Lando Norris wins season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to seal constructors’ title for McLaren
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Lando Norris ended McLaren’s 26-year wait for the Formula 1c onstructors by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, which ends the season.
There was drama at the start when champion Max Verstappen collided with the second-placed McLaren of Oscar Piastri at the first corner, sending both cars spinning. With Piastri relegated to the back of the pack, McLaren’s title hopes depended on race leader Norris.
“Amazing, well done everyone, so proud of you all. You all deserve this,” Norris, who was second to Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, said over the radio to his team. “It’s been a special year. Next year will also be mine.
Norris held on for the win with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. second and Charles Leclerc moving up to third from 19th on the grid. Although Sainz did not get close enough to attempt to overtake Norris, it was a tense finish for McLaren chief executive Zak Brown, aware that any technical fault on the car would hand the title to Ferrari.
“It was the most miserable two hours of my life,” Brown joked while waiting for the trophy ceremony.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in his 246th and final race for Mercedes. before joining Ferrari next year after passing teammate George Russell on the final lap.
“We dreamed alone but together we believed,” Hamilton told his engineer Peter Bonnington on the radio before spinning the car into a “doughnut” to the cheers of the crowd.
Russell finished fifth, with Verstappen sixth and Pierre Gasly seventh for Alpine. Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth in his final race for Haas before joining Sauber for 2025, while Fernando Alonso finished ninth for Aston Martin and Piastri reclaimed 10th.
Winning the constructors’ title completes a once-unlikely turnaround for a team with plenty of F1 history but which was mired in ninth place in the standings just seven years ago. When Norris joined McLaren in 2019, he did not finish higher than sixth in any race in his first season.
McLaren started the season off the pace but took a leap forward with car improvements at the Miami Grand Prix in May, instantly rewarded with a first career victory for Norris.
Red Bull’s Verstappen won the drivers’ title, but the team was only third in the constructors’ standings thanks to consistent poor results from teammate Sergio Perez, whose race on Sunday ended in an early retirement after being pushed into a spin by Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas. This poor form forced McLaren and Ferrari, who have not won the constructors’ title since 2008, to face each other.
Norris steadily reduced Verstappen’s lead over the second half of the season in a series of increasingly uncompromising track battles, but the British driver’s challenge for the drivers’ title was dealt a blow by a Verstappen’s victory in the rain in Brazil in October.
Verstappen sealed his fourth consecutive title in Las Vegas last month, leaving Norris to focus on returning the team’s success to McLaren.
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