Mark Hughes: How McLaren killed Verstappen's title bid
Lando Norris, world champion. It slotted into place in the season finale in a way no one could have any real complaints about. Max Verstappen won his eighth race of 2025 (more than anyone else) to cap a truly brilliant seasonal performance, but Norris did all he needed to do in finishing a conservative third. The way McLaren went about winning one of its drivers a title for the first time in 17 ye...
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Lando Norris, world champion. It slotted into place in the season finale in a way no one could have any real complaints about. Max Verstappen won his eighth race of 2025 (more than anyone else) to cap a truly brilliant seasonal performance, but Norris did all he needed to do in finishing a conservative third. The way McLaren went about winning one of its drivers a title for the first time in 17 ye...
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Mark Hughes: Canny McLaren caught Red Bull by surprise
A clever strategy from McLaren took Red Bull by surprise in Abu Dhabi...
Max Verstappen did not play the disruptive role many expected him to in Formula 1's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix title decider, where he came up two points short of a fifth-successive world championship.Expecting Verstappen to make McLaren's life harder on Sunday was not about assuming he would do anything nefarious.It would have been totally legitimate to back the field up, as Lewis Hamilton did the same...
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Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko is to hold talks this winter with the Formula 1 team to decide whether or not he continues in his role next season, amid growing indications he could be heading for retirement.The veteran has been a part of Red Bull’s operation ever since it entered F1 in 2005, and he played a major role in the title successes that it achieved with Sebastian Vettel and Max ...
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Lando Norris is the 2025 Formula 1 world champion - so you can guess where he is in our Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winners and losers selection.But here's our judgement on everyone else as well.Winner - Lando Norris (3rd but world champion)This was a no-frills drive to the title. But there's no way Norris will care about that.He had earned the right to that kind of drive from the lead he'd built up from...
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Max Verstappen is happier after his 2025 season than when he won the Formula 1 title last year – but one particular topic sparked an unexpectedly sharp and angry response from the four-time world champion.Verstappen missed out on a fifth straight championship despite winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as Lando Norris finished third to clinch his maiden title by just two points.Despite a difficult s...
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As soon as the tyre choices for the 2025 Formula 1 title deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix flashed up, it looked like Red Bull had given Yuki Tsunoda the opportunity to replicate the critical help Sergio Perez gave Max Verstappen in the 2021 F1 finale.That’s exactly how it played out - except whereas Perez earned “legend” status, in Verstappen’s own words, for Red Bull, Tsunoda just got himself a pena...
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In his darkest moments, Lando Norris must have feared the 2025 Formula 1 world championship was beyond him.That’s an inevitable consequence of the zero-sum game that is elite sport, where it feels like it’s either total success or abject failure and no middle ground. Intellectually, Norris will always have understood there will be other years and new opportunities, but emotionally the feeling will...
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Max Verstappen dominated the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but third place behind McLaren team-mate and third title contender Oscar Piastri was enough to give Lando Norris the 2025 Formula 1 world championship title.Results1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)2 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +12.594s3 Lando Norris (McLaren) +16.572s4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +23.279s5 George Russell (Mercedes) +48.563s6 Fernando Alonso (A...
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Lando Norris sealed his first Formula 1 drivers' title with a third-place finish in the 2025 season finale in Abu Dhabi.The 26-year-old has become champion in his seventh season on the grid, and is the first McLaren driver to win the title since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.Red Bull driver Max Verstappen took a dominant win out front, his eighth of the season (which is most in the field), but never atte...
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Formula 1's latest three-car title decider was a fair bit less dramatic than its famous 2007 counterpart - or the four-car 2010 showdown - but it couldn't help but be tense, even if points leader Lando Norris ultimately drove the exact race he needed to to ensure triumph.But was it a good finale, and how does Norris's title-clinching campaign compare now that it's over and his mission has been acc...
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Lando Norris avoided a penalty that could have cost him the Formula 1 title for a questionable overtake on Yuki Tsunoda during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.Norris was passed by McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri on the opening lap of the season finale but survived early pressure from Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc to hold third place, which would guarantee him the title even with nearest championship riv...
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McLaren has made an outlier tyre choice for the Formula 1 title decider in Abu Dhabi that it hopes will help it head off a major threat in its bid to beat Max Verstappen.On a weekend where the super low-grip surface has triggered a surprise return of front tyre graining, something that McLaren is especially vulnerable to, there is uncertainty about how big an impact it could have in ramping up deg...
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Formula 1’s three-way title showdown is delicately poised with a fascinating set of dilemmas facing Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.Poleman Verstappen is in the best position to win the race - but Norris, who leads the championship by 12 points, will be world champion if the drivers finish in the order they take the start.Piastri, meanwhile, is well-placed to attack both but require...
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Max Verstappen’s mantra of ‘all we can do is our best, the rest isn’t in our control’ is helping him to unerringly hit the target in his Red Bull, despite it being a more contrary car to set up than the McLaren of his 2025 Formula 1 title rivals.After starting the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend well behind in FP1 yesterday and steadily clawing the deficit down in the evening, a change to a smaller w...
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Our pick of the standout performers and the biggest flops from the final qualifying session of F1 2025.Winner - Max Verstappen (1st)'Moral champion' is a horrible cliche and it maybe implies Verstappen has in some way been hideously wronged this year by whoever beats him to the title (if he is beaten). It's nothing like that - he just had a relatively ropey Red Bull for too much of a year in which...
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Max Verstappen hopes the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is not “straightforward” for McLaren as he bids to beat Lando Norris to the Formula 1 title - and is expected to play a role in making that the case if needed.Verstappen earned a brilliant pole position at the Yas Marina Circuit but championship leader Norris will start alongside him on the front row.Norris has a 12-point lead over Verstappen so even i...
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2025 Formula 1 world championship rivals Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri line up first, second and third on the grid for the decisive Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.Here’s our take on their qualifying performances and race prospects.Nervous times for NorrisScott Mitchell-MalmNorris is in a good position to end Sunday as world champion - but a very, very nervy position for lap one. Does he att...
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The 2025 Formula 1 season presented 30 opportunities to compare drivers against their team-mates at full tilt over one lap - 24 grand prix qualifying sessions and six sprint qualifyings.Our team-by-team breakdown of the qualifying match-ups below features a head-to-head comparison, an average of the gaps taken from the last representative segment in qualifying that both relevant drivers took part ...
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The three Formula 1 title contenders were among several drivers to be investigated and cleared for a potential qualifying breach.Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri (twice) were noted by FIA race control as failing to follow the race director's instructions relating to the maximum delta time throughout qualifying. Verstappen, Piastri, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, Gabriel...
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Max Verstappen beat the two McLarens to take pole position for the 2025 Formula 1 world championship deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m22.207s2 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.201s3 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.230s4 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.438s5 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.523s6 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.695s7 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +0.697s8 Esteban Ocon (Haas)...
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