A poor strategy call by McLaren has cost Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris dearly at the Qatar Grand Prix, as Max Verstappen claimed a stunning victory to move to second in the Formula 1 world championship standings.
The crucial moment came when a safety car deployed on lap seven saw the entire field fly into the pits — except for the McLaren pair.
The decision not to pit proved disastrous, with Verstappen streaming away to claim his seventh victory of the season while Piastri and Norris were forced to play catch-up.
Verstappen's victory sets up a thrilling three-way decider at Abu Dhabi next week, a scenario that seemed improbable at the mid-point of the season, when Verstappen trailed Norris by more than 100 points in the standings.
"We didn't get it right tonight," Piastri said on the podium, his demeanour described as being "broken" by interviewer Martin Brundle.
"I drove the best race that I could … I tried my best. It just wasn't to be tonight," the Australian added.
"I think in hindsight it was pretty obvious what we should have done.
"I'm sure we will discuss it as a team."
Having locked out the front row in qualifying, Piastri got off to a superb start to lead through the first corner.
Struggling on the dusty side of the track in second, Norris failed to find traction and was beaten to turn one by Verstappen, who settled into second place.
With overtaking a real issue at the Lusail circuit, at the first corner the race settled into a rhythm until a lap-seven safety car up-ended everything for the Papaya team.
Upon confirmation of the safety car being deployed, every driver dived into the pit lane, bar the McLaren cars.
Norris queried the call on the team radio, but his engineer said the early pit stops removed any flexibility for his rivals.
But driver-turned commentator Martin Brundle was immediately sceptical.
"This has worked out horribly for McLaren," he said on Fox Sports.
"It feels to me that McLaren have missed a trick."
So it proved.
With no further safety cars, the McLaren pair were always behind the eight-ball as Verstappen coasted to victory.
The result moves him to second in the overall standings ahead of Piastri.
"I didn't expect to win today, that's for sure," said Verstappen, who claimed his 70th Grand Prix victory.
"Looking at pure pace, we were not on the same level as McLaren, but we made the right call, as most of the grid did.
"That made the race for me."
McLaren's chief engineer Andrea Stella admitted it was "not the correct decision" and the team simply did not expect the entire field to pit the way they did.
But that will be little consolation for Piastri, whose hopes of a maiden world championship title now hang by a thread.
Norris finished fourth behind a superb drive from Carlos Sainz, only overtaking Kimi Antonelli on the final lap after the Italian made an error.
"It's tough. We just had to have faith in the team making the right decision," Norris said post-race.
"It was a gamble … it's the wrong decision. We shouldn't have done it.
"Oscar lost the win and I lost the P2."
In the championship standings, Norris's lead is slashed to 12 points, with Piastri just four points further back.
A three-way battle royale is now in store in Abu Dhabi next week.
The top three drivers each have seven wins for the season.
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog.
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