Verstappen explains why he didn’t try to back up Norris into other cars

After Max Verstappen took pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris, one potential approach he could have used to try to win the world championship appeared obvious: Slow his rival down to try to help others overtake him.

Verstappen needed to win the race with Norris no higher than fourth. Norris finished the race in the bare minimum third place, and spent much of it there. So why didn’t Verstappen back off and try to delay his rival?

He’d seen Lewis Hamilton attempt the same, unsuccessfully, in 2016. But as Verstappen pointed out, the track configuration and cars have changed since then, making it even more difficult to pull off.

However there was another, more practical obstacle for Verstappen. This was the third championship contender, Norris’s team mate Oscar Piastri. He overtook Norris halfway around the first lap, which appeared to be part of McLaren’s strategy.

While Verstappen and Norris started from the front row on fresh sets of medium compound tyres, Piastri took a set of hards. The McLaren appeared to run better on these tyres and they were the only team to reserve two fresh sets of them for both their drivers.

This compromised Verstappen’s efforts to slow down the field, as he explained. “We had very strong pace,” he said, “there’s really not much that I could have done different.

“What complicated it a bit was that Oscar was on a different strategy. So, you never know, of course, when he then pits, how much pace he has in hand to catch up again.”

Verstappen didn’t disappear off up the road after the start, but nor was he willing to risk letting Piastri get within DRS range. By the time Norris made his first pit stop he was over three seconds behind his team mate – not exactly being held up.

Ideally Red Bull would have preferred to keep the pack behind them closer together. That way, when Norris inevitably had to pit to cover off a threat from a car behind, he might have had more drivers to pass.

However the fact Piastri had good pace and could run further into the race on his tyres, “complicates a bit trying to keep the pack together,” Verstappen noted.

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Norris emerged from the pack with impressive ease. He picked off four cars in two laps, then closed on Verstappen’s team mate Yuki Tsunoda. When Verstappen was fighting Lewis Hamilton for the 2021 title on the old, tighter track configuration, his team mate Sergio Perez held the Mercedes driver up by over five seconds. But even while breaking the rules as he tried to keep Norris behind, Tsunoda couldn’t delay Norris to any useful degree; indeed, Norris was two tenths of a second quicker on the lap he breezed past the other RB21. This gives another indication how tricky it would have been for Verstappen to delay cars behind him.

Thanks to those passes and his superior pace after switching to the hard tyres, Norris was able to pull further away from Charles Leclerc, who was a thorn in his side in the opening laps. That gave him the luxury of not needing to undercut anyone when the time came for a second pit stop.

Piastri still hadn’t made his first pit stop by the time Norris came in for his second. Meanwhile the midfielders were dropping back at a rapid rate.

“I think we were probably a bit too quick up front,” said Verstappen afterwards. “The others couldn’t really follow that well.

“Charles drove his heart out today to try and get onto that podium, so that was also impressive to see. But, of course, they went for a two-stop.

“That made it more complicated because if you stay on a one-stop, backing the whole thing up is tough. And I think this new layout around here makes it even harder to do that compared to 2016.”

Verstappen actually passed Piastri on-track before his final pit stop, meaning he could have taken a second fresh set of tyres before the McLaren driver came in, emerged ahead of him and tried to back him into Norris. However he would have been on a used set of medium tyres to Piastri’s fresh rubber, putting him at a slight disadvantage.

Plus, as Verstappen indicated, the effect of the ‘DRS train’ makes it harder to slow rivals down in this way. With DRS now a thing of the past, that won’t apply next year.

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2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

• Norris proud he has ‘won the title my way, trying to be a good person’
• Verstappen explains why he didn’t try to back up Norris into other cars
• Tsunoda complains stewards gave him a ‘strange penalty – as usual for them’
• Verstappen hits out at suggestion his collision with Russell cost him the title
• Verstappen says losing title by two points “looks painful” but he’s “not too sad”

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