The top five stand out moments from the F1 2025 season

Ben McCarthy

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The top five stand out moments from the F1 2025 season image

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With fourteen of the twenty-four races already completed, this current Formula 1 campaign is already rich with dramatic moments.

From unexpected clashes, to masterful wins and overtakes, here are the top five, in chronological order, most gripping flashpoints from the current season.

Australian Rain Fall

Having breezed clear of the competition, earlier in the race, the two McLaren drivers were pegged back by a mid-race safety car, caused by Fernando Alonso's race-ending shunt.

But with Lando Norris always a step ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, both in the wet and in the drying conditions, it appeared to still be an intra-team battle for the victory.

But, with around ten laps to go, a rain shower hit the Albert Park Circuit and chaos ensued. Norris went off the track, but recovered; Piastri slid out of contention and Max Verstappen came within fractions of the race victory.

Though the British driver did enough to hold on, he had to absorb the pressure that had been both self-inflicted and caused by the ominous threat of the world champion.

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A Suzuka Stunner

Two rounds later and Max Verstappen would finally claim his maiden win of the 2025 season, but this was not through luck. Instead, it was possible because of one of his greatest deep-digging qualifying laps of his glittering career.

Impervious to any sense of errors, Verstappen simply steamed through the undulating turns of the Japanese circuit and punished both McLaren drivers, who harmed their prospects with respective errors.

With little in-race tyre degradation, and difficulty in overtaking, Verstappen's only moment of worry was on the pit lane exit, after Lando Norris almost ran wheel-to-wheel with him.

He held on to win the race and remind everyone of his virtuosity behind the wheel. 

Red Mist in Spain

A high-octane and sizzling Spanish Grand Prix had seen Verstappen push flat-out to counter the two McLaren's dominant pace. Making an additional pit stop, the two Papaya cars were within sight, but it was all spoiled by a late-race safety car.

Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes ground to a halt and every front-running car pitted for softs. Well, everybody bar Verstappen.

He resumed on track on new hard tyres, which had hardly been ran across the weekend, by any driver. This made him vulnerable at the safety car restart and he was incensed when Charles Leclerc barged past him.

But he was then pushed off-track, by George Russell and was livid when requested to hand the place to the Brit. He was so livid that he momentarily let the Mercedes driver past, but banged into him at the apex of the Catalunya circuit's fifth turn. 

His antics earned him a ten-second time penalty, and then fierce criticisms of the Dutcman's driving re-emerged. 

The Title Rivals Collide

Despite being in the picture for the race win, virtually every race, the throat-to-throat battles between the two title contenders had been limited.

During the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, neither of the two McLaren cars performed brilliantly. Norris threw away competitive pace with a litany of errors, in qualifying. 

Piastri, meanwhile, had dropped behind Antonelli's Mercedes during the race's first lap, to fourth. 

This meant that the cars convened, towards the end of the race, and Norris was desperate to make a move. An unsuccessful divebomb, into the hairpin, had been mercurially weathered by the Australian, but Norris then got caught out by Piastri briefly running out of electrical energy down the start/finish straight.

Norris chanced an improbable move between his teammate and the pit wall, and he terminally damaged his car, and was out on the spot. 

Hulkenberg's Long-Awaited Podium

No driver in the history of the sport had waited as long as Nico Hulkenberg had for a first F1 podium finish.

But after 239 race starts, starting from the back-row did not lend itself to podium contention.

But the German's experience, as the fickle rainy conditions endured the race, allowed him to make the right strategic calls, overruling his team at points.

This allowed him to jump up to P4 and he passed Lance Stroll for third. All he had to do was fend of home hero Lewis Hamilton, to secure a rostrum.

But he thrived around the high-speed turns of Silverstone, and it was Hamilton's tyres that wore off. 

That left jubilant scenes in the Sauber garage, who scored their first podium for nearly thirteen years. 

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Ben McCarthy

Ben McCarthy is a freelance sports journalist, commentator and broadcaster. Having specialised his focus on football and Formula One, he has striven to share and celebrate the successes of both mainstream and local teams and athletes. Thanks to his work at the Colchester Gazette, Hospital Radio Chelmsford, BBC Essex and National League TV, he has established an appreciation for the modern-day rigours of sports journalism and broadcasting.