Max Verstappen wins the race, but Lando Norris does enough to win the World Championship for 2025. Talking of winning, our 2025 Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix Result Summary will finish the season in style.
This 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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2025 Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – It’s the perfect scenario for F1 bosses with the three title challengers qualifying 1, 2, 3 and with Max Verstappen in front of Lando Norris to ensure extra tension. Good scenario for McLaren too with Norris ahead of Piastri. Max looked very quick with his qualifying laps on another level. so he looks primed to win, and given Lando only needs a podium, it could be a dull race. But there’s always the first lap and corner. Let the battle begin.
Further back, and not Championship defining, George Russell was 4th but if not for a massive moment on the last corner of his final lap her really could have upset the order. He does look quite quick and could be a real spoiler on raceday. There were good performances from Gabriel Bortoleto for Sauber’s last race under that name, and Esteban Ocon made Q1 for a change. As did Yuki Tsunoda who didn’t set a time and looked to be used by Red Bull only to give Max a tow down the straight. Kimi Antonelli underwhelmed with 14, and Lewis Hamilton secured another Q1 exit. His stint at Ferrari is getting uglier and the end of season break well timed.
McLaren Zak Brown all but confirmed that team orders will kick in to help one McLaren driver win the driver’s title, so that’s bad news for Australian drivers and fans. But also fair enough given the points gap between his two drivers.
Interestingly Oscar Piastri is starting on the hard tyres, with only Yuki Tsunoda of the top ten doing the same. Everyone else is on Mediums. More of a mix further down the grid including Lewis Hamilton in 16th taking on the softs.
It’s a short run down to the first corner, a Championship could be won or lost very quickly.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER NOR PIA RUS LEC ALO BOR OCO HAD TSU
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets away well and chops across Lando Norris to keep him at bay, which works. Oscar Piastri gets away good enough to hold onto third, while George Russell loses out to both Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso, those two drivers duking it out and eventually finishing to Alonso’s advantage and then Leclerc. Halfway around the lap Oscar Piastri is in the slipstream of Lando Norris and takes him around the outside of the long right hand corner to steal second place, amazing move on hard tyres, such bravery we haven’t seen in a while.
ORDER – VER PIA NOR LEC ALO LEC RUS BOR HAD OCO TSU
Lap 2 – Lando Norris has dropped off a little from the back of Piastri and appears to be developing a nice little train behind him. All of those cars within DRS, so could be trouble for Norris. Long way to go, but a very tentative start indeed.
Lap 3 – George Russell is on the radio complaining about a long brake pedal which isn’t going to help him advance through the field with the speed he showed in qualifying.
Lap 4 – Nothing wrong with the long brake pedal, George Russell goes past Fernando Alonso for fifth. Further in front Charles Leclerc is right on Lando Norris’ tail and putting him under pressure down the straight. Close enough to worry the McLaren for now. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile is showing the Ferrari pace too, up from 16th on the grid to 13th.
Lap 6 – Max Verstappen leads Oscar Piastri by 2.3 seconds, with the Australian 1.5 seconds ahead of his Championship leading team mate in third. Charles Leclerc is under a second to the McLaren, so still a danger. There’s lots of cars within a second of each other behind Fernando Alonso in 6th.
ORDER – VER PIA NOR LEC RUS ALO BOR HAD OCO TSU
Lap 8 – Team radio shows McLaren have asked Oscar Piastri to speed up. Most likely for Norris, who can’t shake Charles Leclerc. Sky F1 agree, of course they do, claiming Norris is losing time in Oscar’s dirty air. McLaren would know more about dirty laundry.
Lap 9 – Lewis Hamilton pits to get rid of the soft tyre he started with. Beaten to the first pit stop of the day by Nico Hulkenberg the previous lap. Alex Albon comes in as well to rid themselves of the soft.
Lap 10 – Oscar Piastri has reduced the gap down to 2.0 seconds while the gap to Lando Norris is 1.8 seconds behind. Small margins of improvement. McLaren opine on the radio that Max Verstappen’s tyres are looking worse than Norris’ tyres. Meanwhile Commentary boffins discuss that Piastri’s hard tyre second placing put Red Bull under pressure by limiting their strategy.
Lap 12 – More movement in the margins, Piastri within 1.8 seconds now and Norris 2.3 seconds behind. At least the McLaren has managed a DRS defying 1.4 seconds to Charles Leclerc in fourth. No other movement within the top ten, although a shout out to Gabriel Bortoleto who is running a solid and excellent 7th place. Meanwhile another rookie Isack Hadjar claim
Lap 14 – Oscar Piastri takes four tenths of a second out of Max Verstappen in one lap, as the potential tyre worries for Max Verstappen may well be true.
Lap 15 – George Russell pits for new tyres to try and undercut Charles Leclerc and maybe Lando Norris. Rookies Isack Hadjar and Ollie Bearman also pits. Russell rejoins in 14th just ahead of Lewis Hamilton and behind Franco Colapinto. Hadjar and Bearman are second and third last. Liam Lawson has also earned himself a five second penalty.
ORDER – VER PIA NOR LEC ALO BOR TSU SAI LAW
Lap 16 – Bortoleto pits from 6th and rejoins 15th, just behind his team mate The Hulk.
Lap 17 – Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso all pit. A nice quick one from McLaren should see him stay ahead of George Russell. He can’t clear all of the Mercedes’ though, as he rejoins 9th behind Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli is the fourth car in a train of vie behind Liam Lawson. Could this be the first set of team tactics coming from the junior Red Bull team?
ORDER – VER PIA OCO TSU LAW STR SAI ANT NOR LEC
Lap 18 – Lando Norris ticks off one carriage of the DRS train, passing Kimi Antonelli, who tries to get him back but falls short. Lando doesn’t waste any time getting past Carlos Sainz either and is quickly up to 7th. Lance Stroll is next, he might be more careful there. But great progress so he isn’t help up too long.
Lap 19 – Amazing driving from Lando Norris who overtakes both Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson at the same time down the back straight. Showing why he has dominated the last quarter of the season and taken the comfortable lead of the Championship into this finale.
Lap 20 – Not sure whether Liam Lawson and Lance Stroll are doing some kind of double act, but Charles Leclerc also overtakes the two cars in one at the end of the week. He is only just over a second behind Norris, with a Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda ahead. Can smell the team tactics coming. George Russell is through too by lap 22.
ORDER – VER PIA TSU NOR LEC RUS STR ANT HAM HUL
Lap 22 – Gap check – Verstappen to Piastri is 2.4 seconds, while Yuki Tsunoda is 25 seconds behind Oscar Piastri, giving the first two almost a free pitstop for tyres. Norris is within DRS and on current form won’t take long to take third.
Lap 23 – Lando Norris gets past Yuki Tsunoda, but not after the Red Bull driver pushes him wide off the back straight as the McLaren tries to go past. Norris has all four tyres off the track to get past, but Tsunoda also weaved a little in defence, so it will probably be two wrongs don’t make a right. Or not, stewards investigating Tsunoda. And Norris.
Lap 24 – Max Verstappen pits before Lando Norris can use his newly gained Yuki-free freedom. Max rejoins in second five seconds ahead of Lando Norris. Oscar Piastri has 19 seconds to Max Verstappen, and a golden opportunity to build a lead to win this race. He needs to win the race, if he’s a realistic chance of winning the title.
Lap 26 – Charles Leclerc sets fastest lap and is within 2.2 second of Lando Norris. Further ahead, Oscar Piastri’s gap to Max Verstappen has reduced down to 17.5 seconds. He needs to find some pace on those hard tyres.
Lap 28 – Piastri isn’t finding that pace, the gap is down to 16.8 seconds, just as Lando Norris sets fastest lap himself to reduce his Verstappen deficit to 4.4 seconds. It’s not all bad for Piastri who will be on the medium tyre for his last stint compared to a lot of hard tyres. But he needs to balance going long into the race before the stop and not losing too much time.
ORDER – PIA VER NOR LEC TSU RUS STR HAM ALO ANT
Lap 30 – Yuki Tsunoda does get a five second penalty for weaving and pushing Lando Norris off the track, and the McLaren driver’s investigation is cancelled. Tsunoda disagrees, but is was a bit of a tslam dunk penalty. Norris celebrates by clearing out a nice gap to Leclerc of 2.7 seconds. That will do nicely for now, he will be World Champion.
Lap 32 – Oscar Piastri is still leading and the gap is down to 12 seconds, but at least he is going long enough to make that last medium tyre stint work. He hopes. Despite Lando’s pace, Max Verstappen opens up the gap to Norris out to 5.4 seconds. One wonders if the
Lap 33 – Yuki Tsunoda and Kimi Antonelli pit for new tyres.
Lap 34 – Praise from Martin Brundle for Oscar Piastri, who he says “Will be a World Champion one day”. Nice acknowledgment on a good season from Sky F1. And nice to see him on the screen, despite leading it feels like about 30 laps since we’ve seen him. He leads by nine seconds for now, with that final pit stop looming. But at least the Australian has shown some fight in the last two races after some ordinary races prior, which self-sabotaged his own Championships, before McLaren finished the job.
Lap 36 – Piastri still going on those used hard tyres, with the gap to Max Verstappen down to seven seconds. Meanwhile replays show Lewis Hamilton passing Franco Colapinto for 15th, which about sums up the second half of his first season with Ferrari.
Lap 37 – Team radio shows Oscar Piastri finally admitting his tyres are on the way out. TV shows McLaren getting ready for that pitstop. Which given two thirds of the race is over isn’t much of a surprise. The worry could be that Piastri falls behind Charles Leclerc. But he should have the better tyres.
Lap 39 – Alex Albon in last gets a penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Lap 40 – Charles Leclerc pits, which is good for Oscar Piastri but maybe not for Lando Norris as the Ferrari could get some undercutting pace. Lando Norris does pit on lap 41, so he will cover Charles Leclerc.
Lap 41 – Max Verstappen passes Oscar Piastri for the lead, the McLaren probably stayed out a bit long, compromised by Lando Norris stopping.
Lap 42 – Oscar Piastri finally pits, he’s put onto medium tyres and rejoins second. 25 seconds behind Max Verstappen and five second ahead of Lando Norris. Charles Leclerc passes George Russell for fourth.
Lap 43 – Championship news – with Max Verstappen leading and Lando Norris third he is World Champion. But, if Charles Leclerc is fourth can pass Norris, it will be Max Verstappen. Leclerc is on medium tyres vs Norris on hards. Could there be one final twist left in this season.
ORDER – VER PIA NOR LEC RUS ALO OCO BEA HAM BOR
Lap 44 – Oscar Piastri has the gap down to 23 seconds, not enough to get a win by the end of the race but keeping enough ahead of Lando Norris.
Lap 45 – Piastri asks what he can do to win the race, and his team offer up to keep Max Verstappen outside of a pit stop in front. Piastri immediately sets a fastest lap and the gap is down to 22 seconds. On screen graphics show if Verstappen pits now he ends up a second in front.
Lap 46 – Charles Leclerc sets a fastest lap and reduces the gap to under four seconds. Remember, in current order, if Leclerc steals third place, Verstappen is World Champion. But the Ferrari’s pace doesn’t quite seem enough.
Lap 50 – Max Verstappen doesn’t have a pit stop gap to Oscar Piastri, but he does have an 18 second lead to the McLaren, so he can cruise as much as he likes we guess. As can Lando Norris in third as the battle to Charles Leclerc officially fizzes out.
Lap 52 – Oscar Piastri can officially cancel his Championship plans, as his pursuit of Max Verstappen won’t succeed without a rare error from him. The gap of 16 seconds can only be plugged with incident over the last six laps.
Lap 54 – Lando Norris is actually catching Oscar Piastri and closed to within 2.9 seconds. Surely Oscar will be allowed to keep second place this time.
Lap 56 – The gap between Piastri and Norris reduces by a little more. Needless to say that Piastri isn’t going catch Max Verstappen and win the race.
FINAL LAP – Max Verstappen does what he has to do, winning a third race in a row. Oscar Piastri at least secures some joy in second, but will probably be the same if he won. Lando Norris does enough by crossing the line in third place to win his first World Championship. But do keep in mind, if he didn’t get past Kimi Antonelli in the last race, he would have ended up on equal points with Max Verstappen and lost on race wins. He’s in tears as he crosses the line, and Sky F1 suggest there’s not a dry eye in the house. As long as those houses are in the UK. Tired eyes in Australia may not be as emotional. Lando does donuts as he should. Well done to him, hard to argue he wasn’t the fastest driver for most of the season, if not the most consistent until the end of the season.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER PIA NOR LEC RUS ALO OCO HAM HUL STR
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Not one of his very best races, but does what he needs to do to win the World Championship. Given his finish to the season, it’s hard to argue against him deserving it.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Took pole, took the win, showed another outstanding weekend of speed from a car that was barely fourth best earlier in the season. The removal of Christian Horner has been a revelation, and Max’s reputation has been further enhanced this season.
OSCAR PIASTRI – If only he had more weekends like this over the last three months. Whilst not as outrightly fast as he was in Qatar, his move on Lando Norris in the race showed a decisiveness that has been missing recently. Led well liek he knew what he was doing. Sadly the strategy could only get him aa high as second.
CHARLES LECLERC – Some great pace at times, showing Ferrari are completely hopeless. Gave his team mate another thrashing.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Solid pair of sixths for Fernando Alonso in qualifying and the race.
ESTEBAN OCON – A rare Q3 appearance and followed up with points in a rare solid weekend.
THE GRAPE-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
He did fight back well from 16th on the grid to finish in the points, but being knocked out in Q1 for a third straight race, preceded by throwing it into the wall in P3 rounds off an ordinary first season with Ferrari.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
ALPINE – Qualified second last and last. Finished second last and last.
RACING BULLS – Both drivers showed pace through the weekend but finished third and fourth last.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 3 / 5
Loads of fanfare, title chat, swirling rumours about how McLaren are going to screw Oscar Piastri, and the general tension of a three-way title fight.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 4 / 10
Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc put on some good moves during the race, with Norris overtaking two cars at once in style. Oscar Piastri’s move on Lando Norris at the start of the race was worth a point.
ANY SURPRISES? – 1 / 5
Not really. The race and Championship ended as expected.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 5
Championship decided.
ENDING – 1 / 5
Oscar Piastri’s charge on softer tyres didn’t happen, nor did Charles Leclerc potentially Championship spoiling late pit stop.
OVERALL RATING – 14 / 30
Stuff is decided, and it was tense at times, but felt sorted pretty early, so kind of dull.
2025 F1 Season Race Ratings
R1 – Australian Grand Prix – 27/30
R2 – Chinese Grand Prix – 11/30
R3 – Japanese Grand Prix – 18/30
R4 – Bahrain Grand Prix – 19/30
R5 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – 17/30
R6 – Miami Grand Prix – 17/30
R7 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – 20/30
R8 – Monaco Grand Prix – 21/30
R9 – Spanish Grand Prix – 15/30
R10 – Canadian Grand Prix – 18/30
R11 – Austrian Grand Prix – 20/30
R12 – British Grand Prix – N/A but was great
R13 – Belgian Grand Prix – 13/30
R14 – Hungarian Grand Prix – 22/30
R15 – Dutch Grand Prix – 22/30
R16 – Italian Grand Prix – 16/30
R17 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix – 20/30
R18 – Singapore Grand Prix – 20/30
R19 – United States Grand Prix – 21/30
R20 – Mexican Grand Prix – 23/30
R21 – Brazilian Grand Prix – 25/30
R22 – Las Vegas Grand Prix – 26/30
R22 – Qatar Grand Prix – 14/30
2025 F1 Season Preview Gear
F1 2025 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK FOR AND AVOID
F1 DONKEY AUSTRALIAN GP BOLD PREDICTIONS
