When F1 title has gone to a final-race three-way fight

F1 Racing

The 2025 Formula 1 drivers' championship has come down to a three-way fight going into the final race of the season, with Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri all in contention.

Briton Norris leads Red Bull's Verstappen, who is seeking a fifth consecutive title, by 12 points with Piastri a further four points back.

McLaren drivers Norris and Piastri are both aiming for their first F1 title.

It is not often that three drivers go into the final race with a chance of winning the championship. According to media reports at some previous occasions when it's happened...

The first Formula 1 World Championship went down to the final race at Monza in Italy with Alfa Romeo's Juan Manuel Fangio, Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Fagioli all in contention.

Going into the grand prix, Argentine Fangio led Italian Fagioli by two points and Farina, another Italian, by four.

Mechanical problems ended Fangio's afternoon and Farina came through to win the race and secure the inaugural drivers' championship, with Fagioli in third in the race and the overall standings.

Fangio would go on to win five titles between 1951 and 1957 and is considered one of F1's all-time greats.

Australian Jack Brabham led the championship before the season-ending 1959 United States Grand Prix in Sebring, Florida, with Britons Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks still in contention.

Moss, who was in second, needed to win or finish second with fellow Cooper driver Brabham behind him, while Ferrari's Brooks had to win to have any chance, and even then could still be beaten to the title.

Moss led from pole position but retired with a broken gearbox early on, handing the initiative to Brabham, who had been tracking his rival a short distance behind.

Brabham led almost to the finish, before running out of fuel on the last lap. Brooks passed him for third but Brabham pushed his Cooper across the line to take fourth place and the first of his three world titles. It was also the first achieved in a rear-engined F1 car.