“World Champion Hotline” Now Accepting Calls: Lando Norris wins the Drivers Championship despite Max victory in Abu Dhabi

Despite early drama, Lando Norris was able to maintain a podium place for much of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which would be enough for him to secure his first World Drivers’ Championship despite Charles Leclerc and George Russell bringing his place under threat.

(Image Credit to Bryn Lennon/Formula 1)

After four years (1,457 days to be exact), there is a new World Champion in Formula One. 

With his third-place finish in Abu Dhabi, Lando Norris has won the World Drivers’ Championship by two points from Max Verstappen, who took the win in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Oscar Piastri would complete the podium with a second-place finish. 

Early drama sees Lando Norris lose out to Oscar Piastri, Leclerc looms large for first fifteen laps

Despite Lando Norris winning the Drivers’ title, the quest there was partially anything but. Max Verstappen would cut Lando Norris’ attempt to pass ahead into the lead, forcing him into a battle with Oscar Piastri on the first lap of the race; the Aussie would eventually get past Lando Norris before the beginning of the second lap. 

With the McLaren cars fighting behind, Max Verstappen took the opportunity to extend his lead on Oscar Piastri and, more importantly, to Lando Norris, getting the gap to the championship leader up to three seconds. Oscar Piastri would eventually start to extend his gap on Lando Norris as well, leaving Lando Norris to fight off Charles Leclerc, who did a phenomenal job keeping himself within DRS range of Lando Norris up until around lap thirteen, where his dropping back on Lando Norris became much more noticeable. 

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen was able to continue doing Max Verstappen things, pushing his lead out with Lando Norris distracted. By lap six, he was well over two seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri (nowhere near 2024 levels of time punishment on his opponents but still the point stands), however the gap would remain in this range for much of Max Verstappen’s first stint. 

Despite a strong qualifying performance, George Russell lost out big time in the opening lap, losing two positions to Charles Leclerc and to Fernando Alonso. Russell would make up a place by getting past Fernando Alonso on lap four, however he would remain behind Charles Leclerc for the vast majority of the race. 

Further down the order, Ollie Bearman had a strong start for the Haas team, getting past Carlos Sainz for twelfth on the second lap. Despite being a near-victim of Liam Lawson’s erratic driving, he was able to pass the New Zealand-born driver for eleventh around lap ten after a battle with Lewis Hamilton for twelfth on lap four; Hamilton would pit four laps later for hard tyres alongside Nico Hulkenberg and Alex Albon. 

Hard tyre strategies in play at lap 15, Norris does well to negate much of the position disadvantage, while Piastri finds the lead

In the championship battle, despite making gains on Max Verstappen and getting the gap as far down as 1.5 seconds, Oscar Piastri’s deficit to Max Verstappen for the race lead would stabilize at around 1.5 to two seconds. Elsewhere, Lando Norris would finally put much of the threat of a Charles Leclerc overtake to bed, putting two-and-a-half seconds between him and the Ferrari driver before a seventeenth-lap pitstop saw him onto hard tyres and into ninth place, just behind Kimi Antonelli. 

This was where the championship-hunting mentality, which Lando Norris was perceived to have lacked for much of his 2024 challenge of Max Verstappen, surfaced for the British driver. With Max Verstappen in position to win the title at that moment, Norris sought to remove the advantage and put Red Bull in a strategic kerfuffle, immediately passing Kimi Antonelli and rewarding him with a big gap after a brief battle mounted by the Italian rookie. Almost immediately, Lando Norris would pass Carlos Sainz for seventh almost immediately, before passing Liam Lawson and Lance Stroll to get into the top five (all on lap nineteen) to chase down Red Bull rear gunner Yuki Tsunoda. 

Before the race, it was possible to imagine a scenario where Yuki Tsunoda would assume the role of Minister of Defence for Max Verstappen’s title hopes, similar to how Sergio Perez mounted an admirable-and-iconic defence of Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi four years prior. And with Lando Norris quickly closing the gap to the Japanese driver, Tsunoda quickly said “I know what I’m doing” to the Red Bull pitwall. 

On lap 24, it was quite clear that no iconic defence would materialize, as Lando Norris would overtake the Japanese driver off-track to move into fourth. Despite both being noted on the move - Lando Norris for overtaking off-track and Yuki Tsunoda for weaving on-track to keep Norris behind - Yuki Tsunoda would receive a five-second penalty, while Lando Norris’ incident was given a no further investigation designation. 

Charles Leclerc, who had pitted on lap seventeen, would pass Yuki Tsunoda a lap later and get within two seconds of Lando Norris on lap twenty-six. He would also pass both Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson to put himself back into play in the championship battle occurring above him. 

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen had gone into the pits on lap twenty-three, putting Oscar Piastri into the lead of the race. 

Further down the order, similar hard-tyre strategies were starting to materialize. George Russell would trigger the pitstop dominoes in an attempt to undercut Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, putting on the hard tyres with data indicating their early success. Ollie Bearman and Isack Hadjar would also get onto the hard tyres on lap fifteen, with Franco Colapinto following on lap sixteen. Fernando Alonso would join Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris in the pits on lap seventeen, however Charles Leclerc would fall victim to George Russell’s attacking upon exit, with the British driver noting that Leclerc was moving under braking.  

Carlos Sainz would find his way into the pitlane on lap nineteen, while Esteban Ocon would go onto hard tyres for a charge up the order on lap twenty. The last two pitstops would push Lewis Hamilton, who had one of the better races of the twenty drivers on the grid, into the points. 

With the championship battle losing its luster, midfield battles start to take centre stage, however George Russell starts to emerge as a player.

As the race began to reach its midway point, the solidified prospect of a Lando Norris Drivers’ title was starting to take shape. With Oscar Piastri faltering and falling well within the undercut range that Lando Norris was hoping to push himself into, the possibility of Norris overtaking Piastri in the final order was starting to emerge; Lando Norris would get into undercut range (21 seconds via the average time lost on a pitstop at the Yas Marina circuit) at lap twenty-nine. And with Max Verstappen slowly but surely eating into Oscar Piastri’s lead (he was taking well over a second per lap out of Oscar Piastri’s lead at one point. 

While Zak Brown didn’t rule out a two-stop strategy, one that would soon come into play, at the time, Lando Norris was able to pull himself within seventeen seconds of Oscar Piastri at lap thirty-one. One lap later, Max Verstappen set the fastest lap and with Charles Leclerc well and truly dropping back, the Lando fans could reasonably find a reason to start celebrating. 

However, the threat of George Russell was still in the realm of possibility at the time; lap twenty-nine would see the Mercedes driver get past Yuki Tsunoda. 

At the same time, midfield and final-point-place battles were starting to emerge across the grid. Ollie Bearman would strengthen his case for a points finish on a twenty-fifth-lap overtake of Isack Hadjar, while Fernando Alonso would work himself well into the top-ten with an overtake of Kimi Antonelli for ninth on the same lap. Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg would find themselves battling at lap twenty-nine; the former would then battle with Kimi Antonelli before passing him for the final points position. His case was also helped by a Lewis Hamilton pitstop. 

Further down the order, Carlos Sainz got past Isack Hadjar to kickoff a late points push, while Yuki Tsunoda and Kimi Antonelli would exit contention for the points as a result of respective pitstops. Alex Albon would join the two on lap thirty-four, however a five-second penalty would relegate him to the end of the order for speeding in the pitlane. 

Championship hopes falter for Oscar Piastri and new life for Max Verstappen, while the second-coming of Lewis Hamilton secures a point-finish for the seven-time champion. 

Back to the championship battle, Max Verstappen would get himself within ten seconds of Oscar Piastri, whose degrading hard tyres became symbolism of his rapidly-fading championship hopes. 

At lap thirty-five, that gap was nine seconds. At lap thirty-six, it was 7.5 seconds. At lap thirty-seven, it was six seconds. By lap forty, it was just two seconds between Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. 

One lap later, Max Verstappen would pass Oscar Piastri for the race lead. And with Max Verstappen cutting into Lando Norris’ lead once again, his championship hopes once again gained new life. A Charles Leclerc pitstop on lap forty, which put him three seconds back of George Russell, coupled with a Lando Norris pitstop on the same lap would all but solidify the race win for Max Verstappen. 

Despite pondering a second pitstop to try and back the pack up, Max Verstappen did everything he needed to do. 

Survive turn one. Outlast Oscar Piastri. Stay ahead of Lando Norris. 

He did it all. He had the advantage he needed. Now all that he needed to do was wait for the action behind to take shape. 

But to give those who didn’t watch some suspense, I’m putting a raincheck on the championship for about another sentence or two and returning to Lewis Hamilton. On lap thirty-six, Lewis Hamilton passed Franco Colapinto for fifteenth after a thirty-second lap pitstop. Seven laps later, he was in the points after a move on the pitstop-bound Nico Hulkenberg. And just two laps later, he solidified his case for a point finish with an overtake of Ollie Bearman for P8. 

Lando Norris solidifies his first title as Charles Leclerc falls out of play, Hamilton’s charge gets halted by Esteban Ocon, while a three-way battle for tenth concludes the season

Despite getting within four seconds of Lando Norris on lap forty-seven and then again on lap fifty, Charles Leclerc would permanently fall out of range of Lando Norris by the end of that lap, with Lando Norris putting together one final charge to the title. With Leclerc out of play, Lando Norris would put together a late charge on Oscar Piastri for second, however this would be quickly eliminated by race end. 

In the middle of the points places, Lewis Hamilton’s charge would continue briefly as he would momentarily get past Esteban Ocon for seventh, however a last-second push by the Haas driver would see himself ahead once again and for good this time. He would then eliminate any DRS threat of Lewis Hamilton by lap fifty-seven.  

Further down the order, Carlos Sainz would get himself within DRS range of Gabriel Bortoleto, who had a decent qualifying performance, for the final points position, while Lance Stroll was doing the same just behind the Williams driver. 

On lap fifty-five, despite a brief push by Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll would pass the Williams driver for eleventh and would then get past Gabriel Bortoleto for tenth one lap later. Despite being noted for an incident with Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll was able to get himself outside of the five-second range to Bortoleto by the end of the race. 

The race would conclude with Max Verstappen taking the win, Oscar Piastri following in second, while Lando Norris’ third place finish was all that he needed to secure his first World Drivers’ Championship, dethroning Max Verstappen after being perched atop the order for four years. 

And now, the world champion hotline can ring, the parties can begin, and Lando Norris will now be ushered in as the new top dog in Formula One.

Article written by Noah Guttman, notes provided by Gréta Szabo