Max Verstappen targets 'perfect weekend' as F1 title race heads to Qatar

Max Verstappen said he will take it “one race at a time” as this year's Formula One world championship reaches boiling point in the Arabian Gulf.

The Ducthman is seeking a hat-trick of wins at the Lusail International Circuit this weekend as he looks to close the 24-point gap on championship leader Lando Norris with two races remaining.

But even with luck on his side, the Red Bull driver faces a tall order to rein in Norris. Despite being disqualified along with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, after finishing second at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last Sunday, Norris arrives in Qatar as favourite to lift his first title and clinch McLaren's first team-and-driver double since Mika Hakkinen's success in 1998.

Can Lando Norris be crowned F1 champion in Qatar?

“The points in the championship have got closer after Vegas,” Verstappen told his website as he prepares for a decisive sprint weekend at Lusail.

“We will still approach the weekend the same way we always have and just take it one race at a time. We go into each weekend focused on maximising as many points as we can and extracting the best performance out of the car possible.”

Four-time champion Verstappen is level on points with Piastri on 366 points but trails the Australian on countback race wins this season (seven wins for Piastri, six for Verstappen).

With two rounds remaining, Norris holds a 24-point lead over Verstappen and Piastri – a cushion large enough to seal the title under the floodlights on Sunday, but slender enough to disappear in a matter of laps. Verstappen made clear the mission is simple: “We can only afford to have a perfect weekend.”

“It’s a demanding circuit,” he added. “The heat means tyre management is key and we have to execute everything right with the mandatory two-stop. We want to keep the momentum going and the team are pushing as hard as we can.”

With F1 implementing a mandatory two-stop strategy in Qatar, tactics will be vital to Oscar Piastri's chances of victory. EPA

Mathematics v momentum

Verstappen arrives in Qatar chasing a hat-trick of wins at the venue and carrying all the force of a late-season surge that has cut a 104-point deficit to just 24 since September. Four-time defending champion, serial late-fighter, and the most seasoned of the contenders, he embodies the psychological threat to Norris’s youthful charge.

But even Verstappen knows that mathematics, not momentum, may decide his fate. There are 33 points on across the Qatar weekend (eight in the sprint, 25 in the grand prix) and 58 points including the season-ending Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He must outscore Norris heavily across sprint and race in Qatar, a tall order even for him.

Piastri, meanwhile, remains the wildcard. Disqualified alongside Norris after finishing second in Las Vegas, the Australian’s form has deserted him at precisely the wrong moment. But returning now to fast, flowing circuits that suit his style, and with Pirelli mandating a strict 25-lap limit on each tyre set, he remains a live threat.

To stay in the title fight, both Piastri and Verstappen must be 25 points, or less, behind Norris, who has finished ahead of Piastri in the past seven races.

Tyres, heat and strategy set the stage

Lusail’s abrasive surface and scorching temperatures have forced Formula One into the rare step of enforcing a mandatory two-stop race, a variable that could swing the title race in unexpected directions.

High degradation, short stints and a thirsty track open the door to chaos, and the race flow will likely be far more volatile than Las Vegas. Mercedes and Ferrari, both stronger in changeable races, could yet disrupt the narrative.

In a season already shaped by unpredictability, another twist is entirely possible.

McLaren have told drivers Oscar Piastri, left, and Lando Norris, there will be no team orders during the title run-in. Getty Images

McLaren: No team orders

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has remained steadfast in refusing team orders, insisting both drivers will be allowed to fight until the title is settled.

“We're not going to close the door unless it is closed by mathematics,” Stella has previously said, mindful of the sport’s long history of internal battles derailing bigger ambitions.

His experience is a cautionary tale in itself: he watched Kimi Raikkonen overturn a 17-point deficit in 2007 as McLaren’s Alonso-Hamilton feud imploded, and guided Fernando Alonso in 2010 when a strategy error handed Sebastian Vettel the title from third place.

History warns against assuming the fight is over.

Winner takes all? Abu Dhabi still looms

Should strategy, nerves or misfortune strike Norris, the three-man title tussle could spill into Abu Dhabi for a final-round showdown worthy of the season’s drama, a proposition that would echo the great deciders of 2007, 2010 and 2021.

For now, though, Norris holds the cards, the lead and the momentum.

First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus

Gulf Under 19s final

Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B

Changing visa rules

For decades the UAE has granted two and three year visas to foreign workers, tied to their current employer. Now that's changing.

Last year, the UAE cabinet also approved providing 10-year visas to foreigners with investments in the UAE of at least Dh10 million, if non-real estate assets account for at least 60 per cent of the total. Investors can bring their spouses and children into the country.

It also approved five-year residency to owners of UAE real estate worth at least 5 million dirhams.

The government also said that leading academics, medical doctors, scientists, engineers and star students would be eligible for similar long-term visas, without the need for financial investments in the country.

The first batch - 20 finalists for the Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Distinction.- were awarded in January and more are expected to follow.

Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?

George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.

Hunting park to luxury living

Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Director: Goran Hugo Olsson

Rating: 5/5

How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?

If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.

Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.

Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).

Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.

Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.

By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.

As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.

Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.

He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”

This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”

Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.