Lando Norris may have already secured the F1 2025 championship, but when he met McLaren CEO Zak Brown in a custom kart race at Dunsfold Aerodrome, the historic Top Gear test circuit in the English countryside, the conclusion seemed certain.
The event was a collaboration between eBay and Dewalt, and with McLaren having just won the constructors’ title and Norris driving for another win, it appeared to be a good time. Both men arrived on the track in style, by helicopter, with David Croft providing play-by-play commentary.
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You’d think the karts were relatively standard, but they were built on an Italian OTK chassis, with a 40-kw electric engine from an e-bike and two Dewalt chainsaws (without the blades) fastened on as a sort of rear wing. The batteries were hidden in a tool bag where the fuel tank would normally be, so these weren’t your typical karts.
The challenge was organized into three sections: first, they performed a slalom through a series of tight cones. Norris, with his bright orange race suit and trademark helmet, appeared to be in his element, gliding through with precision, dodging every cone with ease. Brown, meanwhile, appeared stiff in his all-white uniform, clipping a few cones and losing rhythm along the way.
The pit stop came next, with the drivers having to pull over, get out, and remove a spare tire from the other kart using a Dewalt power tool. Norris had added a bit of extra funny business to the setup to make things difficult for his opponent, which pretty much sealed the deal. Finally, there were the hot laps, which consisted of a few trips around a shorter circuit. Norris threw down the gauntlet, going flat out and hitting over 100 mph on the straights, braking hard right before bends like Hammerhead with a little inspiration. Brown gave it his all as well, but ended up locking up on his tires and nearly spinning it at one point before recovering and sending bystanders wild in the stands.
The ultimate outcome came down to a few seconds, with Norris clocking in at 2:26 and receiving a five-second penalty for running slightly beyond the stop box, giving him 2:31. Meanwhile, Brown got the raw time of 2:21 but received a 15-second penalty for his cone errors, finishing in 2:36. Brown did not have the worst performance, but Norris won by more than five seconds.
