My Paradox

By Diego Martinez

I have not written anything on the Qatar GP because I knew if I posted my prediction, it would fail. I was right. In my head, I had Norris winning the championship. All of a sudden, Oscar Piastri remembered who he was and had a (almost) dominate weekend with a sprint win and pole position.

The race started with Piastri on pole, Norris in P2, and Verstappen in P3. Norris quickly lost his position to Verstappen, quickly diminishing his chances of winning the title in Qatar. When things seemed like they couldn’t get worse; Gasly made contact with Hulkenburg resulting in a safety car to be deployed. Mostly every team decided it was a good time to box for fresh tires. Except McLaren. This led to be a crucial mistake when a championship was on the line.

Verstappen took the lead and never looked back. I will say the McLarens made a great effort to limit the damage already done. Verstappen crossed the finish line in P1 with Piastri in P3 and Norris in P4. Which means that we will be crowning a champion in Abu Dhabi.

I will not be giving my prediction, because something I learned is to never count Verstappen out. I will say that this is not going to be an easy fight for Norris. As it stands, Norris just needs a podium in Abu Dhabi to win the championship.

Something that I noticed is that Verstappen isn’t putting these wins in relation with his skill. Instead, it is purely on the amount of mistakes McLaren have been making.

“We won’t win it on pure pace in Abu Dhabi,” Verstappen said. “We need something like today or more luck.”

The title couldn’t be anymore straight-forward for Norris. Podium and you win. It sounds easy enough with the absolute monster of a car Norris has.

The Abu Dhabi GP will be this sunday at 7 a.m. and the stakes are higher than ever. Keep an eye out for my upcoming articles covering qualifying, the race, and the world champion.