Lando Norris leads Oscar Piastri by only three points in the F1 drivers’ championship going to the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as the McLaren teammates eye the title.
The papaya pals entered this season as two of the main favourites to secure the crown after McLaren maintained their status as the team to beat over the winter. Norris, especially, was regarded by many as the favourite to capitalise on the MCL39’s potential to win his first title.
Yet since Norris weathered the changeable conditions plus challenges from Piastri and Max Verstappen to win the Australian Grand Prix from pole position to start the 2025 F1 season, it has been the Melbourne native getting the most from McLaren’s car to rise up the charts.
Lando Norris is losing his qualifying ‘stronghold’ over Oscar Piastri at McLaren
Piastri only scored two points in the Australian GP after recovering from spinning whilst P2 amid the late rain to finish in ninth place. Yet the 24-year-old now trails Norris by just three points in the F1 drivers’ championship ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah.
READ MORE: Every error that cost Lando Norris points in his failed 2024 F1 title challenge
| Category | Lando Norris | Oscar Piastri |
| 2025 points | 77 | 74 |
| Grand Prix results | 2 | 2 |
| Grand Prix qualifying | 2 | 2 |
| Grand Prix wins | 1 | 2 |
| Grand Prix poles | 1 | 2 |
| Grand Prix podiums | 4 | 3 |
| Best finish | 1st | 1st |
| Retirements | 0 | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 2 | 1 |
| Grand Prix points finishes | 4 | 4 |
| Sprint results | 0 | 1 |
| Sprint Qualifying | 0 | 1 |
| Sprint wins | 0 | 0 |
| Sprint poles | 0 | 0 |
| Sprint podiums | 0 | 1 |
And Jolyon Palmer thinks a key reason why Piastri has recovered 20 of his 23-point deficit in three rounds is that Norris is losing his ‘stronghold’ in qualifying at McLaren. He has had the better of the Australian just twice this year, and could have qualified behind Piastri in Japan.
Norris scored pole for the Australian GP, and it proved decisive in the 25-year-old winning in Melbourne. Yet Piastri got and converted his first F1 pole to win in China before doubling up in Bahrain, and Andrea Stella admits Norris finds McLaren’s 2025 car more difficult to drive.
“Qualifying was a stronghold for Norris last season,” Palmer told the F1 website. “He beat his teammate 20-4 in the head-to-head, and it was the launchpad for his superiority within McLaren and his late title challenge in 2024.
“The pace differential was often fairly close, but Lando had a knack of extracting the last bit of time in Q3, which often was the deciding factor.
“This appeared [to be] the case again in Melbourne when both McLaren drivers had pressured final runs at the season opener and Norris triumphed to narrowly take pole, which was the critical advantage for the race win.
“Since then, we have seen less of the Norris final lap heroics, though, and more Q3 errors as he’s battled to come to terms with a McLaren which isn’t as suited to his driving style as the 2024 car was.”
Oscar Piastri has been 0.185s faster than Lando Norris on average in qualifying in 2025
Piastri was consistently slower than Norris in qualifying in his first two seasons in Formula 1 after McLaren signed him to replace Daniel Ricciardo for 2023. The 2020 FIA F3 and 2021 F2 champion lost the Grand Prix qualifying head-to-head 15-7 as a rookie and 20-4 last season.
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Yet their record is 2-2 after the first four Grands Prix of 2025, and 3-2 in Piastri’s favour with Sprint Qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix included. Their record could also be 3-1 if not for strong winds costing Piastri more time than Norris in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Norris was still only 0.032 seconds faster than Piastri around Suzuka as Verstappen clinched pole position by 0.044s to the Australian. The Briton was also only 0.084s faster to take pole in Australia before lapping 0.464s (Sprint) plus 0.152s slower in China and 0.426s in Bahrain.
