McLaren gamble costs Norris as Verstappen takes title down to wire

Piastri has looked good all weekend, claiming pole for both the sprint and today’s race whilst also winning the sprint.

“Everything has felt great all weekend,” Piastri said. “The team did a great job, had a little bit of a question mark on which tyres I wanted to use. I did a lap on the used set and that threw a spanner in the works because did not expect them to be so good but went well on the new ones. Tonight [yesterday] we will review some things and see what I can do better than this morning, we are in a good position, progress, but it is a long race.”

Verstappen came through from sixth to fourth in the sprint and has qualified on the second row for today’s race.

“This qualifying was a little bit better even though we were still quite far off. Still some limitations [in the car]. But at least we are P3 and it creates better opportunities because we know it is quite hard to pass around here.”

George Russell will start with fourth, one place ahead of his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli. Isack Hadjar, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc round out the top ten.

Will Norris secure his first world championship today or can Piastri and Verstappen take it to the final round in Abu Dhabi? The race gets under way at 4pm.