F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 Recap: Lando Norris hangs on to win the Drivers' title
Despite having some nervy moments, Lando Norris has done what he needed to and finished on the podium at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 with Norris’ P3 finish seeing him win the Formula One 2025 World Drivers’ Championship. Max Verstappen finished on the top step of the podium, winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 with Oscar Piastri finishing second. Verstappen and Piastri’s finishes weren’t enough though as Norris took the title by the skin of his teeth, finishing the season 2 points ahead of Verstappen and 13 in front of his teammate, Piastri.
Verstappen, though, capped off a stellar year for the Red Bull star, finishing runner up in the Championship, despite not having the strongest race car in the season and bringing the title fight down to the very final race. For Piastri, it will be a disappointing end to a season, which he had in his grasp but some poor performances in the second half of the season along with McLaren prioritising Norris over Piastri to dent the latter’s title chances, sees Piastri finish his first title-fight campaign in third place.
Max Verstappen got the grid away for the final time in the Formula One 2025 season once the lights went out, the Dutchman cut right across to keep his lead from Norris while Piastri was unable to catch his teammate at the start. Behind them, George Russell had a shocking start and dropped a couple of places right away as he fell from P4 to P6. Oscar Piastri swept past Norris at Turn 9 on the opening lap itself as the Australian made light work of his teammate. Russell made back a place on lap four, getting Fernando Alonso and it was Charles Leclerc pressuring Lando Norris for P3. Verstappen had opened up a gap of more than two seconds to Piastri by lap five with Norris a further second behind.
Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon were amongst the first to pit on lap 9, with both rejoining the track right at the back of the grid. Mercedes called in George Russell on lap 15 while Racing Bulls’ got Liam Lawson in as well on the same lap. A host of other cars followed into the pits in the following couple of laps as the teams were getting their first and what could only stop out of the way early on. Norris was the first of the front runners to pit, on lap 17 with Leclerc and Alonso also pitting on the same lap as the McLaren driver. Norris rejoined in 9th place with Leclerc right behind him while a slow stop from Aston Martin dropped him down to P15 on his re-entry. Norris got Kimi Antonelli on lap 18 for P8 and he made it two places in a lap as he picked off his former teammate, Carlos Sainz for P7 as well. Norris continued to make up places as he got Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson going into Turn 6 to move up to P4.
Norris got past Tsunoda on lap 24, albeit going off the track and Verstappen got his stop done the same lap and rejoined in second place behind Piastri, with Norris five seconds behind. Norris’ move on Tsunoda saw him move back to P3 which meant that he was in the spot which would guarantee him the title. By lap 30, Piastri was leading the race being the only one on the grid yet to stop with Verstappen over 10 seconds clear from Norris behind the race leader. Leclerc was catching Norris, having made his way up to P4 with the Ferrari showing strong race pace.
Leclerc came in for his second stop on lap 40 and the Ferrari driver came out in P5, two and a half seconds behind Russell. McLaren reacted immediately to call in Norris to cover off the Leclerc undercut threat and he rejoined comfortably in P3 while Max Verstappen on track took the lead from Piastri. Piastri finally came in for his stop on lap 42 and the Australian rejoined in second place, almost five seconds clear off Norris in third place. Leclerc meanwhile, flew past George Russell for P4 the same lap with the Ferrari man chasing Norris for the final podium place and looking to spoil his party.
Norris eventually, ramped up the pace to leave Leclerc behind and finish third, which turned out to be enough to him to win the Formula One 2025 World Drivers’ Championship despite Verstappen winning at the front of the grid, with Oscar Piastri finishing second and it meant that Piastri finished third in the title standing. Charles Leclerc finished fourth, 6.7 seconds behind Norris with Russell, Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Hamilton, Lance Stroll and Ollie Bearman rounding out the points places for the final time in 2025. For Haas and Aston Martin, it was a strong double points finish to the season.
