Oscar Piastri has been leading the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship for most of the season with a series of cool, calm and virtually flawless performances that saw him pull away from his main title rival: McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
With seven races to go, Piastri remains at the top of the table, but his rock-solid reputation has been shaken after crashing out in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and then in the race itself.
It left Max Verstappen to take a second consecutive victory and enabled Lando Norris to close the gap, albeit by a modest six points. He’s now within a race win — 25 points — of Piastri, with Verstappen 69 points behind.
There’s still time for both drivers to claw their way to the top of the championship, although it would be a remarkable comeback in both cases.
Less in doubt is McLaren’s grip on the constructors’ championship. The team’s dismal showing in Baku meant that it couldn’t take its first chance to win the teams’ title, but it’s only a matter of team until it retains the crown.
The chances of a battle for the drivers’ championship had been looking slim as Norris fell 34 points behind Piastri after retiring from the Dutch Grand Prix with an oil leak. Verstappen’s bid to defend the title had already faltered after a series of disasters. He spun at the British Grand Prix and tumbled down the running order. This came shortly after a Spanish Grand Prix where, frustrated at a team order to let George Russell past, he rammed the Mercedes driver and was handed a penalty that dropped him to tenth at the finish line. He was 104 points before Piastri, but then won in Italy and Baku to reduce his deficit by a third.
George Russell sits fourth in the table, 112 points shy of Piastri, who has almost twice the number of points as the lead Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.who sits fifth in the standings. That’s despite glimmers of form for the Scuderia, including Lewis Hamilton‘s win in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint and a recent upsurge in pace.
Behind them, we are seeing a resurgence in form at Williams and Racing Bulls; the emergence of impressive talent among the F1 rookies; and continuing struggles at Red Bull to find a team-mate who can match Verstappen, with Liam Lawson being dropped to Racing Bulls in a swap with Yuki Tsunoda two races into the season.
At least he’s still on the grid: After starting the season for Alpine, Jack Doohan is now sitting on the sidelines, having been replaced by Franco Colapinto.
