Race Results & Report 2025 Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix
Race winner Max Verstappen and 2025 F1 World Drivers Champion and Third placed Lando Norris during the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit on December 07, 2025 - Usage for editorial use only //
Event: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Track: Yas Marina Circuit
Weather: dry 26°C
Tarmac: dry 30°C
Humidity : 64%
Wind : 3.9 km/h South
Max Verstappen won his 71st F1 race during the 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix today. The Dutch driver started the 17th F1 GP of Abu Dhabi from pole position and won on Yas Marina circuit for the fifth time. For his Red Bull F1 team it was the 130th race win today. Oscar Piastri finished 2nd and Lando Norris 3rd to win the 2025 driver's championship. 2008 was the last time a McLaren driver won that title.
2025 Abu Dhabi GP: Norris Seals First World Title
Three-way showdown under the Yas Marina lights
The 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit delivered exactly what a season-ending title decider should: tension, tactics and just enough chaos to keep everyone checking the points calculator until the final lap.
Max Verstappen won the race, Oscar Piastri finished second, but third place was all Lando Norris needed – and just about held – to become the 2025 Formula 1 World Champion.
After 24 rounds, the final tally reads: Norris 423 points, Verstappen 421, Piastri 410. Seven wins each for the McLaren pair, more wins and poles overall for Verstappen – yet the big silverware goes to the papaya garage.
Verstappen on pole, Norris in control on paper
Coming into the finale, Norris held a 12-point cushion over Verstappen, with Piastri another four back. The front row matched the narrative perfectly: Verstappen on pole for Red Bull, Norris alongside, Piastri third in the sister McLaren. If they finished where they started, Norris would be champion.
Crucially, tyre choices were already shaping the story. Verstappen and Norris opted for the expected mediums, but McLaren rolled the dice with Piastri on hards, joining Antonelli, Stroll and Tsunoda. The idea? Go long, attack late and complicate Verstappen’s life.
Behind them, George Russell’s Mercedes started fourth, Charles Leclerc lined up fifth in a heavily revised Ferrari, and Fernando Alonso headed a hungry midfield in sixth. Lewis Hamilton, enduring a bruising first year at Ferrari, slumped to P16 on softs and very much in damage-limitation mode.
Calm start, early sting: McLaren’s quiet switch
When the five red lights went out, there was no 2021-style chaos. Verstappen launched well and immediately covered Norris, who at least got the better of Piastri off the line. For a brief moment, the “safe” scenario for Norris – P2 behind Verstappen – looked on.
Then Piastri struck. Using the slipstream and his hard tyres, the Australian swept right around the outside of Norris at Turn 9, in a move that raised eyebrows and a few heart rates on the McLaren pit wall. Whether it was gently pre-agreed or just opportunistic, the net effect was clear: Verstappen led, Piastri ran second on hards, Norris third on mediums with Leclerc right under his rear wing.
Behind, Alonso hassled Russell, and the Ferrari of Leclerc looked surprisingly lively – especially in a straight line – as he harried Norris lap after lap, forcing the Brit to manage both tyres and title pressure simultaneously.
Tsunoda’s farewell shift as rear gunner
While Verstappen controlled the opening stint with a modest gap over Piastri, Yuki Tsunoda was preparing one last service to Red Bull in his final race as a full-time driver. Starting on hards from P10, he was perfectly placed to extend his first stint and act as a mobile chicane when needed.
Further back, soft-tyre starters Hulkenberg, Hamilton and Albon pitted early to get rid of the fragile C5s and move onto hards, confirming that Pirelli’s predicted medium-to-hard one-stop might not be the only game in town.
Norris, meanwhile, was already reporting graining on his fronts, with Leclerc still latched on in DRS. Verstappen couldn’t simply disappear: he needed something to happen behind, and McLaren had deliberately split their strategies to prevent the Dutchman from dictating the race.
Undercuts, graining and a crucial first stop
The first proper strategic punch came on lap 15 when Russell, Hadjar and Bearman pitted for hards, lighting up purple sectors and proving the undercut worked. Bortoleto followed them in on lap 16. That left Norris, Piastri, Verstappen and Leclerc up front, trying to balance tyre life with track position.
McLaren blinked on lap 17. Norris dived in for hards along with Leclerc and Alonso, emerging in traffic behind Antonelli and Sainz. For a championship leader who only needed a podium, joining a DRS train in the thick of the pack was not exactly the dream scenario.
Norris responded like a driver who knew the stakes. He picked off Antonelli with a decisive move, then scythed past Sainz and Stroll. Only Tsunoda remained between the Briton and clean air – and the Japanese driver made sure Norris had to work for it.
The pair went wheel-to-wheel, Norris running wide as he forced his way through. The stewards noted it but opted against action. Red Bull got their moment of rear-gunner disruption, but not enough to fundamentally derail Norris’ race.
Verstappen finally pitted from the lead on lap 24 for hards, rejoining behind Piastri – who was still on his original hard set – but ahead of the freshly-shod Norris. The Dutchman set about hunting down the yet-to-stop McLaren.
Piastri left out, title hopes ebb away
For a while, Piastri led the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on worn hards, Verstappen chasing and Norris lurking in the background with Leclerc increasingly threatening. McLaren’s call to leave Piastri out turned into a slow-motion twist: every lap he stayed, the undercut from Norris and Leclerc grew more powerful.
By lap 27 the gap from Piastri to Norris had shrunk to the point where a pit stop would drop the Australian behind not just his team mate, but possibly Leclerc as well. His long-shot title hopes, already slim after the late-season swing, were ebbing away in real time.
To make matters worse, his tyres began to fade. “The rear is starting to go,” came the message, as Verstappen slashed the gap. McLaren knew they had to juggle three conflicting aims: race win opportunity for Piastri, safe title route for Norris, and the ever-present threat of Leclerc’s Ferrari.
Two-stops, permutations and a very calm champion-elect
Leclerc fired the next shot on lap 40 with a second stop for mediums, signalling Ferrari’s switch to an aggressive two-stop. Suddenly Norris’ hard tyres, already well used, were unlikely to hold off a charging Ferrari to the end.
McLaren reacted immediately on lap 41. Norris boxed again – a slightly conservative but very sensible call in championship terms – swapping onto a fresh hard set. In the same phase, Verstappen sailed past the struggling Piastri on track to retake the lead, the Australian in no position to fight on his now-punished opening set of hards.
A lap later, Piastri finally came in for mediums, emerging just ahead of Norris and crucially retaining second place on the road. At that moment, with Verstappen leading, Piastri P2 and Norris P3, the Briton was champion by the bare minimum required.
On the radio, Norris sounded remarkably composed for a man a handful of laps from his first title. Asked about Safety Car preferences, he coolly chose softs for any late restart and otherwise just got on with the job. No shaking voice, no drama – at least not externally.
Final stint: Verstappen dominant, Norris relentless
With the final pit stops done, the race settled into a tense stalemate. Verstappen, now free up front, edged the gap out towards the 15–18 second range. Piastri, on quicker medium tyres, chipped away but never at the sort of rate that suggested a late lunge for the win.
Behind them, the real focus was on whether Norris’ two-stop would leave him exposed to Leclerc. For a few laps the Ferrari looked lively again, closing the gap and threatening to stick its nose into the title fight. But once Norris got his tyres fully into the window, the McLaren’s pace told. He edged away, then began to reel Piastri in instead.
By the time the final laps ticked by, Verstappen was cruising to his eighth win of the season and fifth in Abu Dhabi, Piastri was locked into second, and Norris was driving like a man who still wanted to race rather than simply survive. He closed to within a few seconds of his team-mate, seemingly eyeing a photo-finish formation run rather than a risky attack.
Verstappen took the flag first, but the roars in the main grandstand were for the papaya car in third. P3 was enough: Lando Norris, at the end of a roller-coaster season and a fraught 58-lap decider, was finally World Champion.
Donuts, tears and a very popular champion
What followed was pure release. Norris turned the main straight into a smoke machine with a set of jubilant donuts as fireworks lit up the Abu Dhabi sky. Climbing from the car, he raised both arms as the crowd chanted his name.
In parc fermé and on the grid, there were hugs everywhere. Zak Brown, Andrea Stella, Piastri, Verstappen, his parents, old team-mate Carlos Sainz – all took turns embracing a driver who admitted he didn’t think he’d cry, and promptly did.
Norris was quick to praise both rivals, acknowledging that Piastri had forced him to dig deeper than ever – especially around mid-season – and that Verstappen had pushed him relentlessly all the way to the finale. He dedicated the title to his parents and to a McLaren team he’s grown up with over nearly a decade.
Seven wins, 18 podiums in 24 races (19 if you count the disqualified Las Vegas result), only one truly poor weekend in Baku, and a comeback from 34 points behind Piastri after Zandvoort: this was not a dominant, cruise-to-it campaign. It was earned the hard way.
Verstappen’s charge falls just short
For Verstappen, there was no tantrum, no sulking – just a slightly rueful smile and a sense of unfinished business. From more than 100 points behind Piastri after Zandvoort to finishing only two points shy of Norris in the final table is a serious recovery job, especially with a car that wasn’t the class of the field for much of the year.
He ends the season with more wins and more poles than the new champion, but Spain’s rash clash with Russell, a scrappy Hungary and a handful of off-weekends proved too costly in such a tight season. The number 1 will leave the nose of the RB21, but the message from Verstappen is clear: life goes on, and he’ll be back for more in 2026 – regulations permitting.
Piastri, Tsunoda and the end of an era
Piastri, third in the standings on 410 points, leaves Abu Dhabi without the title but with his reputation enhanced yet again. From early-season dominance to a bruising late slump and a long-shot comeback, he’s shown blistering speed and a cool head more often than not. Inside McLaren, there’s little doubt he is, as Zak Brown put it, a future World Champion.
Further back, the race also marked the end of several chapters. Tsunoda signed off his full-time F1 career with a typically feisty drive and a stint as Verstappen’s rear-gunner. Kick Sauber bowed out as a name from the sport, the Swiss outfit now finally morphing fully into Audi. And with Cadillac joining the grid in 2026 – bringing Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas back as team-mates – the next era already has a hint of mischief about it.
McLaren, crowned Constructors’ champions ahead of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, can finally stop talking about “the project” and start talking about an era. The ground-effect regulations that began in 2022 have ended with papaya on top and a very different pecking order to the one Mercedes once dominated.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. With a clean-sheet rulebook coming for 2026, the form book goes in the bin. But whatever the new cars look like, the grid will assemble knowing one thing for sure: Lando Norris, after years of promise and heartbreak, will roll into the next era as a World Champion.
Classification 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 GP
Penalties:
- Alex Albon, Williams FW47 #23 - 5 second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
- Pierre Gasly, Alpine A525 #10 - 5 second time penalty for exceeding track limits.
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin #18 - 5 second time penalty for more than one change of direction.
- Oliver Bearman, Haas #87 - 5 second time penalties applied for more than one change of direction.
Fastest lap: 1:26.725 min by Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-25 #16 in lap 45 @219.217 km/h
| 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 GP Results |
| FP1 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 GP |
| FP2 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 GP |
| FP3 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 GP |
| Quali 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 GP |
| Start grid 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 GP |
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18 F1 Fan comments on “Race Results & Report 2025 Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix”
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I hoped Oscar would win the championship for a while, but as his chances began to dwindle, I shifted my hope to Lando, so I’m happy he achieved the minimum necessary in the event of Max winning, although Charles’ relative closeness worried me a bit at times.
Yuki’s reactionary move was totally overboard, so fortunately, only he was penalised.
A decent drive to points by Lance.
Erratic movement in defense was surprisingly common in this race, & Ollie has a tough task to avoid picking up at least two more over the first six 2026 rounds.
No mention of Lucy this time
I forgot to add that a decent drive into the points by him as well.
Who the f*ck is Lucy? Lady in red?
That is what the tifosi have been asking all year..!, when she says she doesnt have the words, Im pretty sure the thousand workers making the car have a few for her
Someone girl in Shoddy's sad life that turned him down when his internet profile didn't match reality.
No mention of Lucy this time ?
Well done Max, as sky reminded us Rb won 6 of the 9 last races , Well done another British WDC, Oscar its only his 3rd year so he has time on his side, so Laura will probably be quite proud of her finishing position , but the truth is that car today was capable of 4th place......
As for Lando did he win the WDC today or did Max lose it, Max was the best driver of the year, but also the worst, and he lost the WDC in Spain, plain and simple, not car error, nor being taken out ,not strategy Max cost himself the WDC, so very happy for Lando although im not a fan of his., its good for British motorsport
And next year 6 British passport holders on the grid and dont split hairs about dual nationalities, or maybe just 5 who knows
Yeah, IF my mother had balls...hahaha
But if Norris didn't drove into Piastri in Canada, would not been disqualified in Las Vegas and just pitted behind Verstappen in Qatar... then his mother might have been good looking...hahaha
But Max is the driver of the year Im glad we agree on that
and if your auntie had balls, she's be your uncle.
All three left quite a lot of points on the table through factors within their control, especially single high-finishing positions, which balanced out the overall situation.
Well deserved Lando, another British F1 Champ to add to the history books.
In fact well done F1 in general, close contest, fairly well controlled, not to many scandals, rules generally obeyed and punished if broken.
Best driver won, let the haters and trollsters do their best but at the end of a long season he won fair and square, end of.
I think that whoever it was and for whatever reason getting rid of CH mid season cost max a world championship. Well done, hope you’re proud.
Please Lewis let go. You have the perfect opportunity, you hate the cars and the probability is that next years will be worse, don’t let yourself be dragged down, get a life.
F1 will be finished in another five years anyway. No one is going to be spending endless millions promoting ICUs beyond 2030 sadly.
a pole running on a uk based f1 forum
Did the right driver win the F1 2025 championship?
YES, LANDO NORRIS DESERVED IT.
56%
NO, MAX VERSTAPPEN DESERVED IT.
27%
NO, OSCAR PIASTRI DESERVED IT.
17%
Interesting percentages....!
I believe any UK based poll will certainly show favouritism for their fellow countryman!
If the poll were held in Holland, the figures would be reversed to favour Max, and if it were held in Australia it would favour Oscar.
It's call patriotism!
Hats off to Lando, he managed to get the job done convincingly.
No I agree with you you , i was quite suprized the % wasnt a lot higher, the company is uk based , but i suppose its viewers can be anywhere, like this site, even so i thought it would be higher for Lando