Lando Norris is back in the lead of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship after a run of five races where he outscored McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, culminating in victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
He now heads Piastri by a point, having been 34 points behind after the Dutch Grand Prix. But there’s been an even greater comeback: Max Verstappen was 104 points behind the title leader after Zandvoort, but now sits 36 points behind Norris with four rounds remaining. The battle is on.
This season began with McLaren dominance. Norris took an early lead but was soon caught and passed by Piastri who pulled out an advantage with a series of cool, calm and virtually flawless performances.
That contrasted with Norris who appeared to feel the pressure of beginning the year as title favourite, and crashed into Piastri during a botched passing attempt at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Even so, there was little threat from elsewhere and the drivers’ championship looked destined to go to a McLaren driver, but in recent races, the wheels have come off the duo’s charge — literally in the US sprint race where the pair collided. It continued a series of wobbly performances from Piastri, which included crashing out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
That helped Norris to close the gap but has also meant that Verstappen has re-entered the battle after a dismal start to the season in a below-par car.
With four races to go, the drivers’ title could go to any of the three, but the constructors’ championship is already sewn up. McLaren clinched the title in Singapore with six grands prix remaining.
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, which 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.
The reigning champion was 104 points behind Piastri after the Dutch GP, but an upgraded floor at Monza helped turn his fortunes around. He won immediately in Italy and then Baku (where Piastri crashed out) to reduce his deficit by a third. Victories at Circuit of the Americas — in the Sprint and Grand Prix — have put him back into contention, although closing the remaining 36-point gap will be no straightforward task.
George Russell sits fourth in the table, 99 points shy of Norris, and is the last driver to have a mathematical chance of winning the championship, although he is likely to drop out of the running after this weekend’s race in Brazil. Behind him is lead Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who looks set to end the season in a disappointing fifth position. That’s despite glimmers of form for the Scuderia, including Lewis Hamilton‘s win in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint.
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.
