The key moments which decided McLaren driver Lando Norris’ run to the Formula 1 title

After McLaren driver Lando Norris clinched his first Formula 1 title at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, here’s a look at some key moments which helped decide the championship fight.

Defending champion Max Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi GP from pole position for Red Bull, but Norris held his nerve to finish third.

Having entered the race with a 12-point lead on Verstappen, Norris did enough to beat Verstappen by two points overall in the standings and to finish 13 points ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who placed second in the race.

The very first race of the season in Australia had a split-second moment in the rain with an outsized impact on the standings.

As the rain fell, both Norris and Piastri slipped off the track. Norris held the slide and continued on to victory in Melbourne, while Piastri spun out and trailed in ninth in front of his home crowd. That meant an immediate 23-point swing in Norris’ favor.

It also helped Verstappen secure a second place which helped his points tally later on. Lewis Hamilton was 10th in a result which paved the way for a disappointing first season with Ferrari.

Asked ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix about the moments which could have changed the title race, Norris pointed to his collision with Piastri at the Canadian GP in June.

Norris was chasing down Piastri with three laps to go when he attempted an ambitious overtake, hitting his teammate and bouncing into the wall. He apologized to the Australian and to the whole McLaren team.

Other notable mistakes included a qualifying crash in Saudi Arabia, while Norris’ hopes were also hit by a rare engine failure at the Dutch Grand Prix. A home win at the British Grand Prix was an emotional high. “I’ll remember this more than anything,” he said.

Verstappen surged back into the title fight in the second half of the season, and it coincided with an earthquake at Red Bull.

Longtime team principal Christian Horner was ousted after the British Grand Prix, at the halfway point of the season. At the time, Verstappen was struggling to match the pace of the McLarens and hadn’t committed to be with the team for 2026. Weeks later, he said he’d stay.

Horner’s replacement Laurent Mekies oversaw a turnaround that began with a sprint race win for Verstappen in Belgium and six Grand Prix wins since then. It hasn’t all been plain sailing – at one point, Verstappen dropped 104 points off the lead – but Red Bull is firmly back among F1’s top teams.

McLaren’s “papaya rules” started with a simple statement – “let ’em race” – but swiftly got more complicated.

Rules and precedents were negotiated over team radio, most notoriously at the Italian Grand Prix, when Piastri was asked to give up a place to Norris, who’d had a slow pit stop. Piastri indicated he thought a slow stop should just be part of racing.

McLaren also had to step in with unspecified “consequences” two races later when Norris and Piastri made contact on the first lap in Singapore.

Australia hoped for its first champion in 45 years after Piastri finished on the podium in 14 of the first 16 races of the season, winning seven. It was championship-level consistency.

Then came Baku.

With the F1 paddock still buzzing over McLaren’s decision in favor of Norris in Italy, Piastri had the worst weekend of his career in Azerbaijan in September, and his form dropped off sharply after that.

The Australian crashed in qualifying, then jumped the start and crashed on the first lap. He wasn’t on the podium again until the Qatar Grand Prix more than two months later.

Verstappen would have been out of contention before Abu Dhabi if not for two costly blunders by McLaren which helped Red Bull’s four-time champion back into the contest.

Firstly, a setup error at the Las Vegas Grand Prix meant both Norris and Piastri’s cars were running too close to the ground, causing illegal wear underneath the car. Both were disqualified, meaning a big swing in Verstappen’s favor.

At the following race a week later in Qatar, McLaren opted not to bring Norris and Piastri in for fresh tires under a safety car. Every other team pitted. That strategy call handed Verstappen the win and left Piastri “speechless” in second, with Norris fourth.

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