The British McLaren driver has secured his maiden F1 title by the slimmest of margins, holding off a fierce challenge from Max Verstappen to win by just two points.
Lando Norris is a Formula One world champion. The 26-year-old clinched his first title after a heart-stopping season finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, finishing third in the race and beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just two points in the final standings. It ends Verstappen’s four-year run at the top, and you could hear the emotion in Norris’s voice when it was over.
Verstappen actually won the race itself, putting on a masterclass to claim his eighth victory of the season. But Norris came into the weekend holding a 12-point lead, and he knew the math: finish on the podium, and the championship was his, no matter what Verstappen did. His McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri came in second, helping deliver the team’s first Drivers’ Championship since Lewis Hamilton back in 2008.
The tension was almost unbearable. Norris started second on the grid but got passed by Piastri on the opening lap. Then Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was breathing down his neck, and after his pit stop, he had to fight through heavy traffic. But he kept his cool, crossing the line in third place with 423 points to Verstappen’s 421.
“I didn’t think I would cry, but I did,” Norris said over the team radio, his voice breaking. “I want to thank my mum, my dad; they’ve supported me since the beginning. It feels amazing, I know now what Max feels like a little bit.”
McLaren CEO Zak Brown jumped on the radio too: “Lando, this is Zak. Is this the world champion hotline? You did it! Awesome.”
It caps off what’s been an absolutely wild season. The championship lead changed hands multiple times, and Verstappen mounted a serious late-season charge, winning crucial races to close what had been a comfortable gap. But Norris’s consistency in the second half of the year made the difference when it mattered most.
This title also confirms McLaren’s return to the top of the sport. They’d already locked up the Constructors’ Championship earlier in the season, so they’ve now pulled off a historic double and broken Red Bull’s recent dominance.
Now that the 2025 season is wrapped, everyone’s already looking ahead to 2026. New regulations are coming, the grid is getting reshuffled with an 11th team joining, and the competitive order could look completely different. Norris goes into that new era as the champion, the target on his back. And you can bet Verstappen is already plotting how to take that title back.
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