Marhaba, MiniFans! The day is finally upon us, today we will determine the 2025 season’s champion. With just one trophy up for grabs and three contenders, the first difference was clear on the grid: Piastri had opted for hards, opposite to the mediums that both Verstappen and Norris were sporting. However, Red Bull also knows how to play the game and Tsunoda, in a last ditch attempt to try and help out in any way they could, had also fitted hards on him.
Already looking at the middle before the lights turned off, Verstappen took no time in attacking right into Norris’ space, defending his first position with everything he had. Norris, not wanting to get into trouble, eventually conceded, but the danger soon came from friendly fire. Piastri, even on his hards, managed to get side by side with Norris, getting past due to both his aggressive move and Norris’ need to be careful. Behind them, the story was a little different: Russell’s start was far from good, which meant both Leclerc and Alonso, who did get into a fight of their own, got past him easily.
As soon as the first few laps were out of the way, the settled race would crown Norris, but the fact that he had Leclerc close to his rear wing didn’t allow for it to be certain. The Ferrari mostly stayed put, going in and out of Norris’ DRS zone as everyone was closely monitoring their tyres and carefully managing them. The group was close together, following Verstappen’s kind of slow pace, as if looking for a bit of chaos. The first to try and do anything different was Piastri, who upped his pace a bit, followed by Russell, who attempted an undercut on everyone in front. This prompted visits to the pitlane from Norris, Leclerc and Alonso, defending themselves. Norris and Leclerc managed to stay in front of the Mercedes, but Alonso couldn’t recover the previously lost position.
Norris slowly but surely climbed back up the ranks, fighting his way in between slower cars sprinkled with Verstappen defenders such as Lawson, but they didn’t pose too much trouble. Tsunoda was a little bit of a different story. The Japanese driver weaved a bit, which made Norris overtake him on the outside and earn himself an investigation for going outside the track and gaining an advantage. The investigation came with no penalty for him, but rather one for Tsunoda for weaving down the straight in his defense.
Mostly everyone was going for a one-strop strategy, but Leclerc shook it up with a two-stopper. McLaren defended Norris with a fellow second stop for hards, whereas Piastri’s first and only stop came a lap after that, this time for mediums. With barely fifteen laps to go, eyes were on third place: Norris started losing time with Leclerc and needed to push in order to maintain third place, but neither driver was giving up.
The last ten laps came and went without a hitch, with Norris upping up the pace slightly in order to distance himself from Leclerc as the strategy teams went wild trying to cover all bases in case of a late safety car. The only battles going on were in the midfield, with positions changing up and down constantly, but not anything that would make an impact on the championship standings as they all cruised to the finish line to crown a fresh champion in the shape of Lando Norris by barely two points.
This is it, MiniFans. One more season over and a new champion crowned after a year of ups and downs, highs and lows, new experiences and old ones alike. We say goodbye to the ground effect regulations to say hello to a new set that’s an enigma for now with a brand new champion that’s managed to clinch the title standing up to none other than Max Verstappen. See you next year!
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