How can Lando Norris become F1 world champion at the Qatar Grand Prix?

Photo: © IMAGO

Qatar Grand Prix

How can Lando Norris become F1 world champion at the Qatar Grand Prix?

Norris still leads the F1 title fight.

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Thursday 27 November 2025 10:55

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Heading into this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix, the pressure is on for Lando Norris to claim his first F1 world championship victory.

McLaren suffered a dismal end to the Las Vegas GP weekend last time out when both Norris and his team-mate Oscar Piastri were disqualified from the race when the FIA found that both cars exceeded the legal limit of plank wear after Saturday's night race.

This meant that Norris and Piastri both had their race results nullified, something which means that Piastri is actually now in a better position to catch his McLaren rival.

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Before the points from Vegas were deducted, Norris had a 30-point advantage over the Aussie driver. After the double disqualification however, Piastri is now just 24 points behind the standings leader and is equal on points to reigning champion Max Verstappen.

The title fight hasn't yet been lost by Piastri or Verstappen, but Norris would have to suffer in Qatar this weekend to fail to come away with his maiden title with one race to spare.

So, what does the Brit need to do to be crowned champion at the Lusail International Circuit this weekend?

F1 Driver Standings
Position	Driver	Team	Points
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	390
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	366
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	366

What must Norris do to win F1 title this weekend?

Norris' lead currently sits at 24 points with both Piastri and Verstappen just one race result away from usurping the Brit's total.

However, the penultimate round of the 2025 campaign is a sprint weekend, meaning that a maximum of 33 points are on offer this weekend in Qatar.

Now yes, the maths is slightly trickier given that there is a sprint race and a full-length grand prix in Qatar but Norris won't be able to win the championship after Saturday's sprint alone anyay.

All he needs to do is leave the Qatar race weekend 26 points ahead of Piastri and Verstappen and he will be crowned champion.

But, he could also be crowned champion if he leads by just 25 points, if he claims the main grand prix victory. In this scenario, he may have lost out to his rivals in the sprint race, but that added grand prix victory would mean that, even if the three drivers finished level on points, Norris would win courtesy of the number of race victories he has. Therefore, a 25-point gap after Qatar would be enough.

Head scrambled? Let's make it even easier. The crux of it is that if Norris outscores both title rivals by two points this weekend, regardless of when he picked up those points, he will be crowned champion in Qatar.

If the 26-year-old only manages to finish Sunday's race with a 25-point lead and he hasn't won the grand prix, however, that’s when the battle will go down to the wire it and the countback could come in to play in Abu Dhabi.

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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F1 McLaren Lando Norris Qatar Grand Prix