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Which way should Lando Norris look? His supposed main threat to a maiden world title was meant to be Max Verstappen – and this important regard it was a case of job accomplished as the Briton finished a place ahead of the defending world champion in the sprint at the Qatar Grand Prix.
But the 19-lap race was won by Oscar Piastri, Norris’ McLaren team-mate and the only other contender for the crown.
This moved Piastri to within 22 points of Norris, who started and finished third behind Mercedes’ George Russell. There are 50 points left to play for here in Doha on Sunday and in Abu Dhabi next weekend.
Verstappen, finishing fourth here having started sixth, is 25 points back – though he found a touch more speed in his Red Bull than in sprint qualifying.
Indeed, Verstappen was close on Norris’s tail for an early chunk of the race but, despite once putting the frighteners on Norris at the start of lap three with an improbable dive down the inside of the first corner, he could not sustain that level of threat.
Norris pulled outside DRS reach and only needed to nurse his car home, finishing 2.2sec ahead of Verstappen.
Oscar Piastri won the 19-lap sprint race in Qatar to close the gap on his title rival Lando Norris
The result moves Piastri within 22 points of Norris (above), who finished third in the sprint race
Lewis Hamilton, starting from the pits after qualifying 18th, finished 18th in another poor result
That followed Verstappen making up two places on the first lap, passing Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and then being ushered through by his Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, as was always going to be the case given the state of the championship battle.
Lewis Hamilton, starting from the pits after qualifying 18th, finished 18th. He was 46.1sec off the pace. Yikes, again.
Overtaking was scarce throughout the field, and in a boring race none of the world championship protagonists either greatly helped or hindered in the quest ahead of qualifying at 6pm GMT.
The latest maths leaves Norris needing to outscore Piastri – whose first win of any sort this was since the end of August – by four points and finish ahead of Verstappen in any position to take the title with a race to spare.
