Lando Norris’ first F1 title with McLaren in 2025 was defined by seven key moments

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McLaren ace Lando Norris won the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship to seal the first title of his career, and these seven key moments defined the Briton’s title-winning season.

Norris is the 11th British driver to win the F1 title, and he is also Britain’s first new champion since Jenson Button in 2009 for Brawn. The 26-year-old is even the first person to win the F1 drivers’ championship for McLaren since 2008, when Lewis Hamilton earned his first title.

Bristol-born Norris won the 2025 title by just two points over Red Bull rival Max Verstappen, who finished the year with the most Grand Prix wins and pole positions of any driver. Norris earned seven wins and seven poles in 2025, compared to Verstappen’s eight wins and poles.

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His 18th podium through 24 rounds with P3 in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was ultimately enough for Norris to end Verstappen’s run of four successive titles. Norris fought back from a 34-point deficit to teammate Oscar Piastri atop the standings to lift the F1 title.

Multiple key moments throughout the 2025 F1 season proved crucial for Norris, Verstappen and Piastri as they fought for the title. With that in mind, F1 Oversteer has taken a look back at the seven most defining moments as Norris won the 2025 F1 drivers’ title on 423 points…

Lando Norris started the 2025 F1 season by winning the Australian Grand Prix from pole

Norris entered the 2025 F1 season as many people’s favourite to win the title after McLaren won the constructors’ championship in 2024. The Briton dealt with the pressure in the ideal way when the 2025 season started in Australia, as he won the Grand Prix from pole position.

READ MORE: Every F1 driver’s final radio message of 2025, as Lando Norris won the title

Teammate Piastri briefly looked set to delight his home crowd in March by securing pole for the Australian Grand Prix. The Melbourne native set the provisional pole time with less than a minute left in Q3, but Norris was still on track and snatched pole by a mere 0.084 seconds.

The Australian GP then arguably proved to be one of the most challenging races of the year, as heavy rain made the painted lines on the streets of Albert Park extremely treacherous. A late rain shower then even threatened to deny Norris and Piastri, as they fought for the win.

McLaren had used team orders earlier in the race to order Piastri to hold position while they lapped traffic, given the tricky conditions. But the papaya pals were free to race when Norris ran slightly deep at Turn 12 on Lap 44/57 and Piastri followed the Briton into the gravel trap.

Norris managed to get back on the track quickly enough to make Turn 13 without too much of a fuss. But Piastri had run deeper into the gravel trap and had to take to the waterlogged grass to re-join, at which point the home hero spun and plummeted down the order to P14.

A safety car for Liam Lawson crashing, on his first of just two appearances for Red Bull, then brought Piastri back into play for the points. Piastri pulled off a brilliant last-lap overtake on Hamilton for P9, by going around the outside of the Ferrari driver at Turn 9 on the final lap.

Lando Norris called himself an ‘idiot’ after he crashed in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

While Norris started the season as he meant to go on by winning from pole in Australia, the Briton did not maintain his initial momentum as he struggled to generate a feeling from the front end of McLaren’s car. The Bristol-born pilot also made a host of mistakes in qualifying.

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Round two in China saw Norris make the first of his many errors in qualifying in 2025, as he only sealed P6 during Sprint Qualifying. Then, in round four, Norris called himself “clueless” after qualifying P6 in Bahrain, having lapped 0.426s slower than Piastri’s pole position time.

Round five at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix then saw Norris make his worst mistake during a qualifying session in 2025. Norris called himself an “idiot” in Jeddah, as he crashed without setting a Q3 lap time after trying to match the speed that Piastri could carry through Turn 4.

Norris could only recover for P4, as Piastri won the Saudi Arabian GP to claim the lead in the F1 drivers’ standings for the first time. McLaren topped the standings from the start through to the end, with Norris on top for the first 35 and final 42 days and Piastri atop for 189 days.

Lando Norris bounced back from crashing in Canada by winning the Austrian Grand Prix

Norris stemmed the tide of Piastri’s title charge with P2 finishes in Miami and Imola, before he then won the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position. But the Briton’s title charge took a huge blow in Canada, on what was McLaren’s worst weekend of 2025 on pure performance.

With Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli in P3 the biggest target for both papaya pilots in Montreal, Norris crashed out of the Canadian Grand Prix after hitting Piastri. Norris tried to attack a space that was always closing along the pit straight, and he retired on the spot.

Piastri was able to continue without suffering any lasting effects from the collision and came home in P4 to gain 12 points over Norris. The stewards gave Norris a five-second penalty for the collision, which was added to his race time as he was classified in P18 in the race results.

Crashing into teammate Piastri in Canada could have shaken Norris, but he bounced back by winning the Austrian Grand Prix from pole. Also, Piastri’s controversial 10-second penalty in the British Grand Prix for a safety car restart infringement gifted Norris his debut home win.

Lando Norris had the only reliability failure by a title contender in 2025 in the Dutch Grand Prix

McLaren always insisted that Norris and Piastri would be treated fairly in their title fight. The team also let their drivers adopt different strategies at times, which even saw Norris win the Hungarian Grand Prix on a one-stopper with Piastri 0.698s behind in P2 after stopping twice.

Norris left Budapest only nine points behind Piastri in the standings, as well, but that margin exploded to 34 points next time out at the Dutch Grand Prix in round 15 of 24. Piastri won at Zandvoort to take his biggest lead all season after Norris retired from the Dutch GP while P2.

An oil fitting failure forced Norris to retire from the Dutch GP, in what would also be the only mechanical failure for the top three drivers in the standings all term. Piastri and Red Bull ace Verstappen did not have a reliability problem throughout any of the 24 Grands Prix in 2025.

McLaren ordered Oscar Piastri to give Lando Norris back P2 in the Italian Grand Prix

Piastri firmly cemented himself as the 2025 F1 champion-elect by winning at Zandvoort, as Verstappen also left his home race 104 points adrift of the Australian. But the 24-year-old’s title bid fell apart in the seven rounds that followed, and McLaren were a major reason why.

McLaren ordered Piastri to give Norris back P2 in the Italian Grand Prix during round 16 at Monza in September. The Woking outfit had assured Norris that he would not be undercut by Piastri if he let his teammate stop first, but the Bristol-born star then emerged behind.

READ MORE: Every error that cost Lando Norris points in his failed 2024 F1 title challenge

The threat of Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc undercutting Piastri convinced McLaren to stop him first, despite being behind Norris on the circuit. But Norris had a slower pit stop than Piastri, which the latter believed would not lead to team orders only for McLaren to make that call.

Piastri could not get over McLaren’s team orders in Italy when F1 then visited Azerbaijan in round 17 as it played on his mind. The streets of Baku saw Piastri crash in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, jump the start of the race and also crash out of the race on Lap 1/51.

Norris making contact with Piastri at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix, as he dived up the inside to take P3 at Turn 3 on the opening lap, also riled the Australian. Then, McLaren blamed Piastri for crashing into Norris in the F1 Sprint at COTA, which ruined his confidence.

Lando Norris produced a dominant Mexico City Grand Prix win to regain the championship lead

Piastri’s woe on the back of McLaren’s team orders at Monza ultimately came home to roost at the Mexico City Grand Prix in round 20/24, as Norris won from pole position to regain the lead of the drivers’ standings for the first time since he lost the lead at the Saudi Arabian GP.

While Piastri struggled with the low grip at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Norris excelled to score pole by 0.262s over Ferrari’s Leclerc and he went on to win by 30.324s ahead of the Monegasque. Piastri qualified P8, but he started from P7, and finished 42.065s behind in P5.

Norris was untouchable as he won the Mexico City GP, and he then strengthened his lead in the standings at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. While Piastri crashed in the F1 Sprint in Brazil and crashed in the feature race, Norris won the Sprint and the Grand Prix from pole in Sao Paulo.

McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Norris could have crumbled after retiring at Zandvoort, but he instead went on to outscore Piastri during each of the following six rounds. The Briton would have also made it seven in a row were it not for McLaren’s double disqualification from the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Post-race checks in Sin City after Norris had finished P2 and Piastri finished in P4 found the underfloor skid planks on both of their cars sustained excessive wear. The right-hand front and right-rear measurement points on Norris’ floor and Piastri’s left-hand front, right-front and right-rear were each found to be in breach of Article 3.5.9 of F1’s technical regulations.

McLaren’s first-ever double disqualification from a Grand Prix ultimately proved to be just a blip for Norris’ title bid. But the team’s self-inflicted mistakes would cost both drivers again. McLaren’s mistakes with Piastri and Norris’ strategies in the Qatar GP cost the former a win.

Norris could have wrapped up the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship in Qatar if results went his way. Instead, F1 held the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with three drivers in the mix for the title for the first time since 2010, and P3 at Yas Marina would be enough for Norris.