Norris wins in Abu Dhabi to seal constructors' title for McLaren

Lando Norris's fourth victory of the season was enough to secure McLaren its first constructors' title since 1998 in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

From pole position, Norris was relatively untroubled and led every lap to seal McLaren's first constructors' title in 26 years and a ninth title overall for the Woking team as Ferrari put up a valiant challenge at Yas Marina. 

Carlos Sainz finished second with Charles Leclerc third from 19th on the grid as Ferrari scored 33 points to McLaren's 25 through Norris's victory. But with McLaren enjoying a 21-point lead coming into the race, it was enough for McLaren to win the title by 14 points.

Nerves had set in for the Woking team after Oscar Piastri was hit by Max Verstappen at Turn 1, spinning both around, with Verstappen receiving a 10-second time penalty, later branding the stewards "stupid idiots". 

Piastri, who also received his own time penalty for a later incident finished out of the points, but it did not matter for McLaren, who won its first title of any kind since Lewis Hamilton's 2008 drivers' crown. 

In his final race for Mercedes, Hamilton finished fourth after a last lap overtake on George Russell with Verstappen in sixth as Alpine also secured P6 in the constructors' through Pierre Gasly's sixth place. 

Early chaos in Abu Dhabi

At lights out, Norris made a good start to maintain P1 as Verstappen tried to dive up the inside of Piastri, but rammed the McLaren, tipping both into a spin. 

For this, Verstappen would be handed a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points on his licence, taking him to eight for the 12-month period. 

A virtual safety car was called on lap 2 for debris after Valtteri Bottas collided with Sergio Perez, putting the Red Bull driver out of the race. 

On the VSC restart, Piastri then rammed Franco Colapinto and picked up a 10-second penalty of his own, later serving at his second stop. 

Up front, Norris was holding Sainz at a comfortable four-second gap, as Leclerc made a fantastic start from his P19 grid slot to run P8, and began to pick off the cars in front as George Russell could not get by the stubborn Alpine of Pierre Gasly for third. 

On lap 21, Leclerc pitted from fourth, triggering the stops of the front-runners, with Norris then covering off Sainz's undercut attempt after his lap 27 start, the Ferrari having pitted one tour earlier. 

Sainz did reduce the gap briefly to 1.6s following the undercut, but Sainz gradually fell away to around six seconds behind. 

Norris would go on to win, and in a nice piece of symmetry as McLaren won the constructors', equalled team founder Bruce McLaren's tally of four career grand prix wins. 

Hamilton was fourth for Mercedes in his 246th and final race start for the team, catching and passing team-mate Russell in the closing laps, having been the only driver to start on the hard tyres. 

He ran until Lap 35 before pitting for the mediums, which proved to be the better race tyre, and emerged about 15 seconds behind Russell, chipping that down to attack Russell in the closing laps, passing out of Turn 9 on the final tour. 

Verstappen was sixth ahead of Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Piastri, who picked up the final point for McLaren. 

A point-less season for Bottas

Alex Albon took 11th place, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who botched the start with a clutch issue, Lance Stroll, Alpine rookie Jack Doohan on his F1 debut, and Zhou Guanyu. 

In his final F1 race, Kevin Magnussen took fastest lap for Haas, having been rammed by Bottas at Turn 6 after the Stake locked up. 

Bottas, who also picked up a 10-second penalty for tipping Perez into the spin that ended his race, received a puncture, and retired from the race. 

In doing so, it meant that for the first time in his F1 career, Bottas failed to score a point in a season. 

Colapinto and Perez were the other retirements, with Liam Lawson receiving a 10-second stop/go penalty after RB released him with a loose front-left wheel at his pit-stop.