Lando Norris captures Formula 1 world title in 2025 season finale
Lando Norris secured his first Formula 1 world title in the final race of the 2025 season on Sunday, completing a comeback in a thrilling and unpredictable campaign, News.Az reports, citing the NBC News.
The McLaren driver topped the standings ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and teammate Oscar Piastri, after all three arrived at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a shot at the championship.
Norris played the long game in the race, knowing he only needed a podium finish to clinch the trophy regardless of where his rivals finished. He kept his composure despite an early threat from the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and a few close calls in wheel-to-wheel racing after pitting for fresh tires and coming out in traffic.
“I love you guys. Thanks for everything. You deserve it,” an emotional and jubilant Norris said by team radio after crossing the line. “We did it, guys!”
Norris finished third, behind Verstappen and Piastri.
“It’s a long journey,” Norris said in a post-race interview, thanking his team and his parents, with whom he celebrated. “It feels amazing... I’m just crazy happy.”
Entering the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Norris held a 12-point lead over Verstappen and a 16-point lead over Piastri, with a maximum of 25 points awarded for victory.
Despite Verstappen's victory in Abu Dhabi, the race ended his four-year reign of world championships, making Norris the first British F1 champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020. It is McLaren's first driver's championship since 2008 — also won by Hamilton in a season-ending thriller — and the first since 1998 when the team won both the driver's and constructors' championships.
It came one year after Norris lost the championship to Verstappen — and boldly proclaimed after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2024, “Next year is going to be my year.”
He made good on it — but it was anything but a straightforward season.
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