Sainz from Antonelli, Alonso, Hadjar, Russell, Leclerc and Bearman.

Tsunoda is 12th in the second Red Bull, Hamilton is stuck in 14th after his first-lap gains.

Lap 21/57

Verstappen is now matching Piastri and Norris for pace. It's looking good for Red Bull.

A Verstappen-Piastri-Norris podium would set up the following Abu Dhabi season finale...

Norris - 411
Verstappen - 396
Piastri - 392

Lap 24/57

Norris is struggling with understeer, four second behind Piastri, and will take a turn out of the front wing at the pitstop.

Verstappen has stabilised the gap at eight seconds. We're expecting the McLarens in on the next lap.

Lap 28/57

1 Verstappen
2 Sainz +14
3 Antonelli +15
4 Piastri +18
5 Norris +22

The top 3 must come in on lap 32, by law!

Piastri is catching Antonelli hand over fist and is going to lose quite a bit of time in the Mercedes' wake unless he can find a way to convert his massive pace advantage into a difficult overtake.