Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: World Champion

  • R24 – Abu Dhabi

    Lando Norris soaked up the pressure of a nervy Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to finish on the podium and in turn secure the F1 Drivers’ Championship for the first time – following rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri home.

    Norris started the title-deciding race from second on the grid, between Red Bull racer Verstappen and McLaren teammate Piastri, knowing that finishing in the top three places would be enough to put the 2025 crown beyond doubt.

    A bold Piastri move demoted Norris to third on the opening lap, before attacks from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, a spell in traffic after his first pit stop and wheel-to-wheel moment with the other Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda put the Brit under pressure.

    Norris, though, dealt with everything that was thrown at him to cross the line in third and clinch the title over Verstappen and Piastri, who both delivered flawless races en route to the win and second position respectively.

    At the end of it all, just two points separated Norris and Verstappen at the top of the World Championship standings, given the 10 point swing at the Yas Marina Circuit, with Piastri finishing further 11 points back.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Verstappen, P2: Piastri, P3: Norris, P4: Leclerc, P5: Russell, P6: Alonso, P7: Ocon, P8: Hamilton, P9: Hulkenberg and P10: Stroll.

    What a season for Mr Lando Norris aka the new WORLD CHAMPION!!!!! A really good race from the Brit, he kept it all cool, calm and collected exactly when he needed to, and most importantly trusted the process!
    A decent result from Piastri, unfortunately it wasn’t enough to get the championship but a really strong season he should be proud of!

    A lovely result from Max, a win to round out the season, which has been a tough one for himself and the team but they really did turn it round, but maybe it was a little too late in the end…
    As for his teammate, Yuki’s last race in F1, the team used him with orders to slow Norris down but they just made themselves look bad with the un-sportsman like behaviour….

    P4 for Leclerc, a good result to round out a difficult season, they seemed to have some pace during the race aswell. As for Hamilton a really good race up in the points again after a difficult starting position. It will be a season of lots of learning and where to go from here for next season for both drivers!

    A decent result for Russell, seems like he dropped off in the race compared to his pace in qualifying, but the points helped solidified P2 in the Constructors.

    P6 for Alonso, a great way to round out the season, especially with their performance over the last couple of races! The sames goes to Lance Stroll as he finished 10th so a double points finish for the team. Is this a sign of things to come in 2026?!

    Oh God! I’ve not cried in a while.  didn’t think I’d cry but I did. It’s a long journey. First of all, I want to say a big thanks to my guys, everyone at McLaren, my parents… I’m not crying! My mum, my dad, they were the ones who supported me since the beginning. It feels amazing. Now I know what Max feels like a little bit, and I want to congratulate Max and Oscar, my two biggest competitors all season. It’s been a pleasure to race against both of them, and I’ve learnt a lot from both of them as well. I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been a long year, but we did it, and I’m so proud of everyone.
    Norris on winning the Drivers’ Championship.

    Now, that was our last race of the year in the world of Formula 1 and we do not have another race now until 6th to 8th of March but keep coming back for more updates!

  • RW 22 – Las Vegas

    Max Verstappen became a four-time world champion with an assured drive to fifth place during Saturday night’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, while pole sitter, George Russell and the charging Lewis Hamilton earned a one-two finish for Mercedes!

    Verstappen entered the 50 lap encounter knowing that all he needed to do was keep title rival Lando Norris behind him to secure another title, which the Dutchman achieved by holding position into the first corner and gradually pulled away from the British driver.

    Having held a podium spot after the second round of pit stops, Verstappen opted against a fight when the Ferrari’s arrived at the rear of his Red Bull in the closing laps – both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finding a way past before the chequered flag.

    At the front, Russell expertly managed a tricky race in cool, slippery conditions, keeping a fast-starting Leclerc at bay in the early laps – the latter running into tyre troubles as a result of that aggression – and controlling proceedings thereafter.

    The full top 10 are – P1: Russell, P2: Hamilton, P3: Sainz, P4: Leclerc, P5: Verstappen, P6: Norris, P7: Piastri, P8: Hulkenberg, P9: Tsunoda and P10: Perez.

    What a result for Mercedes, 1-2 for the team!! Coming into the weekend I would’ve been surprised however because they’ve had a very strong weekend it wasn’t too much of a shock.
    George kept his cool and grabbed the win from pole position and Lewis just had a superb drive from P10 to P2, it does make you think if he had qualified well, could he of got this win?
    An overall note though from the race is that the Mercs were just flying and no-one could really challenge them so it will be interesting to see if this happens again in the final two races…

    A very good result for Ferrari especially with the battle of the Constructors’ Championship still to win. Sainz finished 3rd and Leclerc 4th! There was a few words said after the race from Leclerc with the radio message. It will be interesting to see how the team goes forward with two races left.

    P5 for Verstappen, I think in an ideal world he would’ve loved to win the race and claim his fourth Championship. However, he got it done with two races left! A big congratulations to Max and Red Bull for a fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship it’s not an easy task!
    His teammate had made some good overtakes in the race to finish 10th so his managed to score a point, but it’s still very dissapointing.

    A not so good weekend for McLaren, they were kind of nowhere, didn’t really do anything amazing as the pace just wasn’t there. Norris finished 6th and Piastri in 7th, so still a decent haul of points but still not good enough.

    A very good result for both Hulkenberg who finished in P8 and Tsunoda who finished P9, it will help the teams massively in the Constructors’ and with two races left they will be trying to grab as many points as they can.

    A disappointing race for Pierre Gasly, as he DNF’ed from starting P3. He had smoke exiting the rear of his pink Alpine, he was forced to pit lane and retire from the race.

    We don’t have too long to wait till the next race as its this week! And it is the return of the Sprint in Qatar…

  • Round 15 – London E-Prix

    FP1-

    The Formula E grid got their first taste of the indoor-outdoor London circuit in Gen3 as free practice got underway.

    Nissan’s Norman Nato set the quickest time with a 1m 10.765s in the first practice session of the season finale weekend in London. His teammate, Sacha Fenestraz joined him in the top three. Sandwiched between the two Nissans was Season 2 champion Sebastien Buemi and just 0.006s of the top spot.

    Teams were getting to grips with the newly-modified circuit, pushing their cars to the limits early on. Jake Hughes and Maximilian Guenther both explored the track limits with both of them going down the escape road at the chicane.

    The Envision Racing and Jaguar TCS Racing cars are expected to be strong this weekend and started well with Sebastien Buemi topping the timesheets for most of the first 15 minutes. Soon enough his teammate Nick Cassidy went faster.

    FP2-

    Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy let his championship rivals know he means business, as he set the fastest time in the final free practice session before the London E-Prix qualifying.

    The Kiwi went over three tenths quicker than the next guy, NIO 333’s Dan Ticktum. All four championship contenders, Cassidy, Dennis, Evans and Wehrlein all finished in the top six.

    Typical British weather came and heavy rain made for a wet track for Free Practice 2. Even though we have had wet conditions in Gen3 before, with the ABT Cupra’s putting on a masterclass in Berlin. The London circuit is half indoor-outdoor design means drivers won’t have the same consistency throughout a lap which proves a challenge.

    Robin Frijns had a little moment, going down the run off at the chicane – something we have seen several times over the weekend so far. However, this unfortunately wasn’t his only off, as he brought out a red flag with a minute left on the clock.
    The Dutchman lost his car at the hairpin, clipping the wall and ending up in the barrier, also preventing any final flying laps from others on the grid.

    Two-time champ, Jean-Eric Vergen also ran off at Turn 1 during the session, but he managed to master a quick turn around to join the track without any issues.

    Qualifying-

    Mitch Evans and Jaguar TCS Racing sealed Julius Baer Pole Position in London in a square fight against title rival Nick Cassidy in a nail-biting Duels Final.
    But Cassidy will take to P1 on the gird after Evans was served with a five place grid penalty for a collision in Rome.

    Both drivers in the final, were pushing to the limit so much so Cassidy appeared to kiss the wall on his lap.
    Lining up alongside Cassidy will be Dennis, a copy of the Rome grid but in the opposite order.

    The Envision duo of Cassidy and Buemi, the first time that both Envision’s have reached the Semis in the same race this year. Nick was sent through as his teammate made a crucial mistake.

    There was a dramatic moment when championship leader, Dennis complained of a “huge power cut at Turn 9” whilst getting some laps in, in addition to mentioning that he’d hit the wall on a different lap.

    Recent podium finisher in Rome, Norman Nato suffered a massive lock up on one of his laps and then went down on a run off.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Evans, P2: Cassidy P3: Dennis, P4: Buemi, P5: Ticktum, P6: Rast P7: Wehrlein, P8: Vandoorne, P9: Bird and P10: Nato.

    Round 15-

    Jake Dennis navigated a crazy Hankook London E-Prix to come home second; enough to make sure of a sealing the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Drivers’ Championship, as Mitch Evans took the chequered flag first.

    Dennis survived two missed trips through the Attack Mode loop, heavy pressure from his closest rival and polesitter Nick Cassidy as well as two red flags to become Formula E’s first British World Champion and the first to take it on home soil.

    Cassidy led the early stages before ceding top spot to eventual winner and countryman Evans on lap 11 and second spot to teammate Sebasiten Buemi.
    Dennis had made it by Cassidy with an opportunistic move at the final corner just a couple of laps before, with Cassidy immediately fighting his way back by the Andretti car.

    However, with Cassidy running in formation, close behind the Swiss, the Envision drivers came into contact.
    Loose bodywork from that clash caused a brief spell under the Safety Car bunching the pack up. Dennis meanwhile was not impressed over the radio with Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein the German hanging onto fourth.

    Wehrlein’s challenge then also fell by the wayside in a shunt just before a red flag was flown for the recovery of Sacha Fenestraz’s Nissan. He and Jake Hughes tangled into Turn 1.

    On the restart Evans led away, with Dennis working his way into third – enough to seal the title as it stood. An over-optimistic move from Norman Nato at the penultimate turn on Lap 34 caused a chain reaction behind with several cars unable to avoid the mess enforcing another spell under the red flag conditions.

    It was a three lap sprint to the flag at the restart with Dennis having only to hold fast to ensure he’d take top honours.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Evans, P2: Dennis, P3: Buemi, P4: Bird, P5: Mortara, P6: Di Grassi, P7: Ticktum, P8: Nato, P9: Wehrlein and P10: Hughes.