Lando Norris closed out the Formula 1 season by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at a canter to secure McLaren its first constructors’ championship since 1998.
Norris got the perfect launch from pole position to establish a healthy lead over the field early, but McLaren’s comfortable grip on the title trophy momentarily slackened when teammate Oscar Piastri, starting second, was spun around by Max Verstappen into the first turn.
Verstappen had optimistically lunged for second place into the left-hander, his front-right wheel tagging Piastri’s rear left to send both cars spinning off the track. Verstappen rejoined 11th, while Piastri resumed in 20th and last.
Stewards hand Verstappen a 10-second penalty for that contact at Turn 1 at the start
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Ferrari, meanwhile, was capitalizing on the first-lap carnage.
Carlos Sainz, starting third, threaded the needle between the spinning Piastri and Verstappen to take second, while teammate Charles Leclerc completed an epic 11-place rise on the first lap to put himself eighth and in unlikely podium contention.
The highlight of Leclerc’s barnstorming first lap was picking up four places with a single around-the-outside move into the chicane splitting the back straights. The quadruple pass was facilitated by Valtteri Bottas tagging Sergio Perez on the apex of Turn 6 just before Leclerc arrived on the scene. The Finn, facing the final grand prix of his career, tipped Perez — also possibly facing his last F1 race — into a clumsy spin.
Disaster right off the bat for Piastri and McLaren MCL38, while Verstappen and Red Bull also paid a heavy price. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
The Mexican retired almost on the spot, for which Bottas copped a 10s penalty, ensured Red Bull Racing could finish no higher than third on the constructors’ title table. It’s the first time in more than 40 years the season’s best driver has raced for the team third or lower in the championship.
Perez’s stoppage caused a virtual safety car that left Leclerc in eighth, though he was upwardly mobile immediately once racing resumed, passing his way up to a net fourth place shortly before his first pit stop and passing Pierre Gasly for third on the following laps.
Ferrari could overhaul McLaren’s 21-point advantage with both cars on the podium, but one of them had to win the race. So long as Norris controlled the top spot, McLaren’s lead was safe.
Hoping to unseat the Briton, Ferrari rolled the dice with Sainz at his sole pit stop, hauling him in on lap 25. He had been trailing Norris by around 3.5s before his stop, but a ferocious out-lap ensured he was within 2s of the Briton after McLaren followed suit on the following lap.
With his tires already up to temperate, the Spaniard briefly threatened to battle for the lead, potentially turning the title race on its head. But after only a few more laps Norris was able to get heat into his rubber to begin re-establishing his original buffer. The growth was fractional but unstoppable, and by the end of the race it had ballooned to 5.8s. In taking the checkered flag, Norris secured his team its first constructors’ title in more than a quarter of a century.
“It feels incredible,” Norris said. “Not for myself but for the whole team. The team have done an amazing job this year to come from where we were at the beginning.
“I’m so proud of everyone. It’s been a lovely journey, and to end the season like this is perfect. For us to win a constructors’ after 26 years is pretty special.”
Sainz finished a strong but ultimately ineffectual second in his final grand prix for Ferrari, unable to go with Norris for most of the race.
“Obviously a bit of a bittersweet feeling,” he said. “In the end I think it was the maximum we could do today given the pace of Lando and McLaren. I gave it everything.
“I think we can be proud of the effort and the championship we put together. It’s been a tough year, but definitely a year we need to be proud of.”
Leclerc completed a mammoth 16-place recovery from 19th on the grid to third at the flag. His rise was entirely self-made, with 11 places gained on the first lap alone and without the benefit of a safety car or other significant interruption to bunch up the field to his benefit.
“I knew I had to be very aggressive,” he said. “I knew that in lap 1 I had to take all the risks possible in order to gain as many places as possible to then be in a good position for the rest of the race. This was achieved, but then unfortunately we were just starting too far back to do anything better than what we’ve done today.
“We’ve just come short of our goal, which is a shame, but at the end we’ve tried everything.”
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth to cap off a brilliant recovery from 16th on the grid. The seven-time champion, who will depart Mercedes at the end of the year, gained four places on the first lap and was feisty throughout the race to rise to fifth behind teammate George Russell with two laps remaining. A gutsy around-the-outside move at the parabolic Turn 9 sealed his 12-place recovery, leading Russell home for a Mercedes four-five.
Verstappen finished sixth after serving a 10s penalty for punting Piastri off the track on the first lap.
Gasly finished seventh for Alpine ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, securing the French-owned squad sixth in the constructors’ championship ahead of Haas.
Fernando Alonso ground out ninth as the highest-placed driver to finish the race with two stops, while Oscar Piastri completed the top 10, also with two stops, after serving a 10s penalty of his own for rear-ending Franco Colapinto shortly after the virtual safety car period ended. It forced Colapinto into a pit stop with a rear puncture, and the Argentine later retired with a suspected power unit issue.
Alex Albon finished 11th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Lance Stroll, debutant Jack Doohan and Kevin Magnussen, who set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap as a parting gift from his Haas team.
Liam Lawson was classified 17th after stopping on track three laps from home, his car smoking along the back straight.
