Max Verstappen won 8 of the 24 Grands Prix in 2025, one more than either McLaren driver, and started from pole 8 times, one more than Lando Norris. He finished the season 2 points behind: 421 against Norris's 423, with Oscar Piastri third on 410. Five charts built from the season's results, taken from the Jolpica F1 API and checked against Wikipedia, show where the points actually came from.
Podiums outweighed wins
Norris made the podium in 18 of the 24 Grands Prix, Piastri in 16 and Verstappen in 15, according to the chart of Grand Prix podium finishes. Verstappen won one race more than Norris, but Norris finished on the podium 3 more times. Between them the three took 49 of the 72 podium places. Verstappen was also the top sprint scorer with 32 points to Norris's 29, and the title still went the other way.
The finish was tight. In Las Vegas both McLaren drivers were disqualified from the race and scored nothing, and Verstappen won it. At the final round in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen won, Piastri was second and Norris third, which left Norris 2 points clear. Going into that race Verstappen had already cut a gap of 104 points to 12. The full drivers' table has all 19 drivers who scored, and the top three finished within 13 points of each other.
Two cars against one
McLaren's 833 points in the constructors' chart are exactly Norris's 423 plus Piastri's 410. That put the team 364 points ahead of Mercedes on 469 and 382 ahead of Red Bull on 451. Verstappen scored 421 of Red Bull's 451 points, 93.3 per cent, so everyone else who drove for the team contributed 30. Ferrari won no Grand Prix and still finished fourth on 398.
Poles were not the whole story
The pole position chart has only five names on it. Verstappen took 8, Norris 7, Piastri 6, George Russell 2 and Charles Leclerc 1, and the two McLaren drivers together took 13 of the 24. Starting first paid off 16 times in 24: Verstappen won from 5 of his 8 poles, Norris from 5 of 7, Piastri from 4 of 6, and both of Russell's poles became wins. Norris was on pole in Las Vegas and was then disqualified from the race.
The places nobody counts
A final chart adds up how many places each driver gained between the grid and the flag. Nico Hülkenberg tops it with 73 places over 20 classified finishes, and Lewis Hamilton is sixth with 42, according to the places gained chart. The title contenders sit well below them: Norris gained 14 places, while Piastri lost 3 and Verstappen 7, each over 22 finishes. Pit-lane starts are left out because Jolpica stores them as a slot at the back of the grid, and they would otherwise look like large gains.
| Driver | Points | Wins | Podiums | Poles | Places gained |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lando Norris | 423 | 7 | 18 | 7 | 14 |
| Max Verstappen | 421 | 8 | 15 | 8 | -7 |
| Oscar Piastri | 410 | 7 | 16 | 6 | -3 |
| George Russell | 319 | 2 | 9 | 2 | -4 |
| Charles Leclerc | 242 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 9 |
All five charts read the same season data. The 24 winners, the 24 poles and the 24 fastest laps agree with Wikipedia's table of the season, every championship points total agrees with its standings, and every grid position agrees with its race pages apart from the pit-lane starts. Second and third places on the podium chart come from Jolpica alone, and the places gained chart counts only drivers who finished or were lapped, so retirements add and subtract nothing.