Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 was no less than pure cinema. If the F1 movie had you on the edge of your seats, then this race was on a whole other level. The stage was set; three drivers in contention after 15 years, with gaps as close as 12 and 16 points, where Lando Norris led the championship with 408 points, while four-time consecutive world champion Max Verstappen trailed behind, ahead of Aussie sensation Oscar Piastri.
The stakes were high, and even the fans knew it as they travelled from 105 different countries to Abu Dhabi to be a part of this iconic season finale race. Now only one question remained in everyone’s mind: will Lando Norris be able to defend his title from Max and Oscar, or will Max Verstappen continue his dominance and win a 5th world title, or Oscar Piastri will become the first Aussie to win after 1980?
Well, the answer now is loud and clear as Lando Norris finished P3 and took the Driver’s Championship 2025, becoming the only 35th different driver to do so in 75 years of the sport’s history. But the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 wasn’t just iconic because of the sheer excitement of Norris’s world title, but also because it was one of the most nail-biting races of the season that kept every fan on the edge. So let’s look at the full details.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 Full Recap
As the lights went out at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025, Championship leader Lando Norris came out on medium along with Verstappen, too, on medium tyres, while Oscar Piastri was kept on hards. And without wasting a single lap, the race became truly cinematic as George Russell lost his P4 on turn 1 and Charles Leclerc overtook Fernando Alonso.
But the real twist came as Oscar Piastri overtook Lando Norris for P2, trailing behind Max Verstappen, the race leader. Max set the fastest lap on lap 3, showing why he’s still in contention as Russell complained to his team about his brakes. And you might have missed Russell’s overtake on Alonso if you blinked for even a second on lap 4, as Leclerc starts putting immense pressure on Lando Norris for P3, the position that will decide the Championship.
Norris needed to finish at least P3 to lock his Championship, and Ferrari definitely decided not to let him do that in peace, as the SF-25 seemed to be better today than the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 qualifying yesterday. Next, we know is several drivers like Albon, Hamilton, and Hulkenberg are already making pit stops, where Hamilton gets a slightly slower pit stop than the rest two.
As the race settled for a few laps, on lap 14, another dramatic twist came as Liam Lawson was handed a 5-second penalty for driving erratically as Gasly, Russell, Hadjar, Bortoleto, Alonso, and Bearman made a pit stop for fresh tyres. Then came the undercut strategy by McLaren as Lando Norris pits on Lap 17 and gets out on hard tyres in a 2.1-second pit stop, while Leclerc, who was trailing behind Lando, also makes a pit stop and gets a slightly slower pit stop of 2.5 seconds and comes out on hard tyres on P10, just behind Norris on P9.
On lap 18, Norris showed why he’s the Championship leader and shut haters once and for all as he made sensational overtakes on Kimi Antonelli, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, and Liam Lawson, moving up 4 places to P5 now. On lap 20, Esteban Ocon pits, giving Lando P4, while Leclerc is still hunting Norris down for P4. As many would have, Yuki Tsunoda’s last race was a bang; it turned out to be quite the opposite.
He was under pressure to defend from Norris and prevent him from catching P3, but the Papaya boy overtakes him and almost gets pushed off track in the attempt, which then opens an investigation for stewards to check if Yuki pushed him off the track or Lando left and track and gained an advantage. And as the fate would have it, for the young Japanese driver, it was entirely his fault, and the stewards gave him a 5-second penalty.
While all this is happening, Max Verstappen makes a pit stop on lap 24 and manages to come ahead of Lando Norris on P3, while Charles Leclerc sets the fastest lap of the race and even appreciates his team for a fast car. A rare Ferrari moment, we would say. “This pace is mega, well done,” he said on the radio, but the celebration was short-lived as Lando Norris set the fastest lap just two laps later.
On lap 30, George Russell overtakes Yuki, and on lap 31, several drivers, including Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Antonelli, Ocon, and Colapinto, get waved a black and white flag for track limits, which means one more wrong move, and boom, a penalty on the way. Max Verstappen sets the fastest lap on Lap 31 and again on Lap 33, proving that only he can beat himself. On lap 33, Lewis Hamilton makes another pit stop while Red Bull pits Yuki and serves the penalty, while Antonelli also pits.
On lap 38, Max Verstappen, the formidable force of Formula 1, once again set the fastest lap while Albon got a 5-second penalty for pit lane speeding. And Max, being Max, set another fastest lap on lap 40 while Leclerc pitted again, hoping for an undercut over Lando Norris, but thanks to Qatar, McLaren learned their pit strategy lessons and decided to pit Norris, who defended his P3, and Piastri also went for his first pit stop and came out on medium tyres.
Charles Leclerc sets the fastest lap on lap 43, but two laps later, Papaya boy, Oscar Piastri, sets it again, and Leclerc decides to take it back on lap 46, making this Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 a series of fastest laps. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton gets a moment of resurgence as he comes to P8 from P16 as Lando Norris talks about a possible pit stop for soft tyres in case of a safety car, which nearly gave every McLaren fan a heart attack.
In the last few laps, Oscar Piastri closes the gap with race leader, Max Verstappen, but not enough to catch the win at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025; meanwhile, Charles’ attack went cold as his tyre degradation went up, resulting in P3 for Lando Norris, which gave him his maiden Formula 1 Driver’s Championship in 2025.
And with that, this thrilling Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 came to an end, with Norris being visibly emotional after the win as he was heard crying on the radio, chanting, “We did it.” But what a race. This Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 was everything we needed from a rather monotonous, turned exciting Formula 1 season.
Max Verstappen gave it his all to defend the title and went from a 102-point gap to 2 2-point gap in mere 6 races, while special mention to Oscar Piastri for leading the Driver’s Championship 2025 for more than half a season and finishing P3. With that, Lando Norris ended a 17-year-long drought for McLaren by winning the first Driver’s title after Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 Full Results
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time / Retired | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 58 | 1:26:07.469 | 25 |
| 2 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 58 | +12.594s | 18 |
| 3 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 58 | +16.572s | 15 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 58 | +23.279s | 12 |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 58 | +48.563s | 10 |
| 6 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 58 | +67.562s | 8 |
| 7 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Haas F1 Team | 58 | +69.876s | 6 |
| 8 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 58 | +72.670s | 4 |
| 9 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Kick Sauber | 58 | +79.014s | 2 |
| 10 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 58 | +79.523s | 1 |
| 11 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Kick Sauber | 58 | +81.043s | 0 |
| 12 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | Haas F1 Team | 58 | +81.166s | 0 |
| 13 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 58 | +82.158s | 0 |
| 14 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull Racing | 58 | +83.794s | 0 |
| 15 | 12 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 58 | +84.399s | 0 |
| 16 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 58 | +90.327s | 0 |
| 17 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 18 | 30 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 19 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 20 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
Also read: Lando Norris Becomes 35th Different Formula 1 World Champion
