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Lando Norris has won his first Formula One world championship with a gutsy, nerveless drive of no little bravery to seal it with third place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A podium was enough for the 26-year-old British driver despite Red Bull’s Max Verstappen winning and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri taking second.
Norris did exactly what was required of him in an enormously intense and high-pressure contest at the Yas Marina Circuit, including making a series of bold overtakes, with a flawless execution by himself and by his McLaren team.
In taking his first world championship he becomes the 11th British driver to do so and it brings to an end McLaren’s drivers’ championship drought, which stretched back to 2008, when Lewis Hamilton last won it for the team. It had been 27 years since McLaren last secured the drivers’ and constructors’ double in 1998, with Mika Häkkinen.
It marks a remarkable turnaround for the team, since a nadir in the mid-2010s when they twice finished ninth in the constructors’ championship. The revival has been helmed by Zak Brown, the chief executive, who joined in 2016, and most recently by Andrea Stella, who as team principal has delivered an operationally sharp outfit with a hugely competitive car.
For the Australian Piastri, who had looked so strong in the championship leading from the fifth round in Saudi Arabia to the 20th, in Mexico, there was clear disappointment that he had faltered in the final third to be surpassed by his teammate but he gave his all in Abu Dhabi. A series of poor performances and some errors, including crashing out in Baku, proved costly but he emerges having demonstrated he too is world champion material. To have been so competitive in only his third season in F1, taking seven wins, was still very impressive and he will feel his time is still yet to come.
Verstappen too had been brilliant to force the fight to the wire and he did all he could in Abu Dhabi with the win, but having come back from 104 points behind in August he did not quite have enough to overhaul Norris and he finished only two points short of the Briton. Norris had gained that margin on the closing laps in Qatar, when Kimi Antonelli ran off the track, which enabled the McLaren past the Mercedes to claim fourth place.
Norris closed out his success with ruthless precision to take the title that has been so close but had remained just out of reach as McLaren found themselves floundering at the previous two rounds. First there was the double disqualification in Las Vegas and then an egregious strategy call at the last round in Qatar.
It was no little achievement for the 26-year-old in his seventh season in F1, all of them driving for McLaren, sticking with the team even during some difficult periods as he felt convinced they would come good. That faith was rewarded in Abu Dhabi.
He has done a hugely impressive job to stick at his task, maintaining his composure and belief that he could still do it, even when under the cosh. Having lost the lead to Piastri after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, struggling to enjoy the feel for front grip from the car, he nonetheless worked at maximising what he could.
Even after failing to finish at the Dutch Grand Prix because is a mechanical problem, which dropped him to 34 points behind his teammate, he maintained his resolve and, in the final third of the season, regained the lead and ultimately the title with a swathe of strong finishes and wins as Piastri struggled with his form.
In the race Verstappen held his lead through turn one, chopping across the front of Norris in doing so, but the three title leaders kept it clean and remained in grid order. Piastri, however, starting on the hard tyre, was feisty and made a brilliant move to go round the outside of Norris to take second place at turn nine.
It demonstrated the McLarens were indeed free to race but left Norris under pressure from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fourth. Norris had to hold his line and did so well, but the first round of pits tops had him emerge in traffic.
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Norris passed Kimi Antonelli within a lap and then swiftly dealt with Carlos Sainz too, moving up to seventh and showing no signs of nerves in his race craft. On lap 19 he made an absolutely bravura move to dive past Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson in one swoop, and while Lawson came back at him Norris held off the Racing Bulls driver. He was now up fourth and catching Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Red Bull told Tsunoda to “do all you can when he catches”, to which the Japanese driver said he knew what to do, in holding up Norris for as long as possible. The Briton was with him on lap 24 and once more was bold. He burst up the inside, almost completely off the road as Tsunoda squeezed him wide in a breathtaking assault to take the place on the back straight.
The incident was investigated, Tsunoda for moving direction twice in defence and Norris for leaving the track to gain an advantage. For several impossibly tense laps the title potentially hung in the balance until Tsunoda was penalised and Norris exonerated. He had made a decisive charge without being held up, which was vital to the title fight.
Ir was enough. Verstappen held his lead from Piastri and McLaren too kept cool through a second stop for Norris to ensure third and, finally, seal the championship
While Norris became the first Briton to take the title since Lewis Hamilton last did so in 2020, the contrast in fortunes between the two could not be starker. As the young guns fought for the title, Hamilton, the grand champion of the old guard, could manage only eighth place in Abu Dhabi, a dismal ending to what has been an absolutely dismal season for him.
Making his debut with Ferrari had been greeted with such enthusiasm and optimism but has yielded only what has comfortably been his worst season ever. He finished sixth in the championship and has failed to take a podium for the first time. He has looked jaded and disillusioned at these last few races and clearly cannot wait to reset over the winter in the hope of better things in 2026.
