Lando Norris is the 2025 Formula 1 world champion after finishing third at the Yas Marina track as Max Verstappen signed off a competitive season of racing with race victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Norris only needed to secure a top-three result to secure the drivers’ championship, having started the race 12 points clear of Verstappen. And, although Norris lost a position to Piastri on the opening lap and thus came under heavy pressure from Charles Leclerc later on, he was able to stay in third to clinch his first world title.
Verstappen enjoyed a nice, serene drive to victory. With Piastri behind him instead of Norris, any anticipated hold-up play was not realised. McLaren’s decision to start Piastri on the hard tyre had ensured that the offset strategy spaced out the front three between the stops, and the McLaren driver went long into the race to pit on lap 41 once he was passed by Verstappen.
On fresh mediums, Piastri went after Verstappen in an effort to win the race. But Verstappen’s hard tyre pace was strong enough to maintain a healthy lead as Piastri brought the gap down to 12.6 seconds.
After batting away the early challenge from Leclerc, who put him under heavy scrutiny with DRS, Norris had stopped to cover off the Ferrari driver. This left Lando in a sea of traffic, but he was decisive. He cut through Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Alexander Albon in short order, then moved through Liam Lawson and Lance Stroll in a two-for-one move at Turn 6 to reduce the effect of the yet-to-stop runners ahead.
However, Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull proved to be the next obstacle. Told by his race engineer to “do what you can” to hold up Norris, Tsunoda weaved across the circuit on the straight between Turn 5 and 6, forcing Norris off-track as he was completing his overtake. The overtake itself was deemed fine by the race stewards, although Tsunoda was handed a five-second penalty for making more than one change in direction.
Once Norris was free of the traffic, he could start to reduce out a comfort zone as Leclerc’s early-stint pace began to subside versus the McLaren. Since covering off Charles was simply Lando’s priority, he was told to stop for a second time on lap 40 as Leclerc switched to a two-stopper on the previous lap.
Leclerc dropped behind the one-stopping George Russell, ensuring that Norris could get out of the pits with third intact, but the Ferrari’s early-stint pace on the mediums had given Norris a late pressure.
Thus, Norris responded to maintain the gap at around four seconds, which grew when Leclerc’s tyre life began to drop off in the final five laps – and it was simply a case of Norris holding on to ensure the title was his. Such was his pace, however, that he got within three seconds of Piastri before being told to take a little more easily in the final laps.
Despite pitting and coming out behind, Leclerc was 25 seconds clear of Russell as the Mercedes struggled with degradation after 44 laps on the hard tyre. Fernando Alonso was a further 18 seconds back, his sixth place ensuring that Aston Martin clinched seventh in the constructors’ championship ahead of Haas. Esteban Ocon ran to seventh, after making a decisive Turn 9 re-pass on Lewis Hamilton on lap 52 as the Ferrari went past at Turn 6.
Hamilton had recovered to eighth after being eliminated in Q1, his two-stopper yielding a points finish to sign off on a difficult first year with Ferrari.
Lance Stroll and Ollie Bearman finished ninth and tenth on the track, but both were given five-second penalties for making more than one change in direction in their on-track battle. This promoted Nico Hulkenberg to ninth, while Stroll was classified P10 ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto.
So congratulations to Lando Norris in become the eleventh British world champion after the success of Lewis Hamilton. Kudos to McLaren in winning both the drivers’ and constructors’ title.
As for Max Verstappen, winning the season finale was a nice sign off for Red Bull. The fifth title did not happen but he will feel satisfied that his good friend Lando Norris is the new champion of the sport.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:26:07.469
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +12.594s
3 Lando Norris McLaren +16.572s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +23.279s
5 George Russell Mercedes +48.563s
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +67.562s
7 Esteban Ocon Haas +69.876s
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +72.670s
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +74.523s
10 Oliver Bearman Haas +76.166s
11 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +79.014s
12 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +81.043s
13 Carlos Sainz Williams +82.158s
14 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +83.794s
15 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +84.399s
16 Alexander Albon Williams +90.327s
17 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +1 lap
18 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1 lap
19 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1 lap
20 Franco Colapinto Alpine +1 lap
Lando Norris soaked up the pressure of a nervy Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to finish on the podium and in turn secure the F1 Drivers’ Championship for the first time – following rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri home.
Norris started the title-deciding race from second on the grid, between Red Bull racer Verstappen and McLaren team mate Piastri, knowing that finishing in the top three places would be enough to put the 2025 crown beyond doubt.
A bold Piastri move demoted Norris to third on the opening lap, before attacks from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, a spell in traffic after his first pit stop and a wheel-to-wheel moment with the other Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda put the Briton under pressure.
Norris, though, dealt with everything that was thrown at him to cross the line in third and clinch the title over Verstappen and Piastri, who both delivered flawless races en route to the win and second position respectively.
At the end of it all, just two points separated Norris and Verstappen at the top of the World Championship standings, given the 10-point swing at the Yas Marina Circuit, with Piastri finishing 11 points further back.
A spirited Leclerc wound up fourth, some seven seconds behind Norris, followed by the lead Mercedes of George Russell, the high-flying Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, and the squabbling Haas and Ferrari cars of Esteban Ocon and Lewis Hamilton.
As well as Hamilton’s recovery, Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg made up plenty of ground to end his 250th race in ninth, while Lance Stroll took the final point in 10th, despite a penalty for erratic driving.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-secures-maiden-f1-title-in-abu-dhabi-with-podium-finish-behind.EMJtmvRA0uzmzUC4MZgmw
Lando Norris paid a tearful tribute to McLaren and his family after claiming his first drivers’ championship.
After a tense Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Norris crossed the line in third behind race winner Max Verstappen and his team-mate Oscar Piastri in second, which was enough to take the title.
“Oh, God. I’ve not cried in a while. I didn’t think I would cry, but I did,” he told David Coulthard after the race. “It’s a long journey. It’s a long journey. First of all, I want to say a big thanks to my guys, everyone at McLaren… My parents.
“I’m not crying… My mum, my dad. They’re the ones who supported me since the beginning.”
He added, while just about holding back tears: “It feels amazing. I now know what Max feels like a little bit. 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. It’s been an honour. I’ve learned a lot from both of them as well. I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been a long year. But we did it. We did it. I’m so proud of everyone.”
After starting from second on the grid, Norris slipped back into third after he was overtaken by Piastri. As Verstappen led the majority of the race, Norris had to fend off Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fourth to keep the lead in the championship standings.
“It’s a bit of both,” he said when asked if he had the championship in his mind during the race or if he was just racing in the moment. “You can’t not think of it. But I knew it was a long race.
“We’ve seen many times that anything in Formula 1 can happen. I just kept pushing until the last two or three laps. I could ease it off a bit. But I still wanted to fight to the end. That’s what we did. That’s what we had to do this season.
“For Max chasing us the whole way, for Oscar catching up again at the end. They certainly didn’t make my life easy this year. I’m happy.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lando-norris-pays-tearful-tribute-to-mclaren-after-claiming-drivers-championship/10783129/
Lando Norris has been crowned Formula 1 world champion for the first time after securing a podium finish at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This has unsurprisingly prompted warm praise from his fellow drivers on the grid, with long-term rival and friend George Russell.
Norris wrapped up the title at Yas Marina after a tense long race from the first corner. With his team-mate Oscar Piastri overtaking the Briton at the beginning of the race, strong driving from Norris made sure he stayed within the top three, pulling away from the surging Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc in the last stint of the race.
With a stronger and more consistent second half of the season, he was able to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to the championship by just two points.
For many in the paddock, his success started in karting across Europe, with several drivers joining him as they all fought for a place in the championship.
“No, I’m really happy for him. Honestly, maybe when I was a bit younger and not as mature I think you’d be envy of sort of a rival and fellow countryman to win, but honestly I think the older we get you recognise how difficult it is to sustain a certain level in this sport.
“We never know when our opportunity was going to come. I’m sure he wasn’t aware his chance was going to be this year and this second half of the year, especially he’s driven really incredibly, so I’m happy for him and I think he deserves it.”
When asked if he planned to party with Norris to celebrate the title, Russell added:
“No, to be honest. But yeah, he should enjoy the moment.”
“Yeah, very happy for him. It’s great to see him showing his emotions on the world stage. I think he answered a lot of critics and I feel like he took a step. At the end of the year he rose under the pressure and he deserves every moment of this.
“He had quite a lot of bad luck actually, both McLaren’s but particularly Lando’s. He’s done it in great style and I’m sure that’s a lot of pressure off his shoulders. It’s going to be a big night tonight, that’s for sure.”
Will Albon be joining him?
“I’m literally going to spend dinner with my family and go to bed.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/george-russell-older-me-cant-envy-lando-norris-f1-title-he-deserves-it/10783142/
Lando Norris’s emotional Formula 1 world championship win at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was matched only by the warm and moving reaction from the person who has seen the whole journey up close: his mother, Cisca Wauman.
Speaking on Sky Sports F1 from within the Yas Marina paddock after Norris secured his first title, Wauman admitted that the work to achieve such a thing certainly came with its sacrifices.
“Emotionally drained, but very happy,” she said when asked how she was feeling. “Very happy for the family, for the team, McLaren, the fans, because they’ve been always there.”
The mother, emotional from the race that saw her son finish the 2025 season at the top of the drivers’ standings, reflected on how the family had helped the McLaren driver achieve his dream.
“A lot of sacrifices, yeah,” she explained. “When Lando was seven, he started karting. By the time he was eight, he was competing together with his brother, Ollie, and it took the two boys one direction and the two girls I have, the other direction.
“So I missed Lando and Ollie, seeing them grow up, you know, as a kid. Suddenly, playing with a tractor, naked in the garden, was done. It was done. And I miss that, you know, but I mean, this is amazing. This is fantastic.”
The tension leading to this moment had been building since the previous weekend in Qatar, where Norris missed the chance to secure the championship one race ahead of the finale. How did Norris’s mum spend her time between races?
“It was very simple. We flew home, back to England. I did a bit of washing. I worked in the garden and on Wednesday, I went to see the nativity play from my grandchild. And on Thursday, we went back on the plane. So it was a very confusing week, a very short week. But those last laps, they took ages.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/the-sacrifices-lando-norriss-mum-made-for-his-f1-world-championship-i-missed-him-growing-up/10783187/
Carlos Sainz congratulated his former McLaren team-mate Lando Norris for claiming his first drivers’ championship title.
The Spanish driver partnered Norris at McLaren when they both joined the team together in 2019 before Sainz moved to Ferrari in 2021. The driver duo quickly became a fan favourite, assuming the title “Carlando”.
The Williams driver made a point of making his way onto the grid following the race to congratulate his former team-mate and friend.
“Yeah, honestly, very happy for him. I think he’s a great F1 driver. I think unbelievably fast,” Sainz told the media after the race.
“But with his particular way of going about life and things, as much as he’s got criticised a lot during the last few years for being how he is, he’s world champion and everyone can keep dreaming about being F1 world champion while he goes about his own way and does things his own way.
“So I’m extremely happy for him because he must have felt a lot of pressure over the last few weekends and he managed to pull it off.”
Sainz explained he saw how “extremely quick” Norris was when he joined him at the Woking outfit.
“Very happy for him as a driver because he’s always been an extremely quick driver, quicker than what people give him credit for, extremely talented,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“The first years at McLaren, I saw a guy who had the speed to be multiple world champion if it was purely down to speed.
“Along the way, he’s developed his skills a lot and now he’s a world champion.
“More than anything, I’m happy for him as a person because he’s a driver that doesn’t follow the typical stereotypes of a world champion. He’s always stayed true to himself, very honest, very open about his own struggles, and proven to everyone you can be world champion being a nice guy, that you don’t have to be ruthless or badass.
“Happy for him. I hope he stays the same, that it doesn’t get in his head that he’s world champion and he keeps being himself, or even if he relaxes more, and can enjoy F1 more.
“He must have suffered a bit this year with all the social media pressure, journalism pressure from criticising him when he was struggling in the first half, then when Max was getting close. It’s never easy to be world champion with Max breathing down his neck but he’s kept it more or less under control.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/carlos-sainz-lando-norris-proves-you-can-be-the-nice-guy-and-f1-champion/10783161/
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen described himself as “very proud” despite narrowly missing out on the 2025 title after a spirited recovery.
Verstappen found himself 104 points off the championship lead following August’s Dutch Grand Prix, but he and Red Bull charged their way back into contention with an incredible run over the second half of the season.
Victory in five out of eight Grands Prix between Italy and Qatar, mixed with some mistakes and issues for rivals McLaren, meant Verstappen entered the Abu Dhabi finale just 12 points away from Lando Norris.
Despite taking pole position and victory in an emphatic display, Verstappen ultimately fell two points short of overhauling Norris, who got the job done with a podium finish.
Asked if he had mixed emotions post-race, Verstappen said: “I feel good. I was already prepared for these kind of outcomes, because we needed a bit of luck to win.
“From our side, at least we optimised the weekend perfectly – we put it on pole, we won the race in I think dominant fashion, so there is nothing really that you can say about that.
“At the end of course, then you lose the championship by two points [and it] looks painful, but on the other hand, if you look from where we were in Zandvoort, more than 100 behind, then I think it’s not too bad.”
Pushed on how much pride he feels about his and Red Bull’s comeback, given their situation over the summer, the Dutchman added: “I’m very proud of the whole team. We could have also very easily given up at that point, when you’re that far behind.
“I don’t think that’s how this team works. We always try to look for improvements and understand our issues, and that’s definitely what we did. 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.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-very-proud-despite-remarkable-championship-comeback-falling-two.6aLc8om0STvgLnhgF8wBwP
Lando Norris has shared his emotional first reaction to winning his maiden World Championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with the Briton admitting that it felt “surreal” to realise a dream he has been chasing for many years.
While victory in the season finale went to Max Verstappen – and Oscar Piastri claimed second place – a P3 result was enough for Norris to take the crown by two points from Verstappen, while Piastri had to settle for third in the standings.
Sharing his first thoughts after stepping out of the car, a tearful Norris paid tribute to his family and team, as well as taking a moment to acknowledge the challenge posed by Verstappen and Piastri throughout the season.
“I’ve not cried in a while. I didn’t think I’d cry but I did,” the 26-year-old said. “It’s a long journey. First of all I want to say a big thanks to my guys, everyone at McLaren. My parents… I’m not crying. My mum, my dad, they were the ones who supported me since the beginning.
“It feels amazing. Now I know what Max feels like a little bit, and I want to congratulate Max and Oscar, my two biggest competitors all season. It’s been a pleasure to race against both of them, and I’ve learnt a lot from both of them as well.
“I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been a long year but we did it and I’m so proud of everyone.”
Reflecting further on how it feels to claim his debut title following a hard-fought campaign, Norris – who arrived in F1 with McLaren in 2019 after joining the squad’s Driver Development Programme two years earlier – added: “It’s incredible. Pretty surreal.
“I’ve dreamed of this for a long time, everyone does. A lot goes into a season like this, lot of ups, lot of downs, but none of that matters as long as you try and come out on top, and that’s what we managed to do with an incredible team.
“All the boys and girls that I’ve enjoyed so many moments with. It’s not just this year, it’s been over the last seven, eight years I’ve been with McLaren. The last 16, 17 years of my life I’ve been trying to chase this dream and today we all did it, so I’m pretty happy.”
Sunday’s race at the Yas Marina Circuit was not necessarily all smooth sailing for Norris, who was overtaken by Piastri on Lap 1 and later had to get past the likes of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda.
When asked how much the World Championship had been on his mind during the Grand Prix – or if he was focused on the moment – the British racer said: “Bit of both. You can’t not think of it.
“I knew it was a long race to the very end, we’ve seen many times anything in F1 can happen and I just kept pushing until the last two or three laps [where] I could ease it off a bit, but I still wanted to fight to the end.
“That’s what we did, what we had to do this season for Max chasing us the whole way, for Oscar catching up at the end. They certainly didn’t make my life easy this year, but I’m happy.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/ive-dreamed-of-this-for-a-long-time-norris-shares-emotional-reaction-to.67xqJKYyMr6vHBZLpDPtco