Max Verstappen without doubt delivered a fine drive for victory at the Qatar Grand Prix but the reverberations from this dead rubber in the desert will resound long after the anthems faded into the night. Controversy and potential danger marked the meeting at the Lusail circuit, bringing recent decisions made by Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, sharply into scrutiny on the same day its president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, had demanded drivers mind their own business when questioning his governance.

Verstappen was in imperious form at Lusail in a race peppered with safety car interventions that he handled with aplomb and while being hounded throughout by a charging Lando Norris, who stayed within two seconds of the Dutchman until he received a penalty that took him out of contention.

Behind the world champion Charles Leclerc was second for Ferrari and Oscar Piastri third, while his McLaren teammate Norris endured a torrid afternoon, relegated from ­second to last with a 10-second stop-go penalty for failing to slow under double yellow flags. While he came back to finish 10th the likely prospect of a tight fight to the flag with Verstappen was ended after his penalty, which he accepted, given he had not lifted off. Ultimately it was enough to ensure the constructors’ championship between the two teams will now go to the wire at next weekend’s season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Yet what had been much of a procession for the first half with Verstappen leading from Norris, the top 10 largely circling line astern from one another in a laborious exercise in tyre management was turned by a debatable decision by the FIA race director.

Just after the halfway point an errant wing mirror, dislodged from Alex Albon’s Williams, was left on track toward the end of the start-finish straight in the braking zone but nothing was done about it for three laps. It was patently in a ­position where it could be hit by cars and considered enough of an issue to be marked by yellow flags.

Yet as they continued to cycle round past it and race control still did not intervene, it was inevitably shifted by being crushed into pieces by Valtteri Bottas’s Sauber. Immediately afterwards both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz picked up punctures, almost certainly from the debris, raising serious questions as to why the race had not been ­neutralised to allow marshals to remove it sooner.

The incident once more puts the spotlight on the FIA, given it comes so soon after the former race ­director Niels Wittich was replaced with just three races remaining. He has since said he did not resign and it is reported he was sacked. Wittich was replaced by Rui Marques, who was previously the race director for Formula Two and Formula Three but the timing of the change, with three complex races remaining and an inexperienced race director in place, was questioned by drivers and teams alike.

The FIA made no comment on why Wittich had been replaced but over recent weeks frustration with the governing body has been ­increasing. This weekend Mercedes’ George Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association had demanded “clarity and understanding of what is going on and who is getting fired next”. A comment which was met on Sunday with a dismissive ­rebuttal by Ben Sulayem. “Do we tell them how to drive? Do we tell them what to have as their strategy? It’s none of their business,” he said.

However the president will nonetheless be under even further pressure to explain the circumstances of Wittich’s departure after the events at the Lusail circuit which could have caused a serious accident and the apparent indecision, given as soon as the punctures occurred the safety car was immediately called to deal with the debris. The FIA have stated they will issue an explanation of the decisions made by race control on Monday.

Piastri felt it should have been dealt with sooner. “Being in the braking zone for turn one where you are trying to overtake, I don’t know what we were going to do until someone hit it,” he said. “Having it sit there for 30 laps of the race would not have been very smart. It probably should have been [moved] a bit earlier.”

The final result however was a major score for Ferrari who expected to be beaten by McLaren here. It takes the constructors’ championship to the season finale with Norris’s penalty costing McLaren dear and considered very severe. McLaren are looking to claim their first title since 1998 and remain favourites but Ferrari have now closed the gap to 21 points with 44 on offer in Abu Dhabi.

Behind all of which furore, Hamilton, in his penultimate race for Mercedes, toiled fruitlessly. He was flagged for a false start and took a five-second penalty. Struggling with the balance of the car all race, he had the puncture and then received a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The driver, thoroughly fed-up, asked to retire his car but the team insisted he stick at it, which will not have improved his mood and he finished 12th. McLaren and Ferrari will go into the finale fired up but Hamilton can only hope his farewell is of finer stuff.

Russell was in fourth for Mercedes, Pierre Gasly fifth for Alpine, Sainz sixth for Ferrari, Fernando Alonso seventh for Aston Martin, Guanyu Zhou eighth for Sauber and Kevin Magnussen ninth for Haas.