Lando Norris secured McLaren’s first System 1 constructors’ championship for 26 years with victory within the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Norris led from begin to end and his fourth win of the season was sufficient to seal the championship by 14 factors, regardless of Ferrari ending second and third with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc’s sensible drive after beginning nineteenth on the grid stored the strain excessive – had something occurred to Norris’ automobile, Ferrari would have clinched the title.
Lewis Hamilton took fourth place in his ultimate race for Mercedes, passing team-mate George Russell with six corners of the race to go.
Hamilton did doughnuts on the pit straight after crossing the road after which took just a few moments together with his automobile, amassing his ideas, earlier than congratulating Norris and McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown and consoling Sainz and Leclerc.
The anxiousness for McLaren began on the first nook when Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri, who had certified second to the Briton, was tapped right into a spin by Pink Bull’s Max Verstappen. The world champion was given a 10-second penalty for inflicting the incident.
That put Piastri to the again of the sphere and left McLaren’s hopes hanging on Norris.
Leclerc elevated McLaren’s nerves with a shocking first lap, by which he gained a outstanding 11 locations, together with passing 5 vehicles in a single go approaching the chicane at Turns Six and Seven.
Leclerc’s climb continued, as he handed the Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, after which after his pit cease on lap 20 Pierre Gasly’s Alpine. He took third when the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen pitted out of his approach.
Sitting in third behind Norris and Sainz within the ultimate 15 laps, Leclerc requested if “like this we lose the constructors'” and was instructed, sure, however the race was not over.
However Norris and McLaren had the whole lot beneath management and he crossed the road six seconds forward of Sainz to finish an extended and painful interval with out a title.
McLaren final received the drivers’ championship in 2008 with Hamilton, however their group’s title drought went all the way in which again to 1998.
They’ve been by means of a troublesome interval previously decade. However their fortunes have been revived by years of restructuring that began when Zak Brown joined the group as govt director in 2016, earlier than being made chief govt officer of McLaren Racing in 2018, and gathered tempo when Andrea Stella was made group principal on the finish of 2022, when their ahead momentum had stalled.
Stella’s management has turned McLaren into the quickest group in F1, and they’re going to go into 2025 as potential favourites.
Norris whooped with delight over the group radio as he was instructed the title was received, and stated: “Subsequent 12 months’s going to be my 12 months, too.”
A constructive ending for Hamilton
Hamilton’s final race for Mercedes was a powerful one from his sixteenth place on the grid, the place he ended up after misfortune in qualifying.
He was the one driver to start out on the laborious tyres and used an inverted technique to realize locations all through an extended first stint.
Rejoining from his pit cease on lap 34 of 57, Hamilton repassed Hulkenberg and Gasly, and with Verstappen already behind due to the Dutchman’s penalty, the seven-time champion was as much as fifth behind Russell.
On brisker tyres, Hamilton closed on Russell and began the ultimate lap on his tail.
Hamilton closed in and handed Russell on the again straight with six corners to go and take a fourth place as he bowed out from 12 years at Mercedes to finish essentially the most profitable team-driver mixture in F1 historical past.
Over the group radio, Mercedes and Hamilton congratulated and expressed their admiration for one another. Hamilton stated: “What began as a leap of religion changed into a journey into the historical past books.”
Verstappen took sixth, forward of Gasly, Hulkenberg and Alonso, whereas Piastri recovered from his first-lap collision with Verstappen and a 10-second penalty for hitting the again of Franco Colapinto’s Williams to take the ultimate level for McLaren.
