George Russell has privately made a Max Verstappen prediction ahead of Qatar GP showdown

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Formula 1 fans will be hoping for a repeat of the drama between Max Verstappen and George Russell at the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen goes into the final Sprint Race of the 2025 season with a fifth drivers’ championship in sight.

At one point, the Red Bull driver was more than 100 points behind Oscar Piastri, but the pair go into the Qatar Grand Prix level in the standings.

The man that Verstappen and Piastri are trying to catch is Lando Norris, who knows that if he wins both the Sprint Race and Sunday’s Grand Prix, he’ll be McLaren’s first champion since Lewis Hamilton.

Qatar has previously been a strong circuit for McLaren, with Piastri winning the Sprint Race there in 2023, and both drivers finishing on the podium last season.

However, Verstappen was victorious last year after a controversial incident involving George Russell, and the Mercedes driver has privately told journalist Michael Schmidt that he thinks the Dutchman is going to come out on top once again.

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George Russell privately thinks Max Verstappen will win the Qatar Grand Prix

Speaking on the Formel Schmidt show after the race in Las Vegas about the penultimate event of the Formula 1 season, Schmidt said: “Of course, there are super-fast corners in Qatar. They’re not particularly long in terms of radius, but they are fast.

“And George Russell told us yesterday that his favourite is Max Verstappen.

“Fast corners at Silverstone, Suzuka; Red Bull were at the front there, and he’ll be at the front again.

“Not good news for McLaren. It will increase the pressure. I’m really curious to see what McLaren will do now, whether there will be team orders, covert or not.

“But as I said, I can’t imagine that they will hold back. So, they’ll fight to the last moment, because you might only become world champion once in your life, and if you still have a theoretical chance, and on paper it’s as big as Verstappen’s, then you almost have to take it.”

READ MORE: Mercedes driver George Russell’s life outside F1 from net worth to height

Red Bull concentrating on Max Verstappen as McLaren face team orders decision

Red Bull have continued to bring updates to their 2025 car during the final third of the season.

This has brought them back into contention against McLaren, who instead opted to shift their focus to 2026 once they knew they had the constructors’ championship wrapped up.

Team principal Andrea Stella would have never imagined a scenario where Verstappen was within a race victory of either of his drivers before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Stella was aware of the threat of Verstappen, but the double disqualification in Las Vegas had a serious impact on the standings.

On top of this, Yuki Tsunoda is being utilised as Verstappen’s number two and has been for some time, typically testing set-up changes and sacrificing his own result to help the Dutchman.

McLaren will have an incredibly difficult time convincing Piastri to give up his hopes of winning the championship to help Norris.

All it would take is for the pair to get in each other’s way in Qatar for Verstappen to potentially go into the season finale with a real chance of becoming a five-time world champion.