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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Lando Norris ended McLaren's 26-year wait for the Formula 1 constructors' title as he won the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.
There was drama at the start as champion Max Verstappen collided with Oscar Piastri's second-place McLaren at the first corner, sending both cars into a spin. With Piastri dropped to the back of the field, McLaren's title hopes depended on race leader Norris.
“Incredible, well done everyone, so proud of you all. You all deserve this,” Norris, who was runner-up to Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, told his team over the radio. “It's been a special year. Next year’s going to be my year too.”
Norris held on for the win with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. in second and Charles Leclerc surging up to third from 19th on the grid. While Sainz didn't get close enough to try to overtake Norris, it was a tense finish for McLaren chief executive Zak Brown, aware that any technical fault on the car would hand the title to Ferrari.
“That was the most miserable two hours of my life," Brown joked while awaiting the trophy ceremony.
Hamilton bids farewell to Mercedes
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was fourth in his 246th and last race for Mercedes before joining Ferrari next year after overtaking teammate George Russell on the last lap.
“We dreamed alone but together we believed,” Hamilton told his engineer Peter Bonnington over the radio before spinning the car in “donuts” to cheers from the crowd.
Russell was fifth, with Verstappen sixth and Pierre Gasly seventh for Alpine. Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth in his last race for Haas before joining Sauber for 2025, while Fernando Alonso was ninth for Aston Martin and Piastri recovered to place 10th.
McLaren's turnaround
Winning the constructors’ title completes a once-unlikely turnaround for a team with plenty of F1 history but which was mired in ninth in the standings just seven years ago. When Norris joined McLaren in 2019, he didn’t finish higher than sixth in any race in his debut season.
McLaren started the season far off the pace but made a leap forward with upgrades to the car at the Miami Grand Prix in May, rewarded instantly with a first career win for Norris.
Red Bull’s Verstappen won the drivers’ title but the team was only third in the constructors’ standings thanks to consistently poor results from his teammate Sergio Perez, whose race Sunday ended with an early retirement after he was pushed into a spin by Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas. That poor form left McLaren and Ferrari, which hasn’t won the constructors’ title since 2008, to battle it out.
Norris steadily cut into Verstappen’s lead in the second half of the season in a series of increasingly uncompromising on-track battles, but the British driver’s challenge for the drivers’ title was dealt a heavy blow by a win for Verstappen in the rain in Brazil in October.
Verstappen sealed his fourth successive title in Las Vegas last month, leaving Norris and Piastri to focus on bringing team success back to McLaren. Ferrari cut McLaren's 21-point lead down to 14 on Sunday but Norris' victory sealed the title.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
