When F1 title has gone to a final-race three-way fight

Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and Oscar Piastri are all in contention for the 2025 Formula 1 drivers’ championship, which will now be decided in the final race of the season.

Verstappen, who is chasing a fifth consecutive title, leads Red Bull’s Briton Norris by 12 points, with Piastri coming in at a further four.

Norris and Piastri, McLaren drivers, are both aiming for their first F1 title.

The final race of the Formula 1 World Championship, which featured Luigi Fagioli, Giuseppe Farina, and Juan Manuel Fangio of Alfa Romeo, was held in Monza, Italy.

Italian Fagioli and Farina, both of whom were Italians, were two points clear of each other in the grand prix. Fagioli finished third in the race and the overall standings, but mechanical issues put an end to Fangio’s afternoon.

Before the season-ending 1959 United States Grand Prix in Sebring, Florida, where British drivers Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks were still in contention, Australian Jack Brabham led the championship.

Moss, who was in second place, had to win or finish second behind Brabham, while Brooks, who was in second, had to win to have a chance, and even then could still be beaten to the title.

Moss took the lead from pole position, but he quickly retired with a broken gearbox, giving Brabham, who had been closely following his rival, a short distance behind, with the initiative.

With his F1 championship in 1964, John Surtees won the only two-wheeled world title.

Before the final score in Mexico, Surtees was five points ahead of fellow Englishman Graham Hill, and Scot Jim Clark was in third place, a further four points behind.

Hill, the 1962 champion, collided with Lorenzo Bandini, Surtees’ Ferrari teammate, to delay the event. After dominating from the front, Clark, who was driving a Lotus, had to stop on the final lap due to an oil leak.

Since its debut on the F1 calendar in 2023, Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is centered on the Strip, has generally been regarded as a huge success. However, this is not exactly the first iteration of the event.

A track constructed in the Caesars Palace hotel’s parking lot was used to stage a Caesars Palace Grand Prix in 1981 and 1982.

Although it hosted championship deciders both years, neither the location nor the circuit are particularly fond of nostalgia.

Carlos Reutemann of Williams held off Nelson Piquet of Brabham by a point in 1981, with Jacques Laffite of Ligier also in contention.

At a time when only the top six drivers received points, Frenchman Lafitte had to place first or second to have a chance, but Argentine Reutemann looked confident when he finished in pole position.

However, he eventually finished eighth overall and was passed by race winner and team-mate Alan Jones.

The day his left rear tire and dreams were shattered.

The British driver knew a third-place finish would ensure his victory at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide would ensure his drivers’ championship.

Alain Prost, the 1985 champion, was six points adrift while Nelson Piquet, Mansell’s Williams coworker, was seven back. Given their tense relationship, “team-mate,” doesn’t seem appropriate here.

With 19 laps to go, Mansell’s tire exploded down the 200-mph Brabham Straight, leaving him in third place, behind Piquet and Prost. Murray Walker, a commentator for BBC, remarked, “And look at that! And colossally, Mansell is that name!

As a last resort, Williams called Piquet in to change his tyres because Keke Rosberg, who had recently retired from McLaren’s lead role due to a puncture, had just before Mansell’s drama.

That left Frenchman Mansell to wait until 1992 before capturing the title, while Prost had to bring his McLaren home first and secure back-to-back championships.

Lewis Hamilton’s stunning rookie season should have won him the title, but Lewis Hamilton’s performance in the final two races ultimately went wrong.

The 22-year-old led McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso by 12 points and Kimi Raikkonen by 17 behind after winning the Japanese Grand Prix in particularly wet conditions. For a race win, drivers were awarded ten points.

Hamilton fell off into a gravel trap in China and was left on a worn-out tyre during the final match in Brazil after getting a bad start and being stuck in fourth gear for 25 seconds.

He needed to finish fifth to ensure that he could win the championship, despite coming back to seventh, which earned him two points.

Although Lewis Hamilton had only the best of the best chances, he was 24 points behind leader Fernando Alonso in the standings before the final race, with only two other drivers in between them, in Abu Dhabi.

Sebastian Vettel was third and 15 points ahead of Mark Webber in Alonso’s first season at Ferrari, who finished eighth behind the Spaniard.

German Vettel won from pole, but Alonso should have won.

However, Alonso was forced to wait for an early pit stop by Ferrari to protect Webber, leaving him tucked behind Vitaly Petrov of Renault for the duration of the race. Vettel was able to take Vettel’s place in seventh place while Webber was eighth, which was a tiebreaker.