'I did it my way': Lando Norris proud of the 'honest' way he won the 2025 F1 title
Lando Norris celebrates with his team at the end of the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix.
Image: Giuseppe Cacace / AFP
Newly-crowned Formula One world champion Lando Norris said he was proud to have won his first world title in his own way.
"That's one of the things that makes me most proud," the 26-year-old Briton said on Sunday after securing the championship with a third-place finish at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
"I feel like I have just managed to win it the way I wanted to win it, which was not by being someone I'm not," the McLaren driver said.
"Not trying to be as aggressive as Max (Verstappen) or as forceful as other champions might have been in the past, I'm happy. I just won it my way - by being a fair driver, by trying to be an honest driver.
"At times, could I have been more aggressive and got off the brakes and had a few people over? I certainly could have done, and maybe I need to do that in the future, but is that me? No. Is that the way I want to go racing? Is that me? It's not."
Norris claimed his maiden drivers' championship to complete McLaren's first title double since 1998 with a perfectly-judged drive to finish third behind Red Bull's winner Max Verstappen and team-mate Oscar Piastri.
A tearful Norris won the title by two points ahead of Verstappen, who relinquished his crown after four consecutive years, in a tense and emotional season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix dominated by strategy and tactics.
The fresh-faced Briton thanked his team, family and friends for their support in his success in the self-effacing style that has made him one of Formula One's most popular drivers.
"I feel proud but not because I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and go, 'I beat everyone'," he said.
"I'm not proud because I get to just say I'm a world champion. I'm proud because I feel like I made a lot of other people happy."
Down to the wire
Sunday's season-closer was the first time the title was decided by a contest involving more than two drivers since a four-way scrap at the final race in Abu Dhabi in 2010.
Drivers compete during the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix on December 7.
Image: Giuseppe CACACE / AFP.
Norris showed great discipline and patience as he executed his race under extreme pressure, knowing that any error could gift the title to an unforgiving and relentless Verstappen or Piastri, who led the championship for 15 Grands Prix this year.
"I'm definitely not disappointed," said Verstappen.
"I am proud of everyone. We never give up."
It was Verstappen’s fifth win in Abu Dhabi and extended the Yas Marina Circuit’s record in producing 11 consecutive winners from pole position as he came home 12.594 seconds clear of Piastri with Norris third, 3.9 sec further adrift.
Charles Leclerc, who was pressing Norris for much of the race, came fourth for a revitalised Ferrari, ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Esteban Ocon of Haas.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton finished a solid eighth for Ferrari, after starting 16th, ahead of Oliver Bearman of Haas and Nico Hulkenberg, in his 250th Grand Prix, of Audi-bound Sauber.
It was Verstappen’s eighth win of the year and the 71st of his career, and one of his most controlled.
AFP