Lewis Hamilton admitted he "had no idea" that Max Verstappen had won the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix during an eventful interview following the race.
The seven-time Formula 1 champion endured a tough weekend at the Losail circuit where he was consistently complaining about his Ferrari machinery before finishing outside the points in Sunday's grand prix. But when he was asked about the title fight going into the final race of the season, his focus turned to Abu Dhabi.
On being told there was now a three-way fight for the title with McLaren's Lando Norris only 12 points ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri just four points behind him, Hamilton was stunned to realise the Australian hadn't won.
"How's Max 12 behind now?" he asked when the drivers' standings were mentioned. "Max won? Oh, shoot, I didn't know, I had no idea. Wow, holy sh*t. No, no, I thought Piastri won, I don't know."
He then double-checked how badly Norris had lost out. "Oh, really?" he asked when he was told the Briton finished fourth. "Lando was fourth? Where's Piastri?"
Only when he was told that Piastri finished second followed by Williams' Carlos Sainz, did the result sink in.
"So Oscar's third now?" he continued. "Goes right to the wire!"
Despite their intense 2021 rivalry, Hamilton was more than complimentary of Verstappen's 2025 campaign.
"Well, we all know Max does a great job," Hamilton said.
"I think he's got a phenomenal team behind him, which there's no denying they've had the best car over the last four years. And maybe less so at the beginning of this year, but they somehow came back. He's obviously got a great car, but he does an amazing job with it, so I can't fault him."
The former Mercedes driver had previously complained about the lack of variety in strategy seen during the race due to the tyre limit and layout of the circuit. But with a substantial change to the regulations in 2026, Hamilton expects better racing.
"I mean, our cars will be a lot different," he said. "There should be more variation between teams. Possibly. Possibly a lot different. Maybe there'll be more overtaking because of the, yeah... we'll see."