Red Bull pick up points but no prizes in sprint race at Qatar Grand Prix

Red Bull were forced to settle for shares of the points rather than victory or podiums in the sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix.

The result saw the team pick up a double points finish in the sprint event, with Max Verstappen crossing the line 4th and teammate Yuki Tsunoda classified 5th in the race at the Lusail International Circuit.

Verstappen finished one place behind championship leader Lando Norris, with the result being that he is now 25 points behind Norris in the championship and if he finishes behind Norris in the full distance Qatar Grand Prix tomorrow (30/11), he will officially be out of contention to win the Driver’s Championship.

Tsunoda picked up points, albeit after two position changes after both he and Andrea Kimi Antonelli handed post-race 5 second time penalties. He is now up to 32 points for the season.

The points total sees Red Bull move up to 400 points in the Constructor’s Championship for the 2025 season, with the Milton Keynes-based team now 41 points behind second place Mercedes and 22 clear of fourth place Ferrari going into the final two races of the season.

The race had something of an anomaly to the starting grid as Tsunoda had outqualified Verstappen in the sprint shootout on Friday, for the first time since his promotion to the Red Bull team early on this season.

On the opening lap, Verstappen was able to climb two places in the field, getting ahead of both the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and then also Tsunoda. For his part, Tsunoda had initially got ahead of Alonso off the line, before his teammate was able to make the move to swap the two Red Bull cars around.

In the early stages, Verstappen had been sniffing around making a move on Norris, who had begun the race from third place. But a move couldn’t be made and the McLaren soon opened up a gap.

With very little action taking place in the race, it meant that the two Red Bull cars remained fourth and fifth to the end of the race.

The sole threat to a change came when Tsunoda was handed a five second time penalty for exceeding track limits too many times. This initially dropped him behind the Mercedes of Antonelli, who had finished within five seconds.

As the cars were returning to the pits after the sprint finished, however, Antonelli was handed his own five second time penalty, which dropped the Italian back down to sixth and allowing Tsunoda to retain his fifth place finish.

The full distance Qatar Grand Prix takes place tomorrow, with qualifying for it taking place after the end of the sprint race. Verstappen will start that from third on the grid, behind the only two other drivers who can win the championship in the form of Oscar Piastri and Norris. Meanwhile, Tsunoda was knocked out in the first part of qualifying and will start the race from 16th position.