Norris wins and single handedly secured McLaren’s constructors title

Lando Norris controlled the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and led the race from start to finish, albeit under constant pressure by Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari. Sainz completed his final race for Ferrari in second place as Leclerc completes the podium.

When the lights went out for the final race of the season the it appeared to be a clean start. Hamilton immediately went to the middle of the track to pass the car slotted ahead of him, eventually ending up in 12th position by the end of the first lap.

In front meanwhile Verstappen lunged into the inside of Piastri in Turn 1, leading to Verstappen bumping his right front wheel into Piastri’s left rear. Both men spun off and the incident was “noted” by the stewards and later converted to a 10-second penalty for the Dutchman. Verstappen was lucky to make a full spin and rejoin the pack in 12 position whereas Piastri was pointing the wrong way and had to rejoin in last place.

Perez was then also seen in trouble after coming together with Bottas. When the Mexican parked his car on the long straight, his retirement cause a virtual safety car, locking positions for half a lap until the Red Bull was cleared. Russell led comfortably, followed by Sainz, Gasly, Russell, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Magnussen, Leclercc, Stroll and Lawson. Verstappen was 11th and Hamilton 12th.

On the restart Piastri got a bit too eager to regain some places. The Australian looked set to pass Colapinto on the back straight but misjudged Colapinto’s movenemts who was also fighting the cars ahead of him. The McLaren driver ended up bumping into the back of the Williams, forcing a pitstop for a new front wing. He was handed a 10-second penalty.

Bottas was later also handed a 10-scond penalty for bumping Perez into a spin while Colapinto pitted with a suspected puncture.

By lap 12 Leclerc had impressively moved up to 6th already. Verstappen at the was 8th and Hamilton 11th. One lap later, all three had moved up another spot as Leclerc cleared Hulkenberg, Verstappen got past Alonso and Hamilton passed Lawson. When Stroll was then pitted from 9th that was another spot gained for Hamilton.

Hulkenberg pitted from 6th on lap 14, as did Alonso. The both switched their medium tyres from the first stint to a set of hards, like most others did before them. Gasly pitted from third the next lap, moving Russell to third, Leclerc to fourth, Verstappen to fifth and Hamilton to sixth.

On lap 21 it’s finally Leclerc who makes the first stop of those who seemed in the fight for the win. Leclerc had closed in to Russell but failing to make it past, Ferrari opted to pit him and change to the hard tyres. Leclerc returned to the track in 8th position, 41 seconds off the lead. Behind Lawson and Gasly, Leclerc soon lost valuable time. Leclerc cleared the two of them over the next three laps while Lawson pitted just after getting passed, only to find out the front left wasn’t fitted properly, triggered another return to the pits one lap later.

At that time, before the stops for Norris, Sainz or Russell, the orange McLaren still comfortably led Sainz by 5 seconds and 19 seconds over Russell. Verstappen and Hamilton were each another extra 5 seconds further behind.

Sainz pitted on lap 26 and returned in second after Russell had changed to hard tyres and ended up behind Leclerc, in 6th place.

Verstappen was next up in the pits, first serving his 10-second penalty and then returning to the track with fresh hard tyres. Verstappen emerged in 10th and immediately set the fastest lap after fuming at the stewards.

Moment later Bottas ended up in another collision. The Finn had been passed by Magnussen outbraked himself, sliding into the Haas with both front wheels locked. Bottas managed to limp back to the pits but retired there with a broken front suspension. Magnussen could continue but had to pit. The Dane quickly took away Verstappen’s earlier fastest lap.

On lap 35 it was Hamilton’s turn to pit. Having started on hard tyres the Mercedes driver switched to the medium and returned to the track only just ahead of Alonso and Verstappen. That’s behind Norris, Sainz, Leclerc, Russell, Gasly and Hulkenberg, all of which were on the hard tyres.

Hamilton then went on to start another recovery stint but was somewhat surprised when after passing Gasly, Bono said it was still 14 seconds towards Russell. Bono calmly replied “you can do it”, and indeed, the gap gradually decreased at about a second a lap.

5 laps from the end, Hamilton was 3.2 seconds away from Russell as Piastri returned to the points scoring positions by passing Albon for 10th. Seconds behind them, Norris loomed to to lap the two.

While Leclerc realised after some exchanges with his engineer that the constructor’s championship was lost and McLaren was set to secure it, Hamilton got in DRS range of Russell halfway into the penultimate lap. A pass on the main straight seemed impossible, and the next straight wasn’t an option either, but Hamilton then used all that was left in the mediums to pass Russell round the outside to add some extra brilliance to his last race for Mercedes.

As this unfolded, Norris had already sealed the Grand Prix victory and the Constructors’ Championship.

Traditionally, the top three parked their cars on the starting line. Norris and McLaren were especially overjoyed while applause came for Hamilton who greeted the public from the top of his car after completing some donuts in front of the main grandstand.