Red Bull make shock Mercedes suggestion to Max Verstappen as Kimi Antonelli footage emerges

Max Verstappen’s race engineer may have some explaining to do after his driver took the Formula 1 title down to the wire.

The four-time champion kept his faint hopes of a fifth alive in surprising fashion with victory in Qatar as his McLaren rivals fluffed their strategy.

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A new mandatory tyre rule for the weekend’s event mixed up strategy calls, and both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were left hampered by their team’s decision-making.

Both drivers were told not to pit when out front when a safety car was called out on lap seven, but the rest of the grid did.

Verstappen was the main beneficiary of the poor call, taking the win as Piastri ended up second, and Norris fourth behind Carlos Sainz.

Championship leader Norris now has a gap of just 12 points to second-placed Verstappen, but things could have been worse.

In fifth on the final lap, he was struggling to chase down Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, but then passed as the Italian went off track.

Verstappen’s engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, then made a highly-provocative comment to his driver over team radio.

“Not sure what happened to Antonelli, looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through,” he said.

Replays then showed the Mercedes experiencing a quite normal snap of oversteer, rather than any nefarious tactics.

While when asked about the comment, Antonelli added: “I was trying to do my race, I was trying to get the podium, I was pushing hard.. and just lost the rear, and went off track.. that wasn’t on purpose, nothing to do about it.”

That final overtake meant Norris collected 12 points rather than ten, meaning he just has to finish on the podium in the Abu Dhabi decider to collect his first title, irrespective of where Verstappen and Piastri end up.

McLaren refused interview requests until after the podium ceremony, when team principal Andrea Stella fronted up to the media.

“Oscar should have won, Lando should have been on the podium,” he said.

“It was a decision, we didn’t expect everyone else to pit and then when everyone else behind you does it makes it a different decision. It wasn’t the correct decision.

“We understand Oscar being disappointed, he did everything right.”

When asked if the team will favour Norris for the decider in order to stave off Verstappen, he said: “We want to always keep the options open for both drivers.”

Martin Brundle was then asked if McLaren’s tactics of not favouring a driver cost them in Qatar.

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“I don’t think so, no, they just got it wrong,” he responded. 

“They misunderstood it all. I think they were trying to keep the flexibility later on. They should’ve split the strategy.”