Yas Marina awards Norris the title of Formula 1 World Champion

McLaren driver, British Lando Norris, won his first title in the Formula 1 World Championship, after coming third yesterday in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final 24th round of the 2025 season, ending the dominance of Red Bull driver, Dutchman Max Verstappen, for four years.

At the Yas Marina Circuit, Norris finished third, behind his Australian colleague, Oscar Piastri, and the Dutchman Verstappen, who won the race, clinching the world title by two points. Norris entered the race needing to finish among the top three to clinch the title, regardless of the results of his two rivals, while Verstappen needed to win without Norris achieving better than fourth place, and regardless of Piastri’s result, who needed to win, with his British colleague not achieving better than sixth place.

Verstappen, who trailed by more than 100 points at the end of the summer, succeeded in achieving a wonderful comeback during the last third of the season, but in the end he failed to maintain his title.

Verstappen succeeded in winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix title for the fifth time in his career, after covering the distance of the race, which extended over 58 laps, in a total of one hour, 26 minutes, seven seconds, and 469 parts of a second, ahead of the Australian McLaren driver Oscar Piastri by 12 seconds and 594 parts of a second, while Briton Norris came third, 16 seconds and 572 part of a second behind the leader Verstappen.

The Abu Dhabi round won the final title of the season in the World Drivers’ Championship, after British driver Lando Norris strengthened his lead in the World Championship with a total of 423 points, ahead of Max Verstappen by only two points, who finished his current season in second place with a total of 421 points, while McLaren driver Oscar Piasre finished the season in third place with 410 points.