The moments that defined the 2025 F1 World Championship

As another Formula 1 season comes to an end, what were the key moments that defined the season and saw Lando Norris crowned as champion?

Right from the opening race, it appeared that the 2025 season would be a shoo-in for either Norris or Oscar Piastri to claim a maiden F1 World title.

Winning 12 of the opening 15 Grand Prix helped McLaren continue its upturn in results after a strong end to the 2024 season.

And having comfortably wrapped up its second consecutive Constructors’ title as early as Singapore, it seemed to be an in-house fight between the McLaren pair.

As well as this, reigning World Champion Max Verstappen had spent much of the season ruling himself out of contention as the Dutchman chased a fifth straight crown.

However, a combination of slip-ups from McLaren and a successful upgrade package from Red Bull saw Verstappen perform an unlikely charge back into title contention.

Ultimately, the Dutchman’s charge would fall just short, losing the title to Norris by just two points, despite winning the final three races.

Piastri, too, would find form in the last two weekends, but it would be too late, the long-time championship leader was resigned to third place, 13 points behind Norris.

Momentum ebbed and flowed across the record-equalling 24-race calendar, but what were the key moments that allowed Norris to come out victorious over the rest?

McLaren challenge causes red mist to descend on Verstappen

An ominous start to the season saw McLaren as the clear front-runners in 2025, with Norris claiming victory in changeable conditions Down Under in Melbourne.

A mistake on home soil from Piastri saw Norris take a 23-point advantage away from the season opener, although a spirited fightback saw the Australian charge back.

Piastri would win five of the next eight races and storm into the points lead as Norris’ form, especially in qualifying, fluctuated as Piastri became ever more consistent.

In fact, Piastri’s consistency saw him join an elite club for McLaren, matching Lewis Hamilton and Ayrton Senna with eight consecutive podiums between China and Spain.

In that same time, Norris would only add one more win to his tally, with a maiden win on the streets of Monte Carlo in round eight.

Furthermore, Norris had fewer wins in the opening third of the season than Verstappen, with the Dutchman collecting two against-the-odds wins at Suzuka and Imola.

However, it would be in Spain where Verstappen would see red and lose key ground in his already failing title defence. A 10-second penalty after a collision with George Russell, following a heated exchange with his Red Bull pit wall, saw Verstappen drop from fourth to 10th at the chequered flag in Barcelona, losing 10 points in the process.

Combined with his sole DNF on Red Bull’s home soil when Andrea Kimi Antonelli wiped him out in Austria, Verstappen was resigned to relinquishing his grip on the crown.

Piastri strengthens his lead as DNFs impede Norris

Having dropped behind Piastri, Norris began to string some results together and won three of the next six races after Barcelona to reignite his title credentials.

Victories in Austria, his home race in Silverstone and in Hungary saw Norris claw back his deficit to Piastri, though a few errors were still slipping through the cracks.

After losing out early on to Piastri in Spa due to a battery issue, a string of lock-ups in the latter stages in Belgium saw Norris fall short in his pursuit of Piastri on older tyres.

However, there would be two key DNFs in Norris’ mid-season that would throw the advantage right into Piastri’s hands.

On a rather off weekend pace-wise for McLaren as a whole in Canada, Norris would lose 12 points to Piastri in a baffling crash with his team-mate with four laps to go.

Fighting for fourth place, Norris pushed for a gap that didn’t exist along the pit straight and drove straight into the back of the Australian and retired on the spot.

Then, a mechanical failure in the latter stages in Zandvoort from second place saw Piastri gain another 25 points, and almost have one hand on the trophy early on.

With a 34-point deficit to his ever-consistent McLaren team-mate, Norris would need a reprieve to revive his slimming title hopes. That is exactly what he would get.

Piastri begins to crumble

Despite looking like the clear title favourite up to this point, Piastri would have a disastrous weekend in Baku that would begin an awful run for the championship leader.

Crashes in both qualifying and the race on the streets of Azerbaijan kick-started a run of six consecutive races without a podium finish.

The consistency that had been a key to Piastri’s season had all but vanished, and his cool persona started to crack as he began scratching his head for answers.

Two further crashes in the Sprint Races in Austin and Brazil, one which also took out team-mate Norris, caused more damage to the Australian’s confidence after he openly admitted the Monza switch with Norris had more of an effect than he expected.

As Piastri struggled on the lower grip circuits that closed out the season, both Norris and, in particular, Verstappen wiped away his points lead.

In fact, Piastri would only win once more after his victory in Zandvoort, with a Sprint victory in the penultimate weekend of the season in Qatar, while Norris would only win twice more himself, as Verstappen performed a herculean chase from 104 points back to be only 12 points behind the Briton, and ahead of Piastri.

Combined with McLaren’s double disqualification from the race in Las Vegas due to plank wear and a few instances of ‘Papaya rules’ costing the team victory, especially in Qatar, the season finale in Abu Dhabi became more tense than it really needed to be.

Revitalised Red Bull put the pressure on

As McLaren floundered, Red Bull and Verstappen hit form, winning six of the final nine races to pile the pressure on McLaren as the unexpected outsider in the battle.

Having ruled out even winning another race, let alone the title, Verstappen increased the heat on McLaren as the team continued to prioritise one driver over the other.

Verstappen dominated the last third of the season, and without a set-up slip-up in Brazil that eliminated him in Q1, an unlikely fifth championship almost came his way.

Ultimately, Verstappen would fall short, and Norris would be crowned as F1’s 35th World Champion, with all-in-all the most consistent package across the 2025 season, only dropping major points in his two DNFs, while both Piastri and Verstappen had a few off-colour weekends which derailed their shots at the title.

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