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The championship contender benefited from a strategy call from McLaren that flew in the face of decisions made by all other squads during an early race safety car deployment

This proved to be a costly decision that sacrificed track position to Verstappen in the closing laps and retrospectively threw away the race win for the Australian driver

Grand Prix Outcome and Championship Consequences

The race winner won to take his 7th victory of the season, matching Norris and Piastri, while the Piastri was second and the British driver fourth behind the Williams car of the Spanish driver

The McLaren driver earned an additional points by passing Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes on the second-to-last lap

The championship leader has been left with a 12-point lead over Verstappen, who moved ahead of his teammate by four points heading to the final race on 5-7 December

To win the title, the British driver must secure a podium position at Yas Marina if Verstappen wins the race next race day

Key Moments of the Thrilling Grand Prix

• McLaren's choice not to stop when a yellow flag was called on the seventh lap for a collision between Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Swiss team's Nico Hulkenberg
• A decision initiated by the Australian to bring forward his last pit stop in a desperate attempt to catch Verstappen proved unsuccessful
• A surprise second podium for Sainz handed by the team's strategy call

The Way The British Team Missed Out in The Race

The critical moment for McLaren was when Gasly and Hulkenberg came together as the Hulkenberg tried to pass the Frenchman around the exterior of the first corner on lap seven

The German's car was damaged beside the circuit That brought out the safety car

The crucial part of the timing was that it left exactly 50 laps remaining in the grand prix

With the tire manufacturer enforcing a twenty-five lap safety limit on the tyres, that signified anyone who made a stop at that moment was committed to a fixed plan with a second stop on the thirty-second lap

Driver Reactions and Post-Race Comments

No words

The McLaren driver commented in his post-race interview: Obviously we didn't get it right tonight I drove the best race I could, as quick as I could, but there was no more pace out there Tried my best but didn't get it done

Verstappen stated: This was an amazing performance for us We made the correct decision to pit It was intelligent And extremely pleased to win here and remain competitive to the end, remarkable

Final Race Standings

• 1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
• 2. Piastri (McLaren)
• 3. Carlos Sainz (Williams)
• 4. Lando Norris (McLaren Racing)
• 5. Antonelli (Mercedes-AMG)
• 6. Russell (Mercedes-AMG)
• 7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
• 8. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
• 9. Lawson (Racing Bulls)
• 10. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull Racing)

What's Next?

The all-important championship finale at the Yas Marina The circuit itself does not create the most thrilling racing, but yet again this evening event hosts an contest which promises to be every bit as thrilling as Vettel's first title in twenty-ten, or the Dutch driver's highly controversial first title in 2021