Lando Norris became F1 world champion for the first time in his career, finishing third behind defeated title contenders Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The race didn’t show the expected gamesmanship from pole winner Verstappen, but there was plenty at stake for Norris. Norris lost a place to teammate Piastri on the first lap, dropping back to ninth after a high-pressure first pit stop. So the Briton, who had appeared content with a comfortable third place finish early in the race, was now forced to face the prospect of making some important passes to get back into a position to win the championship.
However, Norris seized the opportunity to end his championship success with an aggressive performance, passing five cars in three laps to return to third place. All Norris needed to secure the championship was a podium finish, and despite not having the pace to challenge teammate Piastri ahead of him or Verstappen at the top, Norris was content to hold on to third place, good enough to take his first championship.
“I was still able to fight until the end,” said the emotional Brit. “That’s what we did and what we had to do this season for Max to chase us all the way and for Oscar to catch us again at the end. They certainly haven’t made my life easy this year.
“I was just trying to enjoy the moment. There aren’t many people in the world, not many people in Formula 1, who get to experience what I went through this season and this year.
“I’m happy for everyone. Everyone is happier than me. I’m really happy.”
Norris’ night of glory began with a chop from pole-getter Verstappen. Verstappen made up for his usual dive by swinging to the inside line to block the title leader’s path to the first corner. Norris lost momentum, but this allowed Piastri, who started faster, to lead his teammate through the first two sectors of the circuit, including a better exit from the chicane connecting the two back straights. This sent the Australian into the parabolic Turn 9 with incredible momentum, defying the cold hard compound tires and executing a daring pass around the outside of his teammate.
This move dropped Norris to third place, allowing Charles Leclerc to take advantage of George Russell’s slow start early in the race and move into fourth place.
McLaren’s early stint tire management gave Leclerc many opportunities to build up the pressure, and from laps 4 to 10, connecting with Norris’ gearbox and managing the rubber became essential, as the tire gap began to open up. However, the first pit stop problem was taken out of Norris’ hands by Russell, who pitted from fifth place on lap 14 to prevent progress.
Norris and Leclerc both reacted on lap 16, dropping to the bottom of the top ten and behind a potentially damaging train in traffic that had not yet stopped.
It was a crucial moment in the Brit’s race, but he pushed through relentlessly. On lap 18, he braked hard and decisively passed Kimi Antonelli at the hairpin, then passed Carlos Sainz before Turn 9. On the second back straight on the following lap, Norris bravely double-overtook Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson, moving him up to fourth place.
Yuki Tsunoda, who started next on hard tires, was told by his team to “give it his all” when his teammate’s title rival appeared in his mirror. Tsunoda replied that he would, but the relentless Norris left him with no defensive options.
McLaren set its sights on the Red Bull racing car’s gearbox from the hairpin. Tsunoda attempted to break the slipstream and weave to cut off the pass, but Norris reacted by racing off the road, passing the Japanese star who was sacked on the descent into the chicane.
It was a painful moment for McLaren’s pit wall, so the stewards investigated the move, but after deliberating they sided with Norris and penalized five Tsunoda cars for weaving.
Norris returned to the podium position winning the championship unconditionally. Only a late conversion, with two stops to cover Leclerc, kept him busy on his way to his new status as the 35th F1 World Champion.
However, the battle for first place was still undecided.
Piastri was one of two drivers to start on hard tires inside the top ten, and his strategy was to progress deep into the race and hope that in this situation he could take the lead and cause damage to his championship rivals.
Leader Verstappen pitted on lap 23 and Piastri took over the lead. He ran deep until lap 41, but at the end of a huge opening stint it was clear he was giving time to the Dutchman, and even Norris, in preparation for disaster.
Piastri maintained second place after the pit stop, but was now 24 seconds behind the leader. McLaren was optimistic that they could catch the leaders as they had done in Qatar, but with 17 laps the challenge was too great. This gave Verstappen his best eighth win of the season and ended the four-time champion’s defense by just two points.
Leclerc finished in a surprising fourth place despite pulling the trigger on his second pit stop on lap 39, holding off Russell to take the position.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished sixth ahead of Haas’s Esteban Ocon, securing the teams seventh and eighth place on the title table respectively.
Lewis Hamilton used a soft-start, two-stop strategy to recover from 16th to 8th place, beating Oliver Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg to take the final points of the season.
Lance Stroll finished 11th ahead of Gabriel Bortleto, Carlos Sainz, Hiroki Tsunoda, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Alex Albon, Racing Bulls teammates Izak Hajjar and Liam Lawson, and Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapino.
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