Max Verstappen victorious in Abu Dhabi, but Lando Norris secures the Championship
Max Verstappen was unable to pick up the F1 world title on Sunday. The reigning champion was victorious in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the final race of the season, but Lando Norris finished in third place, which meant that he took home the title.
Verstappen knew prior to the race that he would be reliant on other drivers. Norris had to finish third or higher to pick up the title, while Verstappen would need Norris to finish below that and win the race. Oscar Piastri was also able to win the title if he won the race and Norris finished below third.
It was the ideal start to the race for Verstappen. He held onto the pole position in the first lap, and Piastri, who started in third, went past Norris to climb to second.
Analysts had expected Verstappen to slow down intentionally at this point to give the fourth-place driver, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, the chance to get closer to Norris, but the reigning champion decided against doing this.
Even without this, Norris was having to hold off Leclerc for third place in the opening stages.
Norris and McLaren decided to bring Norris in for an early pitstop. At first, this seemed like a risky decision as Norris came out in ninth place behind a group of cars. But some fantastic driving from Norris led to him passing several cars to climb to fifth in quick succession.
This led to an interesting moment where Verstappen’s teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, was ahead of Norris in third place. The Japanese driver was tasked with slowing down Norris. But another fantastic move from Norris got him past Tsunoda on the 24th lap. A move that was investigated by the FIA for a while, as he had gone slightly off track, but he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
This proved to be the pivotal moment for the title race as Leclerc was unable to trouble Norris in any way in the rest of the race.
Verstappen drove a fantastic race, finishing comfortably ahead of Piastri, who ended the race in second. Verstappen thanked the Red Bull team at the end of the race for the last few months in which they bridged a huge gap in the title race.
It will be Verstappen’s first off-season without a F1 championship since 2020. It is Norris’s first world title of his career.
