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Lando Norris is on the verge of winning the world championship despite finishing runner-up to Max Verstappen at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
A mistake by pole-sitter Norris at the opening corner dropped him to third behind Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell. But Norris moved clear of Russell with 16 laps remaining to take second place, with Oscar Piastri two positions back in fourth.
Norris is now 30 points clear of Piastri and 42 ahead of Verstappen with just 58 left on the table across the concluding two rounds. It means the 26-year-old Englishman could secure the world title with a round to spare at next weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix.
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McLaren’s Lando Norris continued his march towards the world title in Las Vegas (David Davies/PA) (PA Wire)
Norris mastered a wet qualifying session to put himself on pole position but could not follow up when the lights went out for Saturday’s star-studded show in Sin City.
But when can Norris claim the 2025 F1 world championship?
After finishing second in Las Vegas, Norris extended his lead to Oscar Piastri to 30 points.
TOP-3 – F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
1. Lando Norris (McLaren) – 408 points
2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 378 points
3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 366 points
However, by the end of the final sprint race of the year at the penultimate round in Qatar, Piastri would need to be within 50 points of his McLaren teammate in order to stand a mathematical chance of catching him. With a maximum of eight points in the sprint, Norris now can’t win the title in the Qatar sprint race.
Therefore, the earliest Norris can win the title is the grand prix in Qatar on Sunday 30 November.
A points advantage of more than 25 points by the end of the Qatar Grand Prix would see him win the title with one race to spare.
Piastri, meanwhile, has to be within 25 points of his teammate to stay in the hunt at the season-finale in Abu Dhabi.
The same, of course, goes for Verstappen, but the Dutchman now has a mountain to climb in order to catch Norris, despite his win in Vegas.
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Piastri and Verstappen must be within 25 points of Norris to take the title race to the final grand prix in Abu Dhabi (Getty)
