Lando Norris Wins Maiden F1 Championship To Break Max Verstappen's Reign

McLaren driver Lando Norris clinched his maiden Formula One Drivers’ Championship, edging past teammate Oscar Piastri and defending champion Max Verstappen with a safe third-placed finish in the final Grand Prix of the season at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (December 7).

The Briton finished third in the season-closer behind race winner Verstappen and Piastri, to claim the crown by two points.

At the start of the Grand Prix, all three on the podium had a chance to be crowned the World Champion. Norris needed to simply finish third or higher, while Verstappen would have won if he had clinched the race and the former finished fourth or lower. Piastri needed to win and required Norris to finish sixth or lower.

But Norris became Britain’s

first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020 and ended McLaren’s drivers’ championship drought of 17 years.

He started the race in second and was quickly overtaken by Piastri on the first lap — but the top three played a risk-free race, with help from a lack of any collisions or safety cars otherwise in the grid, too.

It was still not the easiest of races for Norris, who had to deal with severe traffic after his first pit-stop (McLaren were perfect again for both their drivers) and survived a near-collision with Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda on Lap 24, who tried to push him off the track.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was quick and a constant threat for him, too, but Norris had built a significant gap over the Italian to avoid too many problems when he decided to undercut him.

Norris, in tears on the team radio, said: “Thanks so much. I love you mum, I love you dad.”

“That was exciting, a little too exciting, awesome,” said McLaren team principal Zak Brown.

McLaren, headed by team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Brown, secured back-to-back constructors’ titles in Singapore last month. This is the first time the ‘Papaya’ team has won the double of the constructors’ and drivers’ championships since 1998.

Leclerc finished just outside the podium places, with Mercedes’ George Russell in fifth.