Lando Norris finally wrapped up the 2025 Formula 1 world title in Abu Dhabi on Sunday night, clinching the championship with a measured third-place finish behind race winner Max Verstappen and McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri — while Charles Leclerc delivered one of the standout drives of the evening to secure fourth.

Norris arrived at Yas Marina with a points cushion and a simple equation: finish on the podium and the title was his, no matter what Verstappen or Piastri produced. It sounded straightforward enough until the lights went out and the race began unravelling into a pressure cooker.

Piastri immediately lunged past Norris with a daring sweep around the outside on lap one, shuffling the Briton down to third and placing him squarely in the crosshairs of a charging Leclerc. The Ferrari man hounded Norris through the opening stint, launching a DRS-fuelled attack into Turn 9 that came within inches of turning the title fight upside down.

Leclerc remained a threat throughout the early phase, and once the first round of stops played out, he again found himself locked onto the back of Norris’s McLaren. The pair carved their way through traffic, Leclerc refusing to let the championship storyline dampen his own ambitions as he tried to end the year on a high.

Norris, however, kept his head. He dealt with an elbows-out tussle with Yuki Tsunoda — who later picked up a penalty for excessive weaving — and then set about building the gap he needed. Once he finally dragged himself more than five seconds clear of Leclerc, the title was all but banked.

Up front, Verstappen and Piastri produced immaculate drives of their own. Verstappen took control once the pit cycles settled, Piastri later switching to fresh medium tyres in a final push that closed the gap but never threatened the Dutchman’s victory.

Norris crossed the line 15 seconds after Verstappen to seal his maiden championship by just two points — the tightest title margin in years — while Piastri wrapped up third in the standings.

Leclerc, seven seconds adrift of Norris at the flag, took a well-deserved fourth. His pace, racecraft and tenacity ensured Norris couldn’t relax for a single lap, and his final-round performance secured him fifth in the 2025 Drivers’ Championship: not the season Ferrari had hoped for, but a determined finish from the Monegasque.

George Russell followed Leclerc home in fifth, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. Esteban Ocon edged Lewis Hamilton for seventh, Nico Hülkenberg marked his 250th grand prix with ninth, and Lance Stroll grabbed the last point despite a penalty for erratic driving.

Behind them came the usual flurry of late-season chaos: penalties for Ollie Bearman, Alex Albon, Tsunoda and Liam Lawson; a bruising midfield scrap involving the Racing Bulls; and a subdued outing for Alpine, relegated once more to the foot of the order.

But the night ultimately belonged to Norris. After years of near-misses, misfortune and maddening what-ifs, the 25-year-old finally sealed his first Formula 1 world championship with the kind of composed, grown-up drive that once eluded him. As he lit up Yas Marina with a jubilant set of donuts, the magnitude of the moment was unmistakable: McLaren’s long project had paid off, the sport had a new champion, and Norris — grinning through tyre smoke — had at last claimed the title he’d spent a decade chasing.