Five key moments that made Lando Norris an F1 world champion
A look back at five key moments that defined Lando Norris's maiden F1 title success.
Lando Norris sealed his first F1 drivers’ championship by finishing third in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The 26-year-old Briton won his maiden F1 title by two points from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by claiming the third-place finish he needed at a dramatic and tense finale at Yas Marina.
Here are five key moments that defined Norris’s achievement and saw him end Verstappen’s four-year reign as F1 world champion…
The perfect start
Norris lived up to his pre-season F1 title favourite tag with a statement victory at the opening round of 2025 in Australia.
Norris bagged pole position and mastered treacherous, changing conditions in Melbourne to fend off Verstappen and make the perfect start to his title-winning campaign.
McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri slipped up on home soil with a late spin that dropped him to the lower reaches of the points.
A statement win in Monaco
Norris produced a phenomenal weekend-long performance in Monaco as he won the prestigious race for the first time in his career.
Having taken pole position, Norris controlled the race from start to finish to score a convincing win that saw him cut Piastri’s lead at the top of the drivers’ standings down to three points on a weekend the championship leader had no answer for Norris’s pace and could only finish third.
The win was Norris’s second of the season and give him some much-needed confidence and momentum. He would go on to take the chequered flag first in three of the next six rounds, including at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
That Monza swap
McLaren’s team orders controversy overshadowed the Italian Grand Prix, where Piastri was told to let Norris past and give up second place after a slow pit stop dropped the Briton behind his teammate.
Norris had run second for much of the race and allowed Piastri to get the first pit stop in an unconventional move, with McLaren responding with an instruction that divided the paddock and angered many fans.
Ultimately, Norris netted three points from the position swap, and they would prove absolutely crucial given his winning title margin ended up being just two points.
A stunning fightback
After a devastating mechanical failure at Zandvoort, Norris’s title hopes looked to have gone up in smoke.
His retirement, coupled with victory for Piastri, left Norris facing a huge 34-point deficit at a crucial stage of the season. But how he recovered over the following months was remarkable.
Norris outperformed Piastri for seven consecutive events with two stunning wins in Mexico City and Brazil putting him in control of the title race, while the Australian made critical errors and suffered a baffling run of poor form.
Keeping his cool at the end
On paper, Norris’s task in Abu Dhabi was simple. Finish in the top three and he’s world champion. But McLaren’s costly mistakes in Las Vegas and Qatar made the task more nervy for Norris than it needed to be, and he went into Sunday’s three-way showdown with his main title rivals either side.
Norris would not have been expecting to lose out to Piastri on the first lap, but he kept his cool to deliver under the most extreme pressure. First, Norris resisted Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the opening stint, before making some decisive, courageous overtakes as he made his way through traffic at a pivotal moment of the race.
From there, Norris did everything he needed to bring it home and get a deserved first world title over the line.
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Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
