Lando Norris Leads McLaren to 2024 Constructors' Championship Victory in Abu Dhabi
And just like that, the 2024 F1 season is over for another year and what a final race we had been treated to. We had battles going on all over the grid and it was one final showdown for some of the drivers as this was their last race.
We start by hearing that Kevin Magnussen was under investigation as on his way out to the grid he did a practice start where he wasn’t allowed to, but he was able to get away with this as nothing came out of this. We also hear both Franco Colapinto and Valtteri Bottas thank the team as this will be their last race, Colapinto is heard on the radio saying that Williams made his childhood dreams come true while Bottas was thanking both Sauber and Ferrari for the opportunity and this seemed more like a goodbye from the sport as most likely we will not see Bottas in F1 again.
Onto the action now as there is a bit to talk about and we start by looking at the start of the race where we see Lando Norris getting a brilliant start and managed to get round Turn 1 ahead of everyone, Max Verstappen from 4th also got a good start however he went for a gap that was not really there on the inside of Oscar Piastri and the 2 come together and both spin off at Turn 1, luckily for the both of them, they both got away unscathed but Piastri was now in last place as Verstappen was in the middle of the pack. In the middle of the pack we also see another collision as we see Sergio Perez also turned around on track as Valtteri Bottas went over a kerb and bounced into Perez’s car. In the end Perez had to park up in the middle of the track to retire the car due to damage sustained from the contact with Bottas. This incident brought the VSC out so the Marshalls can clear Perez’s car from the track.
Through all this Chaos, we see Charles Leclerc make all the right moves to navigate through all the incidents and from 19th, at the end of lap 1 he was up to P8 which was mighty impressive from the Monegasque and this was also crucial if Ferrari was to have any chance at the constructors championship with Piastri running last after the first corner incident. His teammate Carlos Sainz was running in 2nd at the time.
At the end of the VSC it seems that George Russell timed the ending very well and was right on the back of Pierre Gasly and nearly managed to get the jump on him with the help of DRS but Gasly placed his car very well and managed to stay ahead of Russell who managed to start in 3rd. As if the start of the race wasn’t bad enough for Piastri, at the restart we see him lock up his front brakes and go in the back of Colapinto as he seems to have mistimed the track going green and due to this collision we see Colapinto get a puncture and has to go into the pits on Lap 4, Piastri is also called into the pits as he had flat spotted his tyres so had to change them.
The start was pretty hectic with incidents and the stewards were already busy as we see them note down a few things, they noted the incident between Verstappen and Piastri, the incident with Bottas and Perez, the incident with Piastri and Colapinto, and they also noted down both Zhou Guanyu and Alex Albon for potential false starts. After the investigations we see Verstappen, Bottas and Piastri all get a 10 second penalty for causing a collision, while Zhou got a 5 second penalty for a false start, Albon got away with it as it didn’t seem there was anything wrong with his start.
On Lap 7, we see Leclerc move into P7 as he overtakes Magnussen and a few laps later on lap 10 he was also past Fernando Alonso into P6 and on Lap 12 he was able to make a move round the outside of Turn 9 on Nico Hulkenberg and up into P5, Leclerc however at this point had already had 3 strikes for track limits and had to be careful not to get any more as he will be at a risk of getting a penalty. Just ahead of Leclerc, on Lap 7 we see Russell still on the back of Gasly but still unable to get past Gasly as he was defending very well. After a few more laps of defending, Alpine pull the trigger and call Gasly into the pits on Lap 15 who comes back out in 10th from 3rd behind his teammate Jack Doohan, not wanting to slow Gasly down, Doohan immediately moves out the way and let Gasly through so he can do his best to beat Haas so that Alpine stay in 6th place for the constructors championship.
Drama in Abu Dhabi: Norris Triumphs, McLaren Ends 26-Year Wait for Constructors' Glory
At the front we see Norris cruising so far with no worries whatsoever and on Lap 17 we hear his engineer come on the radio just to check on his tyres, Lando responds that he is struggling a tiny bit but was still doing ok as he was 4 seconds clear of Sainz who was running in 2nd. His teammate Leclerc was now running in 4th after Gasly went into the pits and was just about a second behind Russell about to start a charge for the podium spot. However on Lap 21, Ferrari call him into the pits and Leclerc goes from 4th to 8th who comes out right behind Gasly. On lap 23 we see both Gasly and Leclerc get past Liam Lawson and Leclerc really needed to clear Gasly quick in order to focus on his race to try and get the most points from this race. On Lap 24 he does exactly that and gets past Gasly into Turn 6 and managed to stay ahead by Turn 9.
Liam Lawson after being overtaken came into the pits on Lap 23 and it was a poor pitstop for VCARB as they leave his front left wheel loose and after a lap we see Lawson back in the pits to tighten the wheel up but this got him in hot water with the stewards as he was driving around the track in an unsafe car. The stewards decide to give him a 10 second stop & go penalty which he would need to serve within 3 laps.
On Lap 26 we see Carlos Sainz come into the pits for hards and Ferrari manage to do an impressive stop at 2.2 seconds, not wasting any time, McLaren immediately react to this stop and bring Norris in at the end of the same lap and outdone Ferrari’s stop with an impressive 2 second stop which I must say, under pressure that is super impressive for the Papaya team. That stop was super crucial for Norris as with him still leading the race, it meant that McLaren will be crowned champions at the end of the race.
Lap 27 we also see Russell pitting from 3rd and comes back out in 7th behind Gasly but with much fresher tyres to help him in the 2nd stint of the race and on the same lap he was able to clear Gasly as well. Sadly for Colapinto we see him being called in on Lap 28 to retire the car which is very sad for the Argentinian as for now this was his last F1 race with no seat next year, James Vowles is also heard coming on the radio apologising and telling him this is not how they wanted to end their last race with him. Bono is heard on the radio on Lap 29 telling Hamilton that they have a plan, and he had a potential P3 on the cards which would be mighty impressive for Hamilton as well given he started down in 16th.
On Lap 30 we see Verstappen come into the pits for new tyres and also serve his 10 second penalty who comes back out in 11th, he immediately is heard on the radio saying that they should ask for 20 seconds and also called the stewards stupid idiots which in my opinion was not on at all, I know the consistency of the stewards this season was not the best but they were doing their jobs and he was at fault for the incident with Piastri.
On Lap 31 we see a collision between Bottas and Magnussen and after a replay we see that Magnussen was able to get past Bottas coming into Turn 6, Bottas unfortunately locked up and goes right into Magnussen, Bottas had his suspension broken and managed to limp back to the pits, to retire the car, the stewards noted this incident down but not sure they could do much here as this was Bottas’s last race in F1 so not like you can penalise him in his next race.
On Lap 33 we see Piastri come in for his 2nd stop and this time serve the penalty given that the last time he had already pitted before he received the penalty, Piastri pits from 9th and comes back out in 15th with a few drivers to get past in order to get back into the points. A bit further ahead we also see Hamilton pit on Lap 35 from 3rd place and comes back on in 7th but on the medium tyres which will be the faster compound until the end of the race. On Lap 41, Hamilton was back up into P6 as he overtakes Hulkenberg and on Lap 42, he was able to get into P5 as he overtook Gasly with his teammate now ahead of him.
On Lap 44 we hear Leclerc come on to ask his team if Ferrari will lose the constructors if the race finishes as is as we had Norris still leading the perfect race followed by Sainz and Leclerc running in 3rd with 14 laps to go. Ferrari give Leclerc the bad news and tell him to keep pushing as anything can happen. McLaren nearly were about to be put under pressure by Piastri as he had a massive snap on Lap 46 as he was right on the back of Yuki Tsunoda and was lining an overtake on Turn 11 as he had a massive snap but miraculously managed to hold the car and get back racing, the team come on the radio saying that he has the pace and not to take any big risks as a Safety Car would really put a spanner in the works for Norris up front who so far drove a flawless race. On Lap 48 Piastri gets past Tsunoda at Turn 6 but Yuki comes back at him on Turn 9 and gets back ahead. On Lap 49 Piastri learned form his previous lap and waits until Turn 9 before he made a move on the outside and he was then ahead of Tsunoda into P11.
Towards the closing stages of the race we see Ferrari try to pull a dummy on McLaren and pretend that they were pitting Sainz on Lap 51 as the pit crew comes out but Sainz stays out, later round the lap we find out it wasn’t a dummy as Sainz had a fear of having a puncture as he said he ran over something. Luckily this was nothing and Sainz was able to keep going with his race. and on Lap 54 we see Piastri back in the points as he was able to get past Alex Albon into Turn 6. Not yet given up, Leclerc asks how far off Sainz is from Norris to which the team responded that he is 7.5 seconds off and he really didn’t like that as he replies by saying “F**k” as he knew that the championship fight is over unless some miracle happened.
In the closing stages of the race Hamilton was really closing in on Russell and we hear Toto on the radio with Russell telling him to keep it clean with Hamilton and on Lap 57, Hamilton was in DRS of Russell and he didn’t make his move until Lap 58 on the outside of Turn 9 which put him in P4 after he started in 16th. Liam Lawson also retired on the last lap of the race as he pulled over to the side and luckily was out of danger, so no VSC had to come out which was good for Hamilton given that he made the move on the last lap.
In the end we see Lando Norris taking the chequered flag followed by Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri form the top 10. Kevin Magnussen had the fastest lap of the race in the end and Charles Leclerc took the Driver of the day award for an impressive recovery drive from 19th and doing all he could for the team to win the constructors championship. Alpine manage to stay 6th in their fight against Haas and we see Lewis Hamilton do some doughnuts in the end as a farewell to Mercedes.
McLaren were crowned Constructors Championship Winners for the first time since 1998 and it was very well deserved as the team had one of the biggest turnarounds in the history of the sport given that in the beginning of the 2023 season, they were arguably the worst car. Today Lando Norris drove the perfect race with no mistakes and the team matched him with an impressive stop. It was just a shame that Verstappen went into Piastri on the first lap as I believe that they could have finished that race in 1st and 2nd.
Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Abu Dhabi GP? McLaren definitely the biggest winners of this race and the 2024 season, however both Leclerc and Hamilton deserve a mention for their impressive recovery drives. We will now head into the break, and we will come back for the 2025 season in March for the Australian GP in Melbourne.
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