How Lando’s fellow title-winners clinched their first Grand Prix win with McLaren as a World Champion

Denny won the 1967 World Drivers’ Championship while competing for Brabham but joined the team for his title defence in 1968, linking up with compatriot, friend, and team founder Bruce McLaren. The operation was still relatively fresh but, after a promising start, the M7A was equipped with a Cosworth DFV, and McLaren were a contender at the sharp end of Formula 1. Bruce scored McLaren’s breakthrough first victory at the Belgian Grand Prix, while Denny had to wait a few more rounds for his success. Denny qualified only seventh for the Italian Grand Prix at the high-speed Monza track, but in an attritional race emerged as a win contender, left alone up front when a spate of rivals dropped out.

James’ and Niki Lauda’s title battle in 1976 has gone down as one of the greatest in history, with James clinching the World Championship at the rain-lashed finale at Fuji Speedway.

James started his title defence with a Pole position and race-leading effort in Argentina, only for a suspension failure to sideline him. In Brazil, he again fronted Qualifying, but was overhauled by Carlos Reutemann. Another Pole came in South Africa, but in the race, he could only manage fourth. The team struggled through the next sequence of events as it readied the M26, but eventually matters clicked on home soil. James converted Pole into a popular victory at Silverstone - one of three wins across a more prosperous second half of 1977.

Having missed out by half a point in 1984, Alain romped to the crown in 1985, though his title defence began with an engine failure in Brazil. A third-place finish at Jerez’s Spanish Grand Prix in the following round was a much more positive result, before he claimed his first win as a World Champion in the third round at Imola, profiting when Ayrton Senna’s Lotus and Nigel Mansell’s Williams both encountered problems.

It was an anxious finish for Alain, as a race that had otherwise been smooth sailing threatened to unravel at the very end. As he approached the final few corners, his MP4/2B began to splutter, having almost run out of fuel - an issue that affected several other drivers that day. Alain frantically weaved the car side-to-side to ensure the last dregs of fuel reached the pick-up, crawling over the line to triumph.

Ayrton beat Alain to the title in the 1988 campaign - Ayrton’s first with us - which is best remembered for the emphatic dominance of the sleek MP4/4. Ayrton began the 1989 season on top, scoring Pole position for his home Brazilian Grand Prix, but any hopes he had of claiming victory in front of his supporters were wiped out following a first-corner collision.

At the next round in Imola, Ayrton was leading when the race was stopped following Gerhard Berger’s accident at Tamburello. At the restart, he was passed by Alain into Tamburello, but Ayrton countered into Tosa and went on to comprehensively beat his team-mate. It was a win not without controversy, as Alain claimed after the race that Ayrton had defied a pre-race agreement specifying that whoever led out of Tamburello would not be challenged for position.

Mika Häkkinen prevailed over Michael Schumacher in a fierce scrap for the 1998 World Championship title, clinching the crown in style by storming to victory in the season finale in Japan. Hostilities looked set to be renewed in 1999, with McLaren and Ferrari remaining in the front-running seats, but neither Mika nor Schumacher triumphed in the opening round. Mika took an emphatic Pole position in Melbourne, with team-mate David Coulthard the only driver to lap within a second of him, but his race unravelled due to a throttle issue.

Mika grabbed another Pole position at the next event in Brazil, but lost first place due to a gear selection problem that temporarily slowed his MP4-14. However, he was able to use the overcut to reclaim the lead from Schumacher, going on to clinch the first win of what turned out to be his second title-winning season.

Lewis dramatically captured his maiden World Championship on the final lap of 2008’s season-ending, rain-hit Brazilian Grand Prix. But the team misstepped under revised aerodynamic regulations in 2009, and the early-spec MP4-24 was an uncompetitive machine. That was most pronounced during the early rounds of the European campaign, as Lewis went five Grands Prix without a point, leaving him 11th in the Drivers’ Championship and the team a lacklustre sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.

In a campaign where performance wildly fluctuated, a greater understanding of the KERS-equipped car and a raft of updates revitalised the team’s prospects. Lewis qualified fourth at the Hungaroring and moved up to third, before passing Mark Webber and using pit strategy to jump early stopper Fernando Alonso. Lewis controlled the race thereafter to chalk up his first victory of the season, before adding another in Singapore en route to fifth in the standings.

Jenson Button triumphed in the 2009 season before joining McLaren as the reigning World Champion for 2010. It was a subdued start in Bahrain, with Jenson finishing seventh from eighth on the grid, as he got acclimatised to the MP4-25. Jenson qualified stronger at the next round in Melbourne, traditionally a happy hunting ground, as he took fourth place on the grid.

A damp race day started badly for Jenson as he lost positions following a coming together with Fernando Alonso at the first corner, before being overtaken by team-mate Lewis, which dropped him to seventh. But Jenson’s instinctive feel of the conditions convinced him that it was time for slicks, and he dived into the pits. Despite sliding through the gravel trap on his out-lap, Jenson’s electric pace allowed him to vault up to second position - inheriting the lead when Sebastian Vettel suffered a mechanical failure. Jenson remained ahead thereafter to pocket his first of two wins that season.

Winning the title at the finale? Check. Navigating the learning curve of a new regulatory cycle? Check. Taking your first victory as a World Champion on July 26 at the Hungarian Grand Prix? Check.

Reliability gremlins cost Lando in the early rounds, while a promising display in Miami yielded a Sprint Race victory and runner-up position in the Grand Prix. But the limitations of the MCL40 through swathes of the European campaign put a ceiling on Lando’s results, with a podium at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix and another top-three in Silverstone’s Sprint Race the high watermark.

At the Hungaroring, scene of one of Lando’s wins during his title-winning 2025 campaign, the reigning champ flew. Lando dominated on Friday, leading Free Practice 3, and then Q1, Q2, and Q3 in Qualifying to claim Pole. Although he initially lost first place to Oscar off the line, Lando re-established control and led for the vast majority of the 70-lap race to claim a dominant victory.