2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Championship standings

Norris leads the Drivers’ Championship with 408 points — twelve ahead of Verstappen in second and sixteen ahead of Piastri in third. Three drivers enter this final round with a chance of winning the title, the first time that has happened at a season finale since 2010, and the first championship-deciding final round since 2021.

Previous race

Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix main race from third on the grid. Piastri won the sprint. Sainz finished third in the main race — his second podium of the season for Williams, the team’s highest finish since 2017. Norris could not outscore both Piastri and Verstappen sufficiently to clinch the title and heads to Abu Dhabi still needing the result to go his way.

Championship permutations

All three title contenders can still win the championship. Norris, who needs only to stay within range of his rivals, would become Britain’s first Drivers’ Champion since Hamilton in 2020. Verstappen could extend his run to five consecutive titles, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s record for the most championships won with Red Bull, and would become only the second driver to win five in a row after Michael Schumacher from 2000 to 2004. Piastri could become Australia’s first Drivers’ Champion since Alan Jones in 1980.

Milestones

This is Hülkenberg’s 250th Formula One race start and Leclerc’s 150th start with Ferrari. This is the last race as a Red Bull Racing driver for Tsunoda, and the final Grand Prix for the Sauber team before they become Audi for 2026.

Entrants

Eight teams field alternate drivers in FP1: Jak Crawford and Cian Shields for Aston Martin (Stroll and Alonso), Paul Aron for Alpine (Gasly), Ayumu Iwasa for Racing Bulls (Lawson), Ryō Hirakawa for Haas (Ocon), Luke Browning for Williams (Albon), Arvid Lindblad for Red Bull (Tsunoda), Patricio O’Ward for McLaren (Piastri) and Arthur Leclerc for Ferrari (Hamilton). Shields makes his Formula One practice debut.

Circuit note

This is the final Grand Prix using the power unit configuration introduced in 2014, the last race with DRS as an overtaking aid, and the last for the ground-effect car generation introduced in 2022. It is also Honda’s final race supplying Red Bull and Racing Bulls — Honda will exclusively supply Aston Martin in 2026 — and Renault’s last race as engine supplier to Alpine.

Tyre choices

Pirelli brings the C3, C4 and C5 compounds — designated hard, medium and soft.

Practice

Norris topped FP1 ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc. FP2 was again topped by Norris ahead of Verstappen and Russell. FP3 was led by Russell ahead of Norris and Verstappen; a red flag was shown after Hamilton crashed at turn 9.