King Charles has congratulated Lando Norris, who claimed his maiden drivers´ championship on Sunday to complete McLaren´s first title double since 1998.
Tearful Norris won the title by two points ahead of Verstappen, who relinquished his crown after four consecutive years, in a tense and emotional season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix dominated by strategy and tactics.
After crossing the line his team engineer told him: "That´s it mate, you are world champion, world champion!"
"Thank you guys, you made a kid´s dream come true," he replied.
"I haven´t cried in a while, I didn´t think I would cry but I did," Norris said on the podium in the desert night at the floodlit Yas Marina circuit.
"I want to thank my mum, my dad, they´ve supported me since the beginning.
"It feels amazing, I know now what Max feels like a little bit. I want to congratulate both Max and Oscar, I´ve enjoyed it, it´s been a long year!" he added.
Norris becomes Britain´s first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020 with this 13th drivers´ crown for McLaren.
The 26-year-old´s success comes over half a century after Emerson Fittipaldi claimed the British marque´s first drivers´ title in 1974.
The FORMULA 1 shared photos of Norris on Instagram saying “LANDO NORRIS IS THE 2025 FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPION!!!!”
The palace, on behalf of King Charles, reposted the photos in its Insta stories saying “Congratulations to @lando on winning the @f1 Drivers’ World Champion.”
