F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Norris victory wraps up McLaren constructors’ title

Lando Norris won the Formula 1 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to secure McLaren’s first constructors’ championship since 1998, with Carlos Sainz second for Ferrari after Max Verstappen hit Oscar Piastri.

That incident aided Charles Leclerc’s run up from the final row of the grid to finish third in the other SF-14, which was not enough to aid the Scuderia as it ended up 14 points behind in the teams’ title battle.

At the start, Norris easily led away from pole, with any concerns of intra-McLaren contact at the first corner wiped away – replaced by the drama of Verstappen’s dive on Piastri at Turn 1.

As Piastri came across with the Red Bull committed on the inside, they collided just past the apex as Verstappen understeered in the McLaren’s side and both spun – Verstappen falling deep into the pack and Piastri at the back.

That elevated Sainz to second – getting back the place he had lost to Verstappen off the line – with Norris clear in the lead.

His advantage at the end of lap one of 58 was 1.8s, which was preserved for the next lap and a third, as the virtual safety car was activated for Sergio Perez stopping on the run out of Turn 9 due to contact sustained in another lap one clash – this with Valtteri Bottas at Turn 6.

By the time the VSC ended, Verstappen and Bottas had been handed 10-second penalties for their clashes, with Norris then moving to increase his lead over Sainz to around three-seconds over laps four to nine.

They were soon in a two-horse race for the win as Pierre Gasly held up Russell to the tune of nearly 10s by the time the Alpine stopped on lap 14 – by which point Norris was nearly four seconds clear of Sainz.

They were able to lap in the low 1m29s and high 1m28s for Norris, with Russell unable to match their pace even when unleashed from behind Gasly.

While lots of cars pitted from the pack behind, the leaders stayed out for the next phase of the race, with Sainz finally coming in to switch the mediums all the frontrunners had started on for hards on lap 25.

He had just squeezed Norris’s lead back under four seconds and when the McLaren was called in to cover the next lap, the chase for the lead resumed with Sainz having gained two more seconds back.

Norris’s advantage then held at the two-second mark as they pounded around matching each other in the low 1m28s.

But by lap 34, the elastic-back to the Ferrari finally snapped, with Norris then able to quickly edge his lead back above three seconds, as he was able to hit the high 1m27s and Sainz could only do so intermittently.

On lap 41, Norris was back to 4.6s ahead and from there he continued stretching away – bar a phase as the final 10 laps kicked off when he lost a little bit of time lapping traffic.

But when Sainz hit this too Norris was in the clear and he eventually eased home to win by 5.8s.

More to follow

F1 Abu Dhabi GP – Race results