Race report
Formula 1 Abu Dhabi GP
F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Norris victory wraps up McLaren constructors' title
Norris's victory wrapped up the constructors' title for McLaren as Ferrari rounded out the podium
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: Dec 8, 2024, 3:41 PM
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Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
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.
In his final race for Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton beat his team-mate George Russell to fourth, with Verstappen ending up sixth after serving his penalty.
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.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38 and Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20 collide on the corner causing each other to spin
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
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.
Leclerc finished 26 seconds behind his team-mate after making a series of bold moves on the opening lap around the various contacts, then charging up towards Russell’s attempt to overcut Gasly.
On lap 20, Leclerc stopped for his medium-hards switch and he quickly caught and passed Gasly and when Russell pitted for his sole service at the same time as Norris Leclerc was through into third.
Hamilton had started on the hards and stayed out until lap 34, rejoining in seventh and then rising – including getting by Fernando Alonso’s two-stopping Aston Martin – while erasing a 14s gap to Russell.
On the final lap, Hamilton attacked Russell with DRS into the outside of Turn 9 and claimed fourth on the exit, with Verstappen 12s behind the Silver Arrows pair after serving his penalty at his stop on lap 29.
Gasly ended up seventh ahead of Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg, which sealed Alpine’s sixth place in the constructors’ against the American squad.
Alonso took ninth as Piastri recovered to 10th after serving his own 10s penalty at his pitstop – for whacking Franco Colapinto’s rear at the VSC restart.
Colapinto was one of three retirements in addition to Perez, as the Williams driver’s F1 cameo ended due to an engine issue, which was what also appeared to eliminate Liam Lawson late on for RB.
Valtteri Bottas’s F1 career ended in disappointment as he also hit Kevin Magnussen at Turn 6 just past halfway – an incident that gave the Sauber too much damage to continue but from which the Haas was able to escape after a spin and Magnussen finished his own F1 career having made three stops.
The Dane secured the race’s fastest lap at 1m25.637s on the final tour.
F1 Abu Dhabi GP - Race results
Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info
1
-
5
Main Information Additional Data
1
-
2
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Chassis Engine 1 L. Norris McLaren 4
58
-
1 25 McLaren Mercedes 2 C. Sainz Ferrari 55
58
+5.832
5.832
5.832 1 18 Ferrari Ferrari 3 C. Leclerc Ferrari 16
58
+31.928
31.928
26.096 1 15 Ferrari Ferrari 4 L. Hamilton Mercedes 44
58
+36.483
36.483
4.555 1 12 Mercedes Mercedes 5 G. Russell Mercedes 63
58
+37.538
37.538
1.055 1 10 Mercedes Mercedes 6 M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1
58
+49.847
49.847
12.309 1 8 Red Bull Red Bull 7 P. Gasly Alpine 10
58
+1'12.560
1'12.560
22.713 1 6 Alpine Renault 8 N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27
58
+1'15.554
1'15.554
2.994 1 4 Haas Ferrari 9 F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14
58
+1'22.373
1'22.373
6.819 2 2 Aston Martin Mercedes 10 O. Piastri McLaren 81
58
+1'23.821
1'23.821
1.448 2 1 McLaren Mercedes 11 A. Albon Williams 23
57
1 lap
1 Williams Mercedes 12 Y. Tsunoda Racing Bulls 22
57
1 lap
1 RB Red Bull 13 Z. Guanyu Sauber 24
57
1 lap
2 Sauber Ferrari 14 L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18
57
1 lap
2 Aston Martin Mercedes 15 J. Doohan Alpine 61
57
1 lap
1 Alpine Renault 16 K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team 20
57
1 lap
4 Haas Ferrari dnf L. Lawson Racing Bulls 30
55
3 Retirement RB Red Bull dnf V. Bottas Sauber 77
30
2 Collision Sauber Ferrari dnf F. Colapinto Williams 43
26
2 Power Unit Williams Mercedes dnf S. Perez Red Bull Racing 11
0
Collision Red Bull Red Bull View full results
Photos from Abu Dhabi GP Race
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sunday
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55
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