McLaren navigated a tense start to win the constructors’ championship in the 2024 Formula One season finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.
Lando Norris won his fourth race of the year and held off the Ferrari tandem of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc to deliver the team’s first title since 1998. The 25-year-old, who also secured second place in the drivers' standings, calmly converted from pole position, never relinquishing his advantage throughout the 58-lap race around Yas Marina Circuit.
McLaren entered the weekend with a 21-point advantage over Ferrari and sustained a slightly smaller margin by the race’s end. The British outfit ended the season with 666 points compared to Ferrari’s 652, while Red Bull settled for third with 589 points.
What began as a far more stress-free race Sunday for McLaren quickly turned uneasy on the opening lap. Oscar Piastri, who began the Grand Prix in the second starting position on the grid alongside Norris, was clipped by 2024 drivers’ champion Max Verstappen on the opening lap of the race. The incident sent the second McLaren driver to the back of the race and left Norris running by himself at the front of the pack. Verstappen was given a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.
The situation went from bad to worse for Piastri, who then earned a 10-second penalty of his own for running into the back of the Williams of Franco Colapinto. The pair of incidents effectively eliminated the 34-year-old Aussie from points contention for most of the evening until he climbed back up to 10th in the final five laps of the race.
While McLaren began to feel the pressure, Ferrari stayed poised and managed to climb up to the back of Norris. Sainz expertly navigated around the Piastri-Verstappen collision and planted himself in second place, where he remained for the rest of the race. Leclerc, who started in 19th after taking a starting penalty earlier in the weekend for using a new energy store, carved his way through the midfield up into third to round out the podium.
Outside of the first three drivers was the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, the former of which was racing for the final time with the Silver Arrows before joining Ferrari next season. Hamilton passed Russell on the final lap of the race to end his historic stint with the team on a high note.
Verstappen crossed the finish line in sixth after the opening lap collision. Pierre Gasly claimed seventh to clinch sixth place in the team standings for Alpine, holding off Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg who finished in eighth.
The F1 paddock will now head into the offseason, beginning with testing at Yas Marina Circuit to get a head start on next year in what’s shaping up to be another highly competitive season in 2025.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as McLaren Wins F1 Constructors’ Championship in Finale at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
