McLaren is Formula One constructors’ champion for the first time in 26 years after Lando Norris beat Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz to win the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

After seizing full control of the lucrative teams’ title race by blocking the front row of the grid, McLaren endured a more nervous race under the Yas Marina floodlights than would otherwise have been the case after Max Verstappen’s Oscar Piastri crashed into the The first corner was cornered.

But Norris never put a foot wrong from pole position and kept Sainz at bay over the 58 laps to take his fourth win of the year and secure McLaren’s ninth constructors’ title – albeit for the first time since 1998.

Ferrari, whose hopes of overcoming a 21-point deficit on the final day rested almost entirely on winning the race, at least ended the season with a double podium, with Sainz putting in a strong performance in his final outing for the team to finish second place and Charles Leclerc brilliantly moved from the back row of the grid to the third row.

And before his blockbuster move over the winter to replace Sainz, Lewis Hamilton completed his own rousing day of racing as he bid farewell to his Mercedes, finishing fourth from 16th on the grid.

On his final lap as a Mercedes driver after 12 years of unprecedented success, Hamilton overtook teammate George Russell on the outside of turn nine.

“That was the drive of a world champion. Amazing,” Toto Wolff said amid an emotional series of messages on the Mercedes team radio with Hamilton on his slow post-race lap.

Verstappen, who secured this year’s drivers’ championship for the fourth time in a row in Las Vegas two weeks ago, ended his season a distant sixth for deposed team champions Red Bull after losing ground at the start in the Piastri collision and then falling behind The stewards imposed a 10-second time penalty for this.

Pierre Gasly finished the good season in seventh place and secured sixth place in the constructors’ championship in Alpine ahead of Haas, who finished eighth with Nico Hülkenberg.

Fernando Alonso finished ninth with Piastri for Aston Martin. Piastri picked up his own 10-second penalty for hitting the rear of Williams driver Franco Colapinto after returning to the track following repairs at the end of the first lap, and recovered to 10th.

More to come…