Norris wins as McLaren finally end F1 title wait

Lando Norris led the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from start to finish yesterday to end McLaren’s 26-year wait for a Formula One constructors’ title.
The Briton delivered in style after Australian teammate Oscar Piastri tangled with Red Bull’s quadruple world champion Max Verstappen at the first corner and dropped to the back of the field.
Piastri finished 10th, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc second and third for Ferrari, McLaren’s historic rivals over the decades and the only team that could have beaten them to the championship.
“You all deserve this. Thank you so much. It’s been a special year,” said Norris over the team radio after taking the chequered flag for his fourth win of the season. “Next year is going to be my year too.”
The 25 points, and Piastri’s one, left McLaren 14 clear of Ferrari and champions for the first time since 1998.
Norris finished the season as overall runner-up.
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in his last race for Mercedes, starting 16th and overtaking teammate George Russell on the 58th and final lap.
He joins Leclerc, who made stunning progress through the field after starting 19th, at Ferrari next season.
“Lewis, that was the drive of a world champion,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who could at least take some consolation in McLaren winning with the German manufacturer’s engines.
Hamilton was 14 seconds behind Russell, but on medium tyres compared to his teammate’s hards, with 15 laps to go but was told he could catch him.
He did it six corners from the end, Russell putting up little resistance and clapping Hamilton at the finish.
The 39-year-old then saluted the crowd with some tyre-smoking spins to mark the end of the most successful driver and team pairing in Formula One history.
“What started as a leap of faith turned into a journey into the history books,” Hamilton said over the team radio.
Verstappen, who took his fourth successive drivers’ title in Las Vegas last month, was sixth after collecting a 10-second penalty for the collision with Piastri.
Pierre Gasly was seventh for Alpine, who won their midfield battle to finish sixth overall in the standings, with Nico Hulkenberg eighth for Haas and Fernando Alonso ninth for Aston Martin.
McLaren were the first team of the current engine era that started in 2014 to win the title as a customer rather than a factory team.
There was drama from the start as Verstappen and Piastri clashed, after McLaren had locked out the front row in qualifying but with Verstappen right behind in fourth slot.
Both cars spun while Norris made a clean getaway from pole position and sped away.
Verstappen said he had been “super unlucky”, and claimed to have been all the way up the inside of the McLaren into the first corner but the evidence suggested he was at fault.
“Move of a world champion, that one,” commented Piastri sarcastically, before he was also given a 10-second penalty for running into the back of Franco Colapinto’s Williams.
Verstappen served his penalty on lap 30, dropping from third to 11th and seemingly taking a pop at the stewards over the radio.
“Could we ask for 20 seconds, stupid idiots,” said the Dutch driver, who was given two 10-second penalties in Mexico in October. Leclerc was 12th by the end of the first lap and fourth by the time he pitted on lap 20 with team mate Sainz settled in second and Russell a distant third.
The race then became a waiting game, with Ferrari hoping for a miracle that might slow Norris while McLaren boss Zak Brown watched nervously.
“Unfortunately, we were starting too far back to do anything better than what we did. I think we did the maximum. It hurts when a season is so close until the end,” said Leclerc before the podium celebrations.
“That was the worst two hours of my life, by far,” said Brown.
“That race, he (Norris) carried us. To not make any mistakes, and we were worried about safety cars, I was worried about everything, and he drove flawlessly.”
Norris made his pitstop for hard tyres at the end of lap 26, retaining the lead with a smooth stop quicker than either of the Ferraris.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez wrapped up his miserable season with yet another retirement after a first-lap clash with Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas sent him spinning out.
Team bosses will decide the Mexican’s future next week.