Briton Lando Norris (McLaren) won his first Formula 1 world championship title by securing 3rd place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, enough to stay ahead of his championship opponents, Max Verstappen, winner of the race on Sunday, and Oscar Piastri, 2nd.
The Dutchman, who was more than 100 points behind at the end of the summer, made a magnificent comeback in the last third of the season but ultimately failed, two points behind Norris (423 points to 421). Piastri, who led the championship for more than half of the season, finished third (410 pts), 13 points behind his English teammate.
Norris: 18 podiums out of 24 GPs
Norris, 26, has been consistent throughout the season, reaching the podium 18 times in 24 races. He won seven Grands Prix, like his teammate Piastri. Verstappen won eight times, but had fallen too far behind in the first part of the season to succeed in regaining the lead.
Qualified in the first three places, the title contenders all started correctly on Sunday to maintain their positions, but Piastri quickly overtook Norris after a few corners to take second place and chase Verstappen, in the lead.
A third place was enough for Norris to be titled, regardless of the performances of his two opponents, but the Briton was threatened by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in the first loops.
The race was, however, quite monotonous, with only the pit stops temporarily changing the standings.
Scares with Tsunoda
Norris, who arrived in Abu Dhabi with a 12-point margin over Verstappen, still had a few scares when overtaking slower cars or backmarkers after his pit stops. Yuki Tsunoda, Verstappen’s teammate, did not make his task easy, pushing the Englishman to put four wheels off the track to overtake. An incident without consequences for the Englishman.
Behind the leading trio, Leclerc took fourth place ahead of George Russell (Mercedes), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Esteban Ocon (Haas) and Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari).
In the constructors’ standings, behind McLaren, which has already won the title for a long time, Mercedes retained second place in the standings, ahead of Red Bull and Ferrari.
