15/07/2025 06:30
With 12 races down and 12 to go in the 2025 F1 season, Oscar
Piastri finds himself leading the drivers' championship. Victory in
Bahrain took Piastri to a lead he has since held, becoming the
first Australian since his manager Mark Webber in 2010 to head the
drivers' standings. With half of the season remaining, Piastri is
just eight points clear of team-mate Lando Norris in the fight to
become McLaren's first drivers' champion since Lewis Hamilton in
2008. History appears to be on Piastri's side as well. The current
season is the 76th drivers' championship, and the driver leading at
the halfway mark of the season has gone on to win the title 56
times in the previous 75 championships. Remarkably, Hamilton
jointly holds the record for 'leading the championship at halfway
and not going on to win the title', doing so four times. These came
in his rookie 2007 season, and in 2010 and 2016. The most recent
example of the feat happening was in 2021 when Max Verstappen won
the drivers' crown. Hamilton holds this record with Alain Prost,
who could have been an eight-time champion had he converted his
1983, 1984, 1988, and 1990 halfway leads. Jim Clark, Niki Lauda,
Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, and Sebastian Vettel are the other
champions to fail to convert. In 1997, Michael Schumacher was
leading at the halfway point, but infamously became the only driver
to be disqualified from a world championship after trying, and
failing, to ram Jacques Villeneuve out of the title decider. Check
out the full table below! Drivers who led the championship at
halfway but didn't win the title
