Norris wins to seal constructors’ title for McLaren

Lando Norris secured McLaren’s first Formula 1 constructors’ championship for 26 years with victory in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Norris led from start to finish and his fourth win of the season was enough to seal the championship by 14 points, despite Ferrari finishing second and third with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc’s brilliant drive after starting 19th on the grid kept the tension high – had anything happened to Norris’ car, Ferrari would have clinched the title.

Lewis Hamilton took fourth place in his final race for Mercedes, passing team-mate George Russell around the outside of Turn Nine with six corners of the race to go.

Hamilton did doughnuts on the pit straight after crossing the line and then took a few moments with his car, collecting his thoughts, before congratulating Norris and McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown and consoling Sainz and Leclerc.

The anxiety for McLaren started at the first corner when Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri, who had qualified second to the Briton, was tapped into a spin by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The world champion was given a 10-second penalty for causing the incident.

That put Piastri to the back of the field and left McLaren’s hopes hanging on Norris.

Leclerc increased McLaren’s nerves with a stunning first lap, in which he gained a remarkable 11 places, including passing five cars in one go approaching the chicane at Turns Six and Seven.

Leclerc’s climb continued, as he passed the Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, and then after his pit stop on lap 20 Pierre Gasly’s Alpine. He took third when the Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton and Verstappen pitted out of his way.

Sitting in third behind Norris and Sainz in the final 15 laps, Leclerc asked if “like this we lose the constructors'” and was told, yes, but the race was not over.

But Norris and McLaren had everything under control and he crossed the line six seconds ahead of Sainz to end a long and painful period without a title.

The win also ensured that Norris finished second in the drivers’ championship, 18 points ahead of Leclerc and 63 behind Verstappen.

McLaren last won the drivers’ championship in 2008 with Hamilton, but their team’s title drought went all the way back to 1998.

They have been through a tough period in the past decade. But their fortunes have been revived by years of restructuring that started when Brown joined the team as executive director in 2016, before being made chief executive officer of McLaren Racing in 2018, and gathered pace when Andrea Stella was made team principal at the end of 2022, when their forward momentum had stalled.

Stella’s leadership has turned McLaren into the fastest team in F1, and they will go into 2025 as potential favourites.

Norris whooped with delight over the team radio as he was told the title was won, and said: “Next year’s going to be my year, too.”

Hamilton’s last race for Mercedes was a strong one from his 16th place on the grid, where he ended up after misfortune in qualifying.

He was the only driver to start on the hard tyres and used an inverted strategy to gain places throughout a long first stint.

Rejoining from his pit stop on lap 34 of 57, Hamilton repassed Hulkenberg and Gasly, and with Verstappen already behind because of the Dutchman’s penalty, the seven-time champion was up to fifth behind Russell.

On fresher tyres, Hamilton closed on Russell and started the final lap on his tail.

Hamilton closed in down the two long straights and then used his better tyres to pass Russell around the long fast Turn Nine after the younger man defended to the inside.

That gave Hamilton a fourth place as he bowed out from 12 years at Mercedes to end the most successful team-driver combination in F1 history.

Over the team radio, Mercedes and Hamilton congratulated and expressed their admiration for each other. Hamilton said: “What started as a leap of faith turned into a journey into the history books.”

Verstappen took sixth, ahead of Gasly, Hulkenberg and Alonso, while Piastri recovered from his first-lap collision with Verstappen and a 10-second penalty for hitting the back of Franco Colapinto’s Williams to take the final point for McLaren.