It all came down to one weekend. One Sunday. Out of 24 races, this was the one that mattered most.
It was finally decided who would be our 2025 Formula One World Champion, who
would take the crown.
Several rookies took part in FP1 on Friday, meaning that several established drivers had to sit out. Among them was championship contender Oscar Piastri. Pato O’Ward took his place and, after FP2 and FP3, it looked like Piastri had some catching up to do with his rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
Then came qualifying, and Max Verstappen stole all of McLaren’s thunder with an outstanding lap, putting himself in an ideal position for Sunday’s race. Second place wasn’t a bad result for Lando Norris, who only needed a podium finish to secure the championship. However, for Oscar Piastri in third place, the task seemed all the more difficult.
Verstappen and Norris both started on medium tyres, while Piastri started on hard tyres. All three drivers got off to a good start, but George Russell didn’t dropping to P6. Piastri took second place from Norris at Turn 9 on lap one with a nice move around the outside. Norris found himself under pressure from Charles Leclerc in the opening laps. However, the top three stayed the same for some time while Russell tried to regain places, overtaking Fernando Alonso on lap four.
By lap 15, Russell had pitted for new tyres in an attempt to undercut Leclerc, but then found himself stuck in quite a lot of traffic. Two laps later, both Norris and Leclerc pitted, making relatively decent stops. They also found themselves stuck in traffic, but made some good overtakes to get past Antonelli and Sainz on the way through the field.
Meanwhile, Tsunoda was instructed to make life difficult for Norris and did his best to keep him behind. After the Briton managed to overtake the Red Bull Racing driver, both have been placed under investigation: Tsunoda for forcing another driver off the track and Norris for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Ultimately, it was only Tsunoda who was given a 5-second penalty. Meanwhile, Norris’ incident was deemed to warrant no further action.
Leclerc and Norris pitted for the second time in the race: Leclerc on lap 40, followed by Norris on lap 41. Piastri pitted from second place after his long stint on hard tyres, coming back out in second with the aim of chasing down Verstappen for the win. Piastri tried to cut into Verstappen’s lead, but he was not taking enough time out of Verstappen to pose a real threat. After the pit stops, it looked like Charles Leclerc would put Lando Norris under pressure again, but his medium tyre could no longer keep up, allowing Norris some breathing room.
Verstappen crossed the line on lap 58, taking the victory ahead of Piastri and Norris.
However, third place was enough for Norris to become the 2025 World Drivers’ Champion. He is the first British world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020 and the first McLaren Drivers’ Champion since Hamilton in 2008. McLaren also broke the record for the most podiums in a season, with a total of 33.
Other notable finishes included both Aston Martin drivers, who secured double points for the team in P6 and P10, and Lewis Hamilton, who achieved P8 after starting from P16.
That marks the end of an exciting season and the start of the wait for the next one, which will begin in Melbourne in March 2026.
Written by Leslie and edited by Jessica.
Feature Image Credit: Pirelli News Room
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