Lando Norris is crowned the Champion of the 2025 Formula 1 season after a thrilling head-to-head
Updated: May 2
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw an exciting end to the season. Going into the weekend there were three potential candidates in the McLaren boys and Max Verstappen, Verstappen closing off the season with a Victory just not being enough to clinch the title.
The weekend started off strong for Norris and Verstappen, who both performed well in the free practice sessions ahead of Oscar Piastri on Friday. For Norris, qualifying on pole would have been the most advantageous outcome, but he just needed to finish on the podium to win the Championship. For Verstappen, he needed to win and for Norris to finish outside of the top three, but for Piastri it was a little more complicated, as he needed to outqualify both of his competitors and finish first with the other two drivers finishing outside the podium. Verstappen qualified on pole, with Norris and Piastri following closely behind in P2 and P3.
To end a poor, underwhelming season for the seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton again saw an early Q1 exit, qualifying just P16 with a lot of places to make up in the final race of the season. Some other faces we did not see in the Q3 who are frequently there are Kimi Antonelli, starting from P14, Carlos Sainz in P12 and Ollie Bearman just missing out in P11 to Yuki Tsunoda by 0.007 seconds after a questionable lap from the other Red Bull driver, exceeding track limits.
George Russel qualifies P4 behind the championship contenders followed by Charles Leclerc who has simply outqualified and outperformed his teammate all season with the same car, maxing out the car's capabilities. Fernando Alonso again performs well, the two-time world champion starting the race on Sunday in P6. The rest of the top ten saw Gabriel Bortoleto qualify P7 in the last race as Sauber before becoming Audi in 2026, followed by Estaban Ocon and Iscak Hadjar, the rookie's last race in VCARB before coming back as a Red Bull driver in 2026 after his good performances in his debut season.
Sunday's race saw everyone on edge in the McLaren and Red Bull garage. Max would start out strong in the front, and an early overtake from Piastri in the first lap saw Lando Norri under pressure from Charles Leclerc, driving right up behind him, chasing the Championship leader down. This was after George Russel dropped two places to Alonso and Leclerc in the first turn of the race, The Ferrari driver would tail Norris one way or another throughout the race - he was hungry and constantly breathing down Norris' neck would have been intense. With the pace of the McLaren, however, it was no match for the much slower Ferrari no matter how ferociously he charged at the British driver.
The top three swapped places a few times during pit stops, and during one of these pitstops Lando Norris was stuck behind Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson, passing the in a double overtake round the inside of one of the corners. His next target was Yuki Tsunoda, who had previously said he would do anything to help Verstappen win the title. When Norris approached, the Japanese driver swerved around on the straight, Lando Norris overtaking him off of the track, which led to a lot of outrage online ad to why onky Yuki Tsunoda got handed a five-second penalty when Norris left the track. The stewards explained the following:
“The Stewards reviewed video, team radio and in-car video evidence.
“Car 4 was making an overtaking move on Car 22.
“Car 22 made a number of changes of direction which ultimately resulted in Car 4 having to go off track to avoid a collision.
“In doing so, Car 22 also effectively forced Car 4 off the track.”
Ultimately, Leclerc failed to catch Norris by a large margin in the end, Piastri just could not catch Verstappen and the Driver's Championship was won by Lando Norris, a tearful exchange on the radios, between is parents and his partner, and his supporters and crowd in Abu Dhabi:
“I’ve not cried in a while. I didn’t think I would cry but I did.
“It was a long journey, I want to thank everyone at McLaren, my mum, my dad, they’re the ones who supported me from the beginning.
“Ah I look like a loser.”
Lewis Hamilton also made a comeback in the race, jumping to P8. Ferrari finished P4 in the Championship this year, a disappointing finish considering Red Bull were practically racing with one car, that car being Max Verstappen. Ocon retained his position in P7, as did Aston Martin's Alonso and Stroll rose up to P10, the two teams finishing P7 and P8. Hulkenberg secured P9, finishing above Alpine who struggled to get points all season.
Despite not winning the Championship, Max Verstappen's performance was one of the best we have seen in Formula one, the comeback this season, being shy just two points from winning his fifth was a massive achievement. Upon reflection, Verstappen spoke about how he found this season:
“The turnaround has been fun, and today has been fun. We didn’t win the championship, okay, that happens, that’s life, and it’s not something that I’ll be too sad about. I mean, life goes on.
“I’m just very proud of the people I work with, they are my second family, and we will enjoy this moment. We will enjoy the second half of the season, be proud of that, and next year is going to be a big question mark for everyone anyway.”
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"I kept looking up at the screen and hoping something would pop up. Every straight, I kept looking to see if something was happening, but it didn't and that is racing, and I am not too fussed about it.
"I have no regrets about my season."
When listening to Piastri after the race, you could just tell he was feeling defeated with the results, just thirteen points away from a maiden title himself. Despite only being in Formula 1 for three years, he has proven time and time again that he deserves his place, and with how close the Championship was, a title is definitely in his future. He spoke about the following when reflecting on his own season:
"I tried my best and put myself in the best position I could to try and win the race and give myself the best opportunity, but it wasn’t to be.
"I think we can be very proud of the season we’ve had. On a personal level, it’s obviously not quite the ending that I wished for but I think when you look at the season as a whole, I’m very proud of the work that I’ve been able to put in."
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“We gave it everything, a bit of a gamble on strategy to try and win the race and the championship. That’s all you can ask for. It’s been a fun challenge, hasn’t felt like that at times, but a very enjoyable season for both of us.”
“I’ve learned a lot from what Lando does, it’s nice to know it goes both ways. I think it’s made us both better drivers, and there’s plenty more to come. At times this year I felt unstoppable – a pretty cool feeling to have – but I’ve learned a lot of lessons in tough moments.”
Lastly, I will finish up with some heartfelt words from the World Champion himself, who talked fondly about his team, his rivals in the Championship and the future:
"I've not cried in a while and I didn't think I would cry but I did.
"I mean, it feels amazing, I now know what Max feels like. I want to congratulate Max and Oscar, my two biggest competitors the whole season.
"It's been a pleasure to race against both of them and an honour, I've learned a lot from both of them as well.
"I've enjoyed it and it has been a long year but we did it and I'm so proud of everyone."
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"It's incredible. It is pretty surreal, you know?" said Norris. "I've dreamed of this for a long, long time. Everyone does.
"A lot goes into a season like this, a lot of ups, a lot of downs. But none of that matters as long as you try and come out on top, and that's what we have managed to do.
"It's not just this year, it has been over the last seven or eight years being with McLaren, with the last 16, 17 years of my life, trying to chase this dream, and today we all did it so I'm pretty happy."
It is not often to say this, but we must now wait until January for the 2026 car releases, and the first race of the 2026 Season in Australia, commencing in 89 days from now.
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