Lando Norris won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for McLaren and with it secured the constructors’ championship for his team, their first since 1998. In a tense race in the season finale, Norris had to beat Ferrari on his own from pole after his teammate Oscar Piastri was all but removed from the fight on the first lap, hit by Max Verstappen.
The first corner was exciting, with Verstappen and Piastri coming together. After that, Norris never looked likely to crumble, even though he was under considerable pressure to deliver the constructor’s title for McLaren.
Hamilton’s late burst to overtake his teammate Russell was satisfying, and fun for Mercedes and Hamilton fans. It was a grand prix that had its moments, but overall, lacking in genuine drama. The result certainly proves (again) that Norris won’t shy away from a pressurised fight for the title next year.
And that concludes our live F1 coverage for 2024. Thanks for reading, thanks for emailing in, and see you again soon.
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Abu Dhabi GP result
1. Lando Norris (McLaren)
2. Carlos Sainz (McLaren)
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
5. George Russell (Mercedes)
6. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
7. Pierre Gasly (Alpine0
8. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
10. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
11. Alex Albon (Williams)
12. Yuki Tsunoda (RB)
13. Zhou Guanyu (Sauber)
14. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
15. Jack Doohan (Alpine)
16. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
DNF: Liam Lawson (RB)
DNF: Valtteri Bottas (Ssauber)
DNF: Franco Colapinto (Williams)
DNF: Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
“That was the worst two hours of my life,” says Brown, glass of champagne in hand. “Lando drove brilliantly … the team was flawless, pit stop was great. I think I was the only one ready to have a heart attack for two hours.
“That race, he [Lando] carried us. He drove flawlessly. Next: try and repeat constructor’s and get the drivers’.
“Lando will give it all he’s got. It will be hard to bet against him.”
Pundit Nico Rosberg says Norris is the favourite for the drivers’ title next year.
Scenes in the McLaren garage, passing the trophy around, cheering and singing.
The champagne flows on the podium after a record 24-race campaign.
“Next season cannot come soon enough,” roars the Sky presenter.
Steady on. Give us a break.
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McLaren CEO Zak Brown waves the trophy triumphantly on the podium. Behind him, a smiling Norris looks on and applauds. Down on the track, team principal Andrea Stella cheers in response. Clearly they have a great team spirit and have become greater than the sum of their parts.
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The British anthem rings out. Looks like Norris’s parents are there. “Lovely,” his mum says. It was a lovely drive for sure and under massive pressure with the title on the line.
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It’s a first win in Abu Dhabi for anyone other than Red Bull or Mercedes since Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus in 2012.
Now we hear a replay of some Mercedes team radio from just after the race:
“That was the drive of a world champion,” Wolff tells Hamilton. “Amazing.”
“It’s been a pleasure Lewis,” says Hamilton’s race engineer Pete Bonnington.
“The pleasure has been mine … we dreamed alone, but together we believed. We achieved things. Thank you for all the courage, passion and determination. For supporting me. It started out as a leap of faith – and it ended as a journey into the history books.
“From the bottom of my heart, all the best. I love you guys, I really do.
“We love you too,” says Wolff.
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McLaren’s race winner Norris speaks: “It feels incredible. Not for myself. For the whole team. They have done an incredible job … to end the season like this is perfect.
“For us to win a constructor’s after 26 years is pretty special.
“Me and Zak already said we are going to get absolutely hammered tonight.
“I’m excited. We will celebrate …
“I made my mistakes this year, but I’ve learned a lot … I’m happy now but I’m excited to get next year going.”
“Congrats to McLaren, they were rock-solid,” says Leclerc’s teammate Sainz. “From our side we did what we could.”
Leclerc: “I knew I had to be very aggressive. On lap one I had to take all the risks to get myself in position for the rest of the race … That was achieved but we were just starting a bit too far back to do more.
“It hurts because the season was so close until the end. It was a blow on Friday [in qualifying] but we did all we could.
“The team’s done a good job. Carlos and I have done a good job together.
“Of course, Lewis has achieved so much. It will be a big motivation. But for now I am thinking about the past year and what I’ve done with Carlos. We both really pushed each other … we wanted to finish with a constructor’s title … “
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Norris won by 5.8sec from Sainz.
Norris and Sainz have the customary “What was your tyre strategy?” chat on the track.
Now Zak Brown and Hamilton embrace.
“Thank you for everything, all the nice words,” Brown tells Hamilton.
“I’m so happy for you guys,” says the Briton.
Zak Brown, the McLaren CEO, is collared by Ted Kravitz as he rushes to find Norris and celebrate the constructor’s title. And of course a grand prix win.
“I love everyone in Woking! What an awesome team effort. Oh, that was stressful. Lando delivered, yes he did.”
Everyone in Woking?
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Stunning drive from Norris. When he says next year will be his year, I believe him.
“We tried our best but they had 1/10th of a second on us all weekend,” Sainz tells his team on the radio.
“Thank you Ferrari, it’s been a pleasure driving for you guys,’ says Sainz.
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“We did it mate. We did it,” Norris is told over team radio. “World champions. Well done.”
“Congrats everyone. Incredible,” says Norris. “So proud of you all and you deserve it. It’s been a special year … and next year’s going to be my year, too.”
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Top 5: Norris, Sainz, Leclerc, Hamilton, Russell.
Norris wins the Abu Dhabi GP! McLaren win the constructor's title!
There it is. The fireworks strike up … and Hamilton has overtaken his teammate Russell! He will finish fourth!
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Lap 58/58: The leader Norris starts his final lap!
Lap 56/58: Jannik Sinner is going to wave the chequered flag!
Just over a second between Hamilton and his teammate.
“Stating the obvious, keep it super-clean with Lewis,” Wolff tells Russell over the radio as the battle for fourth looms.
“Yes, sure,” replies Russell.
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Lap 55/58: Just over two seconds between Hamilton and Russell now!
Fourth place would be a hell of a drive by the Briton, having started 18th.
Lap 55/58: Out front, Norris now leads by 7.3sec. This has been a sensational drive.
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Lap 53/58: Hamilton continues to make up time and he’s 3.6sec down on Russell now.
Lap 53/58: Some ashen-faced staff visible in the Ferrari pit. It seems like Norris and team are going to deny them the constructor’s title.
Lap 52/58: ‘Presumably Russell will be told to let Hamilton through,” Brundle says on commentary. We shall see.
Lap 51/58: Hamilton, whose tyres are eight laps fresher than Russell’s, is only 6.1sec down now.
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Lap 49/58: Norris may soon be in a position to lap his teammate, Piastri, points out the commentator David Croft.
Meanwhile Piastri overtakes Tsunoda, moving up to 11th, and we’re shown a shot of some team staff back at base applauding warmly as they watch on telly.
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Lap 48/58: The gap between Hamilton and Russell is now 8.9sec.
Norris has upped his lead to 5.9sec, continuing to drive strongly.
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Lap 47/58: Hamilton overtaking Russell would be a symbolic gesture as he brings the curtain down on his time at Mercedes, anyway. Even if he can’t get a podium.
Lap 45/58: Hamilton was 1.2sec faster than Russell on the previous lap!
Third-placed Leclerc is 22sec behind his teammate Sainz. Sainz is 5sec behind the leader. The commentators fancy that Sainz pushed too hard in the early stages.
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Lap 45/58: Fifth-placed Hamilton shaves a bit of time off that gap. He’s 12.2sec down.
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Lap 44/58: Hamilton is now up to fifth! He is 13.9sec down on his teammate, Russell, who is fourth.
“What’s the gap?” Hamilton asks his team on the radio.
“You can do that,” they insist of trying to close the gap.
Lap 43/58: At the front, Norris is driving like a dream and stretches his lead to 4.9sec.
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Lap 42/58: This is Jack Doohan’s debut grand prix in the Alpine. The Australian is 14th as it stands, and may be wondering if it’s all a dream.
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Zak Brown of McLaren has a chat: “We’re happy with how it’s going, Lando is happy with his tyres … Lando is looking good.”
Lap 40/58: The gap between Russell in fourth and Gasly in fifth is 11.9sec.
That’s the main reason that a podium isn’t looking on the cards for Hamilton before he heads for Ferrari.
Lap 39/58: Magnussen sets the fastest lap.
Lap 38/58: Hamilton is seventh. Brundle observes that a podium is looking extremely unlikely. But that fifth place is more manageable.
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Lap 37/58: Norris now leads by 3.3sec. This is a strong drive by the Englishman and his team will be praying he can bring it home.
Lap 37/58: As it stands, McLaren win the constructor’s by 13 points.
Lap 36/58: Hamilton has now pitted and is down to seventh. He has Alonso and Verstappen behind him. Hamilton has medium tyres.
Lap 35/58: Nice replay of Leclerc’s start. He catapulted off the line and made up several places down the straight and into turn one. He is now running third!
So it’s McLaren, Ferrari, Ferrari in the top three as it stands.
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Lap 34/58: Norris leads by 2.3sec.
Lap 33/58: Might we see a safety car? I think Hamilton said there is a lot of debris on the track.
Lap 32/58: Bottas is out of the race after a crash with Magnussen.
Meanwhile, on his team radio, Verstappen calls the powers-that-be “stupid idiots” for giving him a 10-second penalty.
Lap 31/58: Mercedes, speaking to Hamilton on the radio, say they have a plan to secure him a third-place finish.
Lap 30/58: Lawson gets a 10-second penalty for leaving the pit with a screw loose.
(His front left tyre was not screwed in.)
Lap 29/58: Hamilton is up to fourth. He hasn’t pitted yet. Verstappen goes in now and serves his 10-second penalty while he is there. He rejoins in 11th place.
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Lap 28/58: Colapinto (Williams) retires.
“Sorry Carlos, that’s now how it was meant to be,” comes a voice on team radio. “It’s been a pleasure this year.”
Lap 28/58: Up front, Norris has 2sec on Sainz who is pushing hard from second place.
Lap 27/58: Norris pits, and it’s a textbook two-second stop that means he can re-emerge with the race lead.
Lap 26/58: That was lucky for Lawson. He left the pit stop with his left front wheel unattached, although perhaps miraculously, it stayed on.
Lap 26/58: Sainz into the pits for Ferrari and goes on to hard tyres.
Norris will pit soon, then.
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Lap 25/58: It seems like Lawson may have an issue after a pitstop, with the front left wheel not attached correctly.
“The car dropped,” he says on the radio … anyway he’s back in the pits and a penalty will follow.
Lap 24/58: The second-placed Sainz eats into Norris’s lead a little, and it’s down to 3.8sec.
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Lap 23/58: Leclerc is now eighth after his pit stop.
Lap 23/58: Norris’s lead is holding at 4sec.
Sainz, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton now make up the top five after Leclerc pitted.
Lap 21/58: “Watching F1 from Swiss SRF footage is quite refreshing and neutral,” emails Dirk. “Verstappen was beyond halfway Piastri in that first corner, shouldn’t Piastri have made the smarter choice and give room under the F1 rules?
“That was the SRF commentary at the start as well.”
The stewards disagree … and the video evidence I saw is that he wasn’t beyond halfway.
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Lap 20/58: “At the start it was two McLarens against one Ferrari. Now it’s the other way round. That will put a lot of pressure on them, and they have to get everything right from here,” observes Brundle of the constructor’s championship finale.
Lap 19/58: Piastri is now up to 13th after that penalty and his earlier spin. He is trying to get past Fernando Alonso.
Lap 19/58: Hamilton is sixth, having made up 12 places since the start. Verstappen fifth, Leclerc fourth.
Lap 17/58: Norris’s lead touches four seconds for the first time.
A few moments ago, world champion Verstappen was complaining about the tyres getting too hot in his Red Bull. “I can’t brake,” he said.
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Lap 17/58: Hamilton and Gasly are the only drivers running hard tyres in the top 10. Everyone else on mediums.
Lap 16/58: The top 10: Norris, Sainz, Russell, Leclerc, Verstappen, Hamilton, Lawson, Tsunoda, Gasly, Doohan.
Norris leads by 3.8sec.
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Lap 15/58: Lawson up to seventh in the RB!
Lap 14/58: Verstappen moves up to sixth now, overtaking Hamilton, who nevertheless has done an incredible job to get up there having started 18th.
Could Hamilton secure a podium or even better to sign off with Mercedes?
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Lap 13/58: Norris leads by 3.5sec.
Sainz, Gasly, Russell and Leclerc make up the top five.
The official timings are available here, once you get yourself a login.
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11/58: Brundle is right about Verstappen. It was a foolish, selfish move that caused both he and Piastri to spin in turn one. But then again it’s made a potential processional one-two for McLaren more exciting …
Lap 10/58: Lando Norris leads the race by 3.3sec for McLaren. With Piastri so far back, it’s all about Norris getting the win. And if he does win, it will secure the constructor’s title, no matter what Ferrari do.
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Ten-second penalty for Piastri!
The Australian is having a day of it. After the first-corner spin, he is penalised for a coming together with Franco Colapinto. Piastri is now running 17th.
“So unfair of Max,” the co-commentator Brundle says of the first-corner shunt. “Red Bull are not in the [constructor’s] championship. To put in such a risky move. Would Piastri know he was going to lunge like that? It wasn’t necessary.”
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Lap 8/58: Piastri is now under investigation for a coming together with Colapinto in the Williams.
Lap 6/58: Leclerc of Ferrari is up to seventh! He started 19th.
Ten-second penalty for Verstappen!
The Dutchman is found guilty for what looked a reckless move down the inside.
“I was all the way up,” Verstappen claims on the radio, saying he was alongside Piastri and in position to overtake.
“He wasn’t,” says Kravitz on commentary.
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Lap 5/58: Correction, they are looking at Verstappen v Piastri, and Verstappen remains a suspect.
Lap 4/58: Brundle says the stewards are looking at Piastri’s little shunt with Verstappen in case the former caused the collision. They are also looking at Bottas v Perez.
Lap 4/58: The sun is setting over Yas Marina and it’s been a thrilling start to a race that some feared would be a procession. Having said that, of course, Norris leads by nearly 3sec now having started on pole.
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Lap 3/58: Leclerc gained 11 places on the first lap! Piastri lost 16, I think they said.
Magnussen is up to seventh in the Haas.
Sergio Perez abandons
After a coming together with Bottas in the Sauber, Perez’s race – and perhaps his Red Bull career – is over.
Lap 2/58: McLaren’s Lando Norris leads the race with a 1.2sec lead as he crosses the start/finish line for the first time.
Sainz second, Gasly third.
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Lap 1/58: Piastri and Verstappen touch wheels in the first corner! They both spin! They are both still going – Verstappen went down the inside and tried to get past but there wasn’t the space, it would seem.
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All in position … and lights out!
The formation lap has begun.
The starting grid:
Norris
Piastri
Sainz
Verstappen
Gasly
Russell
Hulkenburg
Alonso
Bottas
Perez
Tsunoda
Lawson
Stroll
Magnussen
Guanyu
Hamilton
Doohan
Albon
Leclerc
Colapinto
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I think it was said on telly that something like the last nine pole-sitters have won here. Which doesn’t bode well for a tear-up.
“Let’s Abu Dhabi-do this," declares the Sky commentator, David Croft.
Get out.
Oscar Piastri of McLaren, second on the grid, speaks: “We’ll who gets a good start, and go from there.”
How aggressive is he expecting Carloz Sainz to be? “Very.”
Is this Valtteri Bottas’s final race?
“I’m not done yet,” the Sauber driver tells Brundle.
“That’s good to hear,” replies the interviewer.
Brundle then says he saw Bottas popping into the pits earlier – was he wishing his former teammate Hamilton all the best, as he departs Mercedes?
“No,” Bottas replies. “I used the toilet, actually.”
Brundle suggests to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc it might be “fun” to try and battle through the field from 19th.
“It would have been more fun in front,” says the Frenchman. “I’ll do everything I can to make the miracle happen. That’s what we need today, a miracle.”
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“It’s a dream come true … I’ve been looking for you all weekend,” the comedian Michael McIntyre tells Brundle of getting involved in the famous pre-race grid walk.
“It’s a little tense … it’s the first time I’ve really missed a [Tottenham] game [to be at this race].” (Spurs v Chelsea is at 4.30pm UK time.)
“My plan was to ignore you [Brundle], because all the cool people do. But I’ve just come over and hugged you, and it’s completely backfired.
“I’m sort of a guest of Mercedes and Red Bull … which may be a bit of a crime. I’m here to broker peace.
“It’s completely and utterly wild [on the grid] … I’m a big fan of yours,” McIntyre tells Brundle, in closing.
“Thank you, I’m a big fan of you, too,” insists Brundle.
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“I’m working really hard for it. Hopefully I will get there one day,” Felipe Drugovich, the 2022 Formula 2 champion, tells Brundle of his F1 dream.
The actor Terry Crews, smiling, speaks to Brundle on the grid: “F1 is amazing. This is my fourth race. It won’t be my last.”
“Your energy is amazing,” replies Brundle.
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Red Bull’s Christian Horner has a chat with Brundle on his team’s prospects for today. Max Verstappen has long since won the drivers’ title, of course.
“It’s a bit like a cup final for us,” says Horner. “We’ve got nothing to lose. Go for it, try to finish the season on a high note.
“They’ve got their own races to run,” he adds of McLaren and Ferrari. “They may need to be a bit conservative … There will be opportunities, and Max isn’t shy of having a go.”
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GRID WALK TIME! Let’s go, Martin.
Brad Pitt is having a chat with Ted Kravitz about the F1 film he’s been working on for the past 18 months.
“I’ve got so much respect for these guys,” Pitt says. “What the drivers can do, what the cars can do. It’s off the charts. I’ve been having the time of my life. I wish I was going another year [of filming] … I might even shed a tear, you might see a grown man cry [when it ends after the race].”
At the end of the live segment Pitt jokingly offers Kravitz a cameo in the film.
“Do you want in?” asks Pitt.
“No, I’m happy doing what I’m doing,” a bashful-looking Kravitz replies. Awkward.
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Fun fact: I rode one of Lotto Soudal’s bicycles around the Yas Marina Circuit a few years ago. So I know the racing line.
The Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, has defended his driver Max Verstappen in the world champion’s increasingly ill-tempered feud with Mercedes’ George Russell and dismissed their very public falling-out as part of an end-of-year “pantomime season” before this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Well done if you spotted me mixing up Mercedes and McLaren down there. Silly me.
I didn’t get any emails about it yet, but it’s not too late.
All F1-related emails will be considered for publication.
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“Those cars are so fast today. You don’t see it on telly,” Mercedes’s Toto Wolff tells Brundle, in a live interview from the pit lane in Abu Dhabi.
“Lewis was super quick [in qualifying]. We got it wrong. We should have sent him out earlier … and then the bollard. He was quick in P3, he could have been on the front.”
On this being Hamilton’s final race with Mercedes: “It’s high emotions. It’s compartmentalised now. But in two hours, it will be hard.
“If we can’t win, we will cheer for him.”
And on the relative lack of success in recent seasons: “You need to see all the great successes we had … there is no longer, more successful team and driver relationship. This is what we need to celebrate and look back to.
“I would love it if he came through the pack today. That is why I was so upset yesterday [with the qualifying], I wanted to give him a send-off with a podium.”
This is a cool feature from Sky. Brundle chasing Hamilton around Silverstone, both driving Mercedes.
“Look at the speed! Look at the confidence,” Brundle says of the way Hamilton is handling his car.
“I really didn’t want to come in. That was mega,” says Hamilton.
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To mark Hamilton’s departure, Martin Brundle has been out driving the Mercedes, with Lewis on hand to give him some tips. Apparently Brundle has driven 70 different cars across his own racing career plus 28 years in broadcasting.
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Bidding farewell with a flourish was the optimistic hope for Lewis Hamilton as he entered his final meeting with Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but even fortune, it seems, would not favour the British driver for his swansong where he finished 18th in qualifying.
Preamble
Max Verstappen has already wrapped up his fourth title, the drivers are falling out with each other, and the teams are annoyed with the FIA. Business as usual in Formula One, but today’s season-concluding race still comes loaded with potential drama.
McLaren are well placed to seal their first constructor’s championship since 1998, with Lando Norris in pole position, and his teammate Oscar Piastri second. Ferrari are second in the standings, 21 points down, but Charles Leclerc languishes in 19th on the Yas Marina grid after a 10-place penalty for taking a new battery unit, plus the deletion of his final quick lap in qualifying for exceeding track limits. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz tucks in behind the McLarens in third on the grid, but the Scuderia face what looks an almost impossible task.
In addition to the constructor’s title denouement this will be a poignant occasion for British fans, it being Lewis Hamilton’s final race for Mercedes. The singularly talented seven-times world champion will join Ferrari next year, but after what Toto Wolff called an ‘idiotic’ mistake by the team in qualifying, he starts in 18th place. It will be an emotional day for Hamilton and his team as they rightfully honour their past glories, while McLaren attempt to wrap up that constructors’ crown.
Lights out: 1pm UK time.
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