Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri vs. Max Verstappen: Dutchman dominates points since Zandvoort. Max Verstappen has closed the gap to the 2025 championship with a dominant late-season run.

Verstappen’s late-season surge

With a commanding end to the season, Max Verstappen is putting the two McLaren drivers on notice. Over five race weekends, he has closed the gap to the championship by 64 points.

If Max Verstappen can limit the damage with a car clearly inferior to McLaren, imagine what he could achieve with a developing machine that can no longer be considered light-years behind the papaya team. Indeed, the F1 balance of power is at risk of a new shake-up. McLaren has halted development for some time, while Red Bull has addressed the issues that were holding it back, allowing the Dutch driver to dominate in Monza, Baku, and Austin—both in the Sprint and the Grand Prix.

Point scoring since Zandvoort

From his home Grand Prix onward, Max Verstappen has scored the most points of any driver: 119. Remarkably, this is equal to the combined points collected by Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris over the same period, with 62 for the Australian and 57 for the Briton.

Driver standings

Here are the driver standings from Zandvoort onward:

Analysis

Of course, this is not meant to criticize Norris and Piastri, who each recorded two zeros during this period, while Max Verstappen has never finished off the podium. Misfortune can happen (the Dutch driver also suffered an undeserved zero in Austria), but with such a clear car advantage, it should not have affected the standings so significantly. As a result, Woking now finds Super Max just 40 points from the title, driving a car capable of fighting for victory in every race.