Lando Norris is the 2025 Formula 1 World Champion – The stewards explain why he was not penalized despite overtaking off the track
Lando Norris escaped a penalty for his off-track overtaking maneuver against Yuki Tsunoda at the 2025 Formula 1 season finale in Abu Dhabi, as the race stewards concluded that the McLaren driver was forced off the track by the Japanese driver.
As expected, Red Bull delayed Tsunoda’s first stint for as long as possible so that Tsunoda could potentially hinder the McLaren drivers after their first pit stops. At that point, the Japanese driver’s teammate, Max Verstappen, was still in contention for the world championship title.
When Norris caught up with Tsunoda, the Red Bull driver swerved across the straight between turns 5 and 6 to prevent the McLaren from overtaking. Norris still managed to get past, but in doing so, he crossed the white line with all four wheels on the left side of the track.
Investigation against both drivers
Both incidents were subsequently investigated by race control: Tsunoda for defending with more than one change of direction, Norris for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
While the Red Bull driver received a five-second time penalty, the McLaren driver was acquitted due to Tsunoda’s unpredictable driving.
The race stewards’ reasoning for their decision
“The driver of car 4 overtook car 22 off the track. However, this was because the driver of car 22 made several movements to defend his position against car 4. If car 22 had not made these movements, car 4 would have overtaken without leaving the track. However, he deviated from the track to avoid contact with car 22.”
The stewards explicitly referred to the applicable guidelines for driving behavior. These state that a car that is pushed off the track—which was effectively the case here—is not considered to have violated the track limits.
The stewards’ conclusion: “Although the overtaking maneuver technically took place off the track, we decided not to take any further action in view of the above circumstances.”
Penalty would probably not have changed the world championship title
Norris ultimately finished the race in third place – exactly the result he needed to secure his first world championship title against Verstappen and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
A hypothetical five-second penalty would probably not have affected the outcome of the title fight anyway. At the finish line, Norris had a seven-second lead over Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in fourth place, which would have given him the buffer he needed for the title.
