Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 Highlights: Lando Norris Clinches First F1 World Title, Ending McLaren’s 17-Year Wait

Hello F1 fans! We’re back for the season finale - stay tuned for live Abu Dhabi GP updates.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix race will be live streamed on the FanCode app and website. It will also be available on the F1TV app and website.

Britain's Lando Norris has the simplest path to a maiden world title, finish on the podium, and the championship is his. Max Verstappen can claim the crown again if he outscores Norris by 13 points, provided Oscar Piastri doesn’t take the win. Piastri, the season-long leader turned outsider, must beat Norris by 17 points and Verstappen by five to snatch the title in Abu Dhabi.

Max Verstappen confident ahead of showdown: "We are ready to go. The plan is to win the race and rely on a bit of luck behind."

What a start! Max Verstappen rockets off the line, grabbing the lead with lightning precision. Lando Norris slots in behind, but Oscar Piastri isn’t wasting any time. Meanwhile, George Russell stumbles out of the gate, already losing spots to Fernando Alonso and sliding down to sixth.

Piastri, comfy on the hard tyres, eyes his teammate like a hawk, and BAM. He lunges past Norris to snatch second place. Norris drops to third, and just like that, the title battle is already sizzling.

Lando Norris gets that classic mid-race “everything alright, mate?” call from the pit wall, calm voices, calm vibes, but the maths behind it? Not calm at all. If Norris slips to fourth and Verstappen stays out front, Max walks away with title number five. The pressure’s humming under the surface.

Meanwhile, the replay of that opening lap tells its own spicy story. Fernando Alonso absolutely launches off the line, slicing past Charles Leclerc and George Russell like he’d plotted it three corners in advance.

Russell? The big loser in that shuffle, watching two cars sail by before he could even exhale. The race is settling, but the tension? Not a chance.

Here comes Lando Norris on the charge! He lines up Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes, tucks into the slipstream, and sweeps past with zero hesitation, that’s eighth place reclaimed and the comeback properly switched on.

And who’s next on his radar? Old McLaren mate Carlos Sainz. But there’s no drama here, Sainz barely lifts a glove to defend. Norris breezes through, up to seventh after his stop, and looking hungry for more. The climb is officially underway.

Max Verstappen is the lone wolf out there still running on his original mediums, everyone else has jumped to the hards, but Max is stretching that first stint like he’s got all day. He’s holding a tidy two-second cushion over Oscar Piastri, who’s keeping him honest but not quite close enough to lunge.

Further back, Yuki Tsunoda is basically cruising in his own postcode, 24 seconds adrift of the front pair. The race has split into layers now, and Verstappen’s the one dictating the rhythm on tyres nobody else dared to keep.

Oscar Piastri hits the front, yes, he’s leading the season finale. but there’s a big asterisk on that timing tower: he still hasn’t pitted. Even so, he’s built a chunky 15-second gap over Max Verstappen, who’s just chilling in second and waiting for the real fight to begin once the stops shake out.

Behind them, Lando Norris sits third, but there’s a cloud hanging over him. He’s now under investigation, and that storyline could explode at any moment. The title fight just got an extra twist.

Lando Norris rejoins the track, but the moment he does, Max Verstappen pounces. A clean, ruthless move, and Verstappen sweeps into the lead as if he’d been waiting for that exact second. The crowd barely has time to blink before Oscar Piastri peels into the pits too.

The race is reshuffling at full speed, and Verstappen is right where he wants to be: out front, dictating the pace.

Lando Norris is hurtling through the corners, just a heartbeat away from making history and claiming his first-ever Drivers’ Championship. Every apex, every straight counts, and the finish line is right there in sight.

Norris fans, brace yourselves - history is about to be made.

Max Verstappen crosses the line first, taking the race win in brilliant style, but it’s Lando Norris who walks away with the ultimate prize. Finishing third was all he needed, and that’s exactly what secures his first-ever Drivers’ Championship. Oscar Piastri claims second on the day, but ends up third in the standings.

What a season, a whirlwind of drama, heartbreak, and relentless battles, and what a moment for Norris, finally standing on top after a year of twists, turns, and pure racing magic.

With a solid third-place finish in Abu Dhabi, Norris clinches his first F1 Drivers’ Championship, edging Max Verstappen by just two points and giving McLaren their first title since 2008. That’s all for now, we’ll be back with another live blog soon. Until then, bye bye.