Lando Norris and McLaren both win as the British driver takes the chequered flag at the Abu Dhabi GP, handing the Constructors to the team, their first since 1998
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Lights out
As the cars lined up ready to go, McLaren were on the front foot with a front row lockout and a 21 point ahead of Ferrari, who have a single car in the top ten with Carlos Sainz.
As the filed headed into the first corner, Carlos Sainz had a poor start, Verstappen took full advantage, however the 2024 champion stuck his RB down the inside of Piastri through turn 1. Unfortunataly for Piastri Verstappen, who was not fully along side, tapped the rear of the McLaren, spinning both cars and sending Piastri to the rear of the field. The stewards decided that this was Verstappen’s fault and slapped a 10 second penalty on the dutchman.
The drama for Redbull continued as Perez, who was racing with Bottas, was taken out by the Sauber driver and spinning the Mexican out of the race and sending out a VSC to recover the stricken Redbull.
Oscar Piastri found himself in the wars for himself, as he out braked himself and hit the rear of Colapinto in the Williams, flat spotting his own tires and giving the Williams a puncture. To add insult to injury the McLaren driver was handed a 10 second penalty for causing a collision.
During all of this Charles Leclerc, who started in 19th found himself into 8th and in the points.
Time to settle down!!
As with most Abu Dhabi GP’s the Grand Prix settled down, with the stewards looking at a few false starts for Zhou and Albon. The teams started some of their pit stops. It was confirmed that Zhou did in fact jump the start and was handed a 5 second penalty, Albon was not guilty!!
Pierre Gasly, was happily sitting in third place, holding back the Mercedes of Russell and putting the Alpine team in the best position for securing 6th in the Constructors Championship. The Frenchman would head to the pits for a regular stop, dropping him down to 9th.
Charles Leclerc, the first first of the front runners to jump into the pits on lap 21, temporarily dropping him down to 8th place.
Three Wheels on my Wagon
Liam Lawson and RB headed to the pits for a regular stop, however the left front was never tightened properly, leading to the New Zealander returning to the pits, it was a miracle that the wheel didn’t fly off the car. The stewards did not look to kindly at this and handed the RB with a 10 second stop/go penalty.
As the RB were dealing with the pit stop issues, Franco Colapinto was called to retire the car, unfortunately, the Argentine driver will not get the send off he wanted. Liam Lawson would retire on the second to last lap.
Bottas What were you thinking?
As we just passed the half way mark, Bottas and Magnussen had an incident where the Sauber locked up and clattered into the rear of the HAAS, sending Bottas out of the race with a broken front right suspension. Not the way for both Magnussen and Bottas to finish their F1 careers.
Hammer-Time?
With Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton facing a hard race after a poor qualifying, Bono, Hamilton’s race engineer jumped on the radio that Lewis could manage a podium, the 7-time champion started on the hard Pirellis giving the Mercedes driver the faster medium tire for the closing stages of the race.
Lewis would have a great drive to finish in fourth, just outside of the podium, but another race showing the race craft of the 7-time Champion.
Closing Stages
Into the closing stages of the race, Norris was looking solid out front with Carols Sainz in second and Leclerc in third, which would hand the Constructors Title to McLaren, their first since 1998.
Sainz tried to put pressure on the McLaren of Lando Norris, however the out going Ferrari driver couldn’t do enough and had to drop back as he had taken too much out of his tires.
The other constructor battle was heading to Alpine as Gasly had it under control in seventh place ahead of the HAAS of Hulkenberg in 8th.
Oscar Piastri, who had all the drama at the start of the race returned to help the team with good pace and got himself back into the points with a 10th place finish.
McLaren’s day and an end of an Era
The 2024 season had everything you can think of, however it was McLaren who take the constructors, it is hard to argue against them taking the trophy, they were just more consistent, with Ferrari having a poor middle part of the season and Redbull bizarrely sticking with Perez, McLaren had two drivers that were always near the front and importantly together.
As McLaren celebrated, Lewis Hamilton was allowed to have his moment on the start finish straight and in front of the large grandstand, the 7-time Champion heads to Ferrari for 2025, leaving Mercedes after building an amazing legacy.
WHAT A SEASON 2025 CANT COME QUICK ENOUGH