Lando Norris: How McLaren driver beat Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri to win 2025 F1 Drivers' Championship
A look back at how Lando Norris came out on top in a tense season-long title race against Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen; Norris was 34 points behind Piastri at one point during the season but fought back in the closing rounds
Monday 8 December 2025 19:56, UK
Lando Norris became the 35th driver in F1 history to become world champion and Britain's 11th after a tense title-decider in Abu Dhabi.
Driving through the Australian storm
Norris started the season perfectly by converting pole position into victory as he mastered a chaotic opener in mixed conditions at the Australian Grand Prix.
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He was challenged for the majority of the race by team-mate Piastri until huge drama on Lap 44 when sudden heavy rain led to both McLarens sliding wide in the final sector. Norris managed to swiftly get back on the road but Piastri, much to the devastation of his home fans, got stuck on the wet grass for over a minute.
Norris held off Verstappen in the closing stages to take a thrilling win, while Piastri could only recover to ninth. Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle stated Norris delivered "one of the great all-time drives".
Mastering Monaco
Having not won the last six rounds, while Piastri won four races in that period, Norris entered the Monaco Grand Prix in May 13 points behind his team-mate in the Drivers' Championship.
The Briton took the all-important pole position, then overcame the introduction of a second mandatory pit stop, which the FIA had hoped would spice up the race.
The fact that the new rules didn't change much suited Norris just fine, with Piastri having to settle for tor third having been out-qualified by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. The result almost put Norris back on level terms and ticked off a career milestone of winning around the famous streets of Monaco.
Bouncing back from Canada clash
Contact was inevitable between the McLaren duo at some point but a clumsy error from Norris during the closing stages of the Canadian Grand Prix saw him run into the back of Piastri after an enthralling battle for third place, ultimately coming off worse and retiring.
He accepted blame immediately which defused any tension but recovered the points lost by winning three of the next four races in Spielberg, Silverstone and Budapest.
Norris came out on top after another feisty duel at the Austrian Grand Prix, then capitalised on an error from Piastri at the British Grand Prix where the Australian was given a perhaps harsh 10-second time penalty for "erratic" braking behind the Safety Car.
Arguably more fortune went Norris' way when a one-stop race proved to be the best strategy at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Running in fourth, McLaren gambled by running Norris long while Piastri was fighting for the win with Charles Leclerc and George Russell.
Those three drivers all executed a two-stop strategy though, so Norris found himself in the lead and held off a charging Piastri on the final laps, with the pair almost coming together at one point.
Three big wins with 14-point swings for each of them and the result easily could have gone the other way. Instead, Norris went into the summer break just nine points behind Piastri in the standings.
Emerging on top after minor controversies
Norris' title hopes appeared to go up in smoke at Zandvoort as an oil leak forced him to retire and he fell 34 points behind in the title race.
He came back fighting at Monza in September, which began a run of six consecutive weekends where he outscored Piastri. The Italian Grand Prix was not without drama though as a slow pit stop for Norris saw him come out behind Piastri in the battle for second.
McLaren inverted the positions to the frustration of Piastri, who initially said he thought slow pit stops were part of racing. More controversy came two races later in Singapore where Norris aggressively barged past Piastri on the opening lap when fighting for third.
Piastri said on the radio: "If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate, then that's a pretty **** job of avoiding." That move set in stone the positions for the race with Norris on the podium in third and Piastri in fourth.
Remarkably, the McLarens made contact again at the next race in Austin, this time in the Sprint, as Piastri tried to duck underneath his team-mate on the opening lap at Turn One but was turned around by Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg, with Norris an innocent bystander in the multi-car collision.
McLaren lost crucial track time by effectively missing the Sprint, so Verstappen won the race but Norris limited the damage in second and Piastri struggled to fifth.
Dominance in Mexico and Brazil
With Verstappen now a threat to the McLaren drivers, Norris was the one who stepped up as the pressure intensified during the run-in with flawless weekends at the Mexico City and Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
He overcame the eagerly-anticipated long run down to Turn One in Mexico where he went four-wide with Verstappen, Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton before winning by 30 seconds - the biggest margin of the season - and the lead of the championship for the first time since April.
It was a similar story two weeks on in Sao Paulo, with a Sprint win on the Saturday to add which gave Norris a 24-point lead in the championship.
Norris said: "The team are doing an amazing job, giving me a great car. We're pushing hard every single weekend and I'm pushing hard away from the track. Rewarding - it doesn't come easy, that's for sure."
Keeping calm under huge pressure
McLaren's disqualifications in Las Vegas were a blow to Norris as it brought Verstappen back into title contention with two races to go and Piastri also gained from the non-scores.
Piastri was the stronger McLaren driver over the Qatar Sprint weekend but Norris did not make any silly mistakes and picked up enough points with third in the Sprint, then took advantage of a late mistake from Kimi Antonelli to claim fourth in the main Grand Prix and have a 12-point lead over Verstappen.
A podium was enough for Norris to become world champion in Abu Dhabi and that's exactly what he was able to do. His only hairy moment in the title came when coming through traffic after his first pit stop, including having to avoid an aggressive Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull.
But, the championship never felt in doubt during the second half of the race as Norris drove calmly and had enough pace to answer any threat from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to become the 2025 F1 world champion.
Norris said: "It feels amazing. I now know what Max feels like a little bit and 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, so I've enjoyed it. It's been a long year. But we did it and I'm so proud of everyone."
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