Lando Norris looks set to increase his lead in the F1 world championship after claiming pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
At the last two rounds in Mexico and Brazil, the McLaren driver recorded two pole positions and two victories – sprint and race – to secure 33 points and extend his lead in the world championship to Oscar Piastri from one point to 24 points.
Piastri, meanwhile, endured another difficult weekend, crashing out of the sprint and finishing only fifth in the grand prix. As for Max Verstappen, a disastrous qualifying position of 16th resulted in a setup change and a pit-lane start before a terrific recovery drive to finish on the podium.
With three races left – Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – and 83 points up for grabs, Norris now has his sights firmly set on a maiden title, with Verstappen 49 points off the pace. Norris took a big leap on Friday night in Vegas, taking pole in the rain with Verstappen behind him in second and Piastri only fifth.
But when can Norris claim the 2025 F1 world championship?
The next race in Las Vegas is a traditional race weekend, with no sprint race, meaning a maximum of 25 points are up for grabs. After Vegas, there will be just 58 points left on the table.
If Norris wins in Sin City and Piastri fails to score, the Briton’s lead would be 49 points, so he can’t claim the world championship in Vegas.
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.
Therefore, the earliest Norris can win the title is the sprint race in Qatar on Saturday 29 November.
A more likely scenario is Norris extending his lead by around 30-40 points in Vegas, meaning 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.
Trailing by 49 points, Verstappen could be out of reach by the end of the next race in Vegas. Most likely, he needs Norris to retire from one of the next two races and re-find his own race-winning form.
