Lando Norris won the season finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and securing the McLaren team it’s first constructors’ championship since 1998, with Carlos Sainz taking second in his final appearance as a Ferrari driver.
The Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri incident at Turn 1 on the first lap benefited Charles Leclerc’s run up from the final row of the grid to finish third, which was not enough to aid the Scuderia as it ended up 14 points behind in the constructors’ title battle.
At the start, Norris easily led away from pole, with any concerns of intra-McLaren contact at the first corner wiped away – replaced by the drama of Verstappen’s dive on Piastri at Turn 1.
As Piastri came across with the Red Bull committed on the inside, they collided just past the apex as Verstappen understeered in the McLaren’s side and both spun – Verstappen falling deep into the pack and Piastri at the back.
That promoted Sainz to second – getting back the position he had lost to Verstappen off the line – with Norris clear in the lead.
His advantage at the end of lap one of 58 was 1.8 seconds, which was preserved for the next lap and a third, as the virtual safety car was activated for Sergio Perez stopping on the run out of Turn 9 due to contact sustained in another lap one clash – this time with Valtteri Bottas at Turn 6.
By the time the VSC ended, Verstappen and Bottas had been handed 10-second penalties for their collisions, with Norris then moving to increase his lead over Sainz to around three-seconds over laps four to nine.
They were soon in a two-horse race for the win as Pierre Gasly held up Russell to the tune of nearly 10 seconds by the time the Alpine stopped on lap 14 – by which point Norris was nearly four seconds clear of Sainz.
They were able to lap in the low one minute, 29 seconds and high one minute, 28 seconds for Norris, with Russell unable to match their pace even when unleashed from behind Gasly.
While lots of cars pitted from the pack behind, the leaders stayed out for the next phase of the race, with Sainz finally coming in to switch the mediums all the frontrunners had started on for hards on lap 25.
He had just squeezed Lando’s lead back under four seconds and when the McLaren was called in to cover the next lap, the chase for the lead resumed with Sainz having gained two more seconds back.
Lando’s advantage then held at the two-second mark as they went around matching each other in the low one minte, 28 seconds.
But by lap 34, Norris was able to quickly edge his lead back above three seconds, as he was able to hit the high one minute, 27 secinds and Sainz could only do so intermittently.
On lap 41, Norris was back to 4.6 seconds ahead and from there he continued stretching away – bar a phase as the final ten laps kicked off when he lost a little bit of time lapping traffic.
But when Sainz hit this too, Norris was in the clear and he eventually eased home to win by 5.8 seconds.
Leclerc finished 26 seconds behind his teammate after making a series of bold moves on the opening lap around the various contacts, then charging up towards Russell’s attempt to overcut Gasly.
On lap 20, Leclerc stopped for his medium-hards switch and he quickly caught and passed Gasly and when Russell pitted for his sole service at the same time as Norris Leclerc was through into third.
Hamilton had started on the hards and stayed out until lap 34, rejoining in seventh and then rising – including getting by Fernando Alonso’s two-stopping Aston Martin – while reducing the 14 seconds gap to Russell.
On the final lap, Hamilton attacked Russell with DRS into the outside of Turn 9 and claimed fourth on the exit, with Verstappen 12 seconds behind the Silver Arrows pair after serving his penalty at his stop on lap 29.
Gasly ended up seventh ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, which sealed Alpine’s sixth place in the constructors’ against Haas.
Alonso took ninth as Piastri recovered to P10 after serving his own 10-second penalty at his pitstop – for colliding into Franco Colapinto’s rear at the VSC restart.
Colapinto was one of three retirements in addition to Perez, as the Williams driver’s Formula 1 cameo ended due to an engine issue, which was what also appeared to eliminate Liam Lawson late on for RB.
Valtteri Bottas’s career ended in disappointment as he also hit Kevin Magnussen at Turn 6 just past halfway – an incident that gave the Sauber too much damage to continue but from which the Haas was able to escape after a spin and Magnussen finished his own Formula 1 career having made three stops.
K-Mag secured the race’s fastest lap at one minute, 25.637 seconds on the final lap.
So congratulations to Lando Norris for winning the race and securing the constructors’ title for the Woking-based outfit since 1998. Well deserved.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, race results:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:26:33.291
2 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +5.832s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +31.928s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +36.483s
5 George Russell Mercedes +37.538s
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +49.847s
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine +72.560s
8 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +75.554s
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +82.373s
10 Oscar Piastri McLaren +83.821s
11 Alexander Albon Williams +1 lap
12 Yuki Tsunoda RB +1 lap
13 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
15 Jack Doohan Alpine +1 lap
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
Liam Lawson RB DNF
Valtteri Bottas Sauber DNF
Franco Colapinto Williams DNF
Sergio Perez Red Bull DNF
