Max Verstappen won the final race of the 2025 F1 season after he won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but it was not enough for the Red Bull driver to win the Driver’s Championship.
A third place finish for Lando Norris meant that the McLaren driver became the 2025 F1 World Champion by a margin of 2 points to Verstappen, who narrowly missed out on becoming only the second driver in F1 history to win 5 world championship titles in a row.
Meanwhile, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda finished in 14th position in his final race as a Red Bull driver, with the driver earning a penalty for a move pulled on Norris in the course of the race.
The final standings in the 2025 F1 season will see Verstappen end the campaign as runner up. The Dutchman finished the season with 421 points, just 2 behind champion Norris. This was despite Verstappen winning more races, with the Red Bull driver winning 8 races to the 7 taken by each McLaren, although both McLarens picked up more podiums than Verstappen. Oscar Piastri, who was also vying to win the title in Abu Dhabi, finished third, 11 behind Verstappen and 13 off winner Norris.
Tsunoda ended the campaign with 33 points, with the Japanese driver finishing the campaign in 17th place in the standings, level on points with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll but behind the Canadian on countback.
For the second season in a row, Red Bull finished in third in the Constructors Championships. The Milton Keynes-based team finished the season 18 points behind Mercedes in second place, 382 behind runaway winners McLaren and 53 ahead of 4th place Ferrari.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was set up as a grand finale for the 2025 F1 season, with 3 drivers vying to become world champion. Verstappen, who was over 100 points behind Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix in late August, had clawed his way back into it, but needed a win and for Norris to finish off the podium to become a 5 time champion.
Verstappen and Norris had qualified on the front row, and on the start, Verstappen was able to maintain first position in the race.
The two McLarens swapped early on with Piastri passing Norris, with the Australian providing pressure on the Dutch driver in the early phase before dropping back.
In the early stage, Verstappen’s hopes were raised by Charles Leclerc applying pressure on Norris, but the McLaren soon broke the DRS for Leclerc to try and mount an attack.
Norris opted to pit early to cover off the early stopping George Russell, and the McLaren would soon have to make passes on out-of-sync cars. One of these was Tsunoda, who started 10th and Red Bull opted to keep running long.
An incident soon arose when Tsunoda and Norris did battle on lap 23. Tsunoda made multiple attempts to weave on the straight, which ended up leading to Norris passing Tsunoda off track. This matter was raised to the stewards, who chose to penalise Tsunoda with a 5 second time penalty for weaving in multiple directions, while no further action was taken against Norris.
Verstappen would pit shortly after to cover off Norris, with the Dutch driver later catching and passing Piastri as the McLaren’s hard tyres fading.
Tsunoda meanwhile would later box, taking his penalty and coming out in 18th. He would recover a few positions, but not enough to fight for points.
Out front, Verstappen remained on track to win the race but needed help from others further back to make it a championship. This help wouldn’t come, however. Leclerc briefly looked on course to fight Norris, but the Ferrari’s tyres wore out and the chance of an overtake diminished.
While Verstappen was able to take a 5th win in 6 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix races, and a 71st race win in his career, Norris’ third place was enough to see him just hold on, handing McLaren a first driver’s title since 2008 and a first driver’s and constructor’s double since 1998.