Sweeping across the Gulf to Abu Dhabi, host of Formula One’s season finale for 12 consecutive years, Lando Norris really should be home and dry by now. Without those Las Vegas disqualifications a fortnight ago, Max Verstappen would be out of the running. Without last week’s mistakes in Qatar, McLaren could rest easy in the knowledge that the drivers’ champion would, at the very least, be donning papaya colours. Yet here we are; on we go.
This weekend’s three-way fight in the desert is the first F1 championship decider involving more than two drivers for 15 years. Back then, a four-way hammer-and-tong concluded with a surprise champion at the chequered flag: Sebastian Vettel’s first of four triumphs, and other shock winners before him on the final day, are telling case studies for Sunday’s final curtain call.
