McLaren clinches F1 title despite Verstappen/Piastri clash

Lando Norris sealed McLaren's first Formula 1 constructors’ championship since 1998 with a dominant victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix season finale.

Norris was McLaren’s sole charger at the front of the field after his team-mate Oscar Piastri was wiped out by an ambitious lunge from Max Verstappen at the first corner on the opening lap.

Verstappen made a late dart to the inside of the McLaren but made contact and sent both drivers into a spin.

Here's the moment Piastri and Verstappen made contact 👀#F1 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/9l6gihUplT

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 8, 2024

The stewards deemed Verstappen to be at fault and handed him a 10-second time penalty - something which infuriated Verstappen.

“Could we ask for 20 seconds? Stupid idiots,” Verstappen told race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

That left Norris on his own out front with Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari behind him and team-mate Leclerc making a rapid recovery to third from 19th on the grid - the consequence of a Q2 exit plus a 10-place grid penalty for a battery change.

Leclerc was too distant to challenge either of them while Sainz didn’t have the pace to put Norris under any considerable pressure.

A win for Norris was enough for McLaren to seal the constructors' title - its first for 26 years since the 1998 triumph with David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen (pictured above) - no matter where the Ferrari drivers finished or where Piastri recovered to.

He did that in a dominant fashion, beating Sainz by 5.832 seconds - Sainz in turn leading Leclerc home by 26s.

Fourth for Hamilton’s Mercedes farewell

Like Leclerc, Hamilton made a strong recovery from the back of the field after his Q1 exit to catch his Mercedes team-mate George Russell at the end of the race despite starting 10 places behind him.

Hamilton ended his Mercedes stint in style with a bold move around the outside of Russell through Turn 9 to take fourth place and celebrated his Mercedes farewell with donuts on the grid.

Verstappen recovered to finish in sixth place after serving his penalty ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly - who finished seventh to seal sixth in the constructors’ championship for Alpine. It was a strong end result for a season that started so miserably for the Enstone team.

Haas has to settle for seventh in the championship with Nico Hulkenberg coming home behind Gasly in eighth, while Kevin Magnussen was punted by Valtteri Bottas’s Sauber in their last F1 races (for now).

Magnussen did at least set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap but didn’t get the bonus point as he finished in 16th place.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was ninth ahead of Piastri - who picked up a penalty of his own for clashing with Franco Colapinto, the collision giving Colapinto a puncture before his race was ended prematurely by a power unit issue.

Jack Doohan was 15th in his first-ever F1 race ahead of Magnussen and Liam Lawson whose RB ground to a halt just before the chequered flag.

In potentially his final start as a Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez didn't make it through the opening lap - tapped into a race-ending spin by Bottas after the latter climbed over the kerb in an unsuccessful effort to avoid a collision.

Drivers' championship

Constructors' championship