FORMULA 1
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 Credit: Brynn Lennon British superstar Lando Norris won the season finale Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for his fourth career victory, as McLaren won their first Constructors Championship since 1998 - 26 years ago. Norris led from pole to flag and dominated at the Yas Marina Circuit and won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time in his career for his fourth of the season and only his fourth in his career. He led every single lap in what can be seen as a perfect Grand Prix. The McLaren driver was left to fend for his own after Oscar Piastri was tagged round by Max Verstappen at the very start of the Grand Prix, an incident that would result in the 2024 champion being penalised. Norris and Piastri were not even born in 1998 which was the last time that McLaren won the Constructors Championship. Norris took the victory ahead of both Ferrari drivers with Carlos Sainz in second and Charles Leclerc completing the podium from 19th on the grid finished in third in a stellar drive. Leclerc would be deserving of his driver of the day award. Lewis Hamilton would finish fourth in an emotional last Grand Prix for Mercedes ahead of his teammate George Russell. Some donuts post-race rounded off a truly sensational tenure with the silver arrows. Background to the season finaleAfter 23 rounds circling the globe and visiting 21 different countries in the process, it was time to visit the 22nd country of the season for the 24th and final round of the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship - the longest season in history. Arriving at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, there would be 58 more laps of the season remaining with the 20 drivers looking to end on a high what had been a long and enthralling season. There would also be seven drivers departing their teams at the end of the race, so emotions were bound to be apparent. Haas and Kick Sauber would be saying goodbye to their drivers. Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen would end their two-year partnership together with Hulkenberg going to Sauber-Audi and Magnussen going to BMW for next year's World Endurance Championship (WEC). As for Sauber, both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu would be leaving the team without a seat for 2025. Both drivers have been rumoured and linked with reserve driver roles somewhere in Formula 1. Carlos Sainz would be bowing out of Ferrari following four seasons partnering Charles Leclerc. He would end up being replaced by Lewis Hamilton, who would be leaving Mercedes after over a decade and six drivers' championships with the team. A true end of an era. Franco Colapinto would also be ending his short stint at Williams with no seat on the grid for 2025. It would also be a race with a lot of pressure riding on it in terms of the Constructors Championship, which had to be settled under the night skies and track lights of the Yas Marina Circuit. McLaren would go into the event with a 21-point lead over Ferrari at the top of the championship and with the qualifying McLaren could be set to take their first Constructors Championship title since 1998. The Papaya liveried McLaren team would be on the front row as they locked it out on qualifying on Saturday. Lando Norris would be on pole ahead of Oscar Piastri. As for Ferrari, Carlos Sainz would qualify third whereas Charles Leclerc would start 19th after taking a 10-place penalty for an energy store change as well as being knocked out in Q2. Max Verstappen would start on the second row after being promoted due to a three-place penalty coming in for Nico Hulkenberg. The 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: How the events unfoldedThere would be drama before the race as Liam Lawson reported Kevin Magnussen for a potential practice start in the pit lane and he would be investigated after the Grand Prix had concluded. The formation lap would begin and the drivers would parade round the circuit to warm up tyres and brakes ahead of the final Grand Prix of the season. It would be set to be an emotional Grand Prix for many but for the final time in 2024 it was time to go racing. Five lights would go out and the race would be underway as there would be drama from the very start of the race. Oscar Piastri would be tagged around by Max Verstappen and both would suffer from it. Piastri would drop down to the back of the order. Lando Norris would lead from Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly while drama further back would see Sergio Perez tagged round by Valtteri Bottas. Perez would have extensive damage and he would come to a stop in sector 3. The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) would be deployed following on from this. The penalty for the collisions at the start would be a 10-second time penalty each for Verstappen and Bottas as they were deemed to be at fault for the collisions. Piastri would also receive a penalty for causing his own collision with Franco Colapinto that would give Colapinto a puncture and he would be forced to stop. Lap three and the VSC would be withdrawn and the race would be back underway as third place Pierre Gasly would have to do some defending from George Russell and he would do just that. Starting from 19th on the grid Charles Leclerc would have a fantastic start and by the end of the first lap he would be up to eighth. At the restart of the VSC, he would be soon ahead of Kevin Magnussen and up into seventh place. This progress would continue onto lap 10 as Leclerc would then get ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso for sixth place. His Ferrari on the medium compound of tyres was showing electrifying pace. Zhou Guanyu and Alex Albon would be noted for false starts on the grid. Albon would be cleared of any wrongdoing while Zhou would be handed a five-second time penalty for his infringement. Track limits had been an issue for drivers all weekend and Lance Stroll in the first quarter of the race would receive a black and white flag. if he was to exceed the track limits once more. Many battles would be happening throughout the field with Leclerc continuing his progress but would be struggling to make further overtakes as he was stuck behind the Mercedes of George Russell. Leclerc would be the first driver of the front runners to come into the pit lane and that would be on lap 21 in a truly fantastic stint from the Monegasque. He would be on fresher tyres and so would the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and almost immediately the two would be on the gearbox of Liam Lawson. Leclerc would then pass Gasly a few laps later and would progress back up to sixth place. His pace was fast in this Grand Prix. If his qualifying would have been better, who knows what it might have been for Ferrari. Leclerc would have had to take a 10-place penalty anyway for an energy store change. Sainz pitted on lap 26 in an attempt to undercut Norris in the other Ferrari car, as Ferrari were trying everything they could to take the title in the most unlikely of circumstances. However, McLaren would cover it on the following lap and Norris would rejoin in the lead, which showed how quick his race pace was. Following contact earlier in the race with Piastri and a few mechanical problems, Williams' Franco Colapinto would pull into the pit lane to retire the car in his last race in Formula 1 in the near future and James Vowles would be appreciative of the Argentine's efforts in the second half of the campaign. Liam Lawson would have a pit stop prior to the retirement of Colapinto but one of the tyres would not be attached properly and therefore he would have to stop again. On lap 30, the Stewards took a dim view of Visa RB releasing him in that condition and gave Lawson a 10-second stop/go penalty. A nightmare at the end of the season for Lawson, with his 2025 destination unconfirmed in Formula 1. He had impressed in large areas so he would have reason to be hopeful but his final race in Abu Dhabi would end his chances of points in the season finale. Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen would be participating in their final Formula 1 races for the near future as both would be off the grid for 2025. However, the pair would collide into turn six in a disaster for the pair of them, which would ruin both of their races. Bottas would pick up front wing damage, a puncture and suspension damage. He would make it back to the pit lane but would be out of his final Grand Prix with Sauber. A disappointing end for such a well-respected guy in the paddock. Magnussen would pit for repairs and would put on fresh soft tyres and would be showing phenomenal pace to be setting fastest laps of the race in repeated fashion. Incredible pace from a Haas that looked so speedy over one lap throughout the weekend. Hamilton would soon be in for his pit stop and upon exit and after defending from Fernando Alonso and Verstappen he would set his sights on progressing through the field. The seven-time world champion's pace soon became apparent and before long he was passing Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly and he would be up to fifth and now had a 16-second gap to bring down to teammate George Russell who was fourth. Verstappen would also be on reasonably fresh tyres as he made his way up to sixth after getting ahead of Alonso, Hulkenberg and Gasly. Norris, Sainz, Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton and Verstappen would be the top six heading into the final 10 laps of the Grand Prix. Hamilton would catch Russell by the last lap and would make the move around the outside of turn nine and the Mercedes drivers would swap positions with Hamilton in fourth and Russell down to fifth. Out front though, history was about to be made as Lando Norris who was not born when McLaren last won a Constructors Championship in 1998, but now he was dominating the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a race that would see the Papaya team take the crown. It would be present no more as he would take the chequered flag first and Norris would take victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to seal the 2024 Constructors Championship for McLaren. Carlos Sainz would finish second for Ferrari in a double podium for the Scuderia. Charles Leclerc would complete an incredible drive to finish third from 19th on the grid. Behind them would be Lewis Hamilton in fourth. Car number 44th would finish fourth in his final race for Mercedes, a team that he has won so much with and a manufacturer of engine that has seen him win seven world titles and 105 Formula 1 Grand Prix. Russell would complete the top five. Verstappen would recover to sixth after the collision at the start that he was penalised for. Pierre Gasly would be seventh for Alpine to secure sixth place in the Constructors Championship ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in eighth. Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri would complete the top 10. A season that eventually concludes that has created a lot of historyAfter 24 Grand Prix, six sprint races and 22 countries visited, the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship will go down in history as one that produced so much when so little was expected heading int the first round in Bahrain. There have been so many news stories in a giant whirlwind of conversation that has produced so much gossip, controversy and fantasy-like headlines. The origin of all the whirlwind was the news that Ferrari had signed Lewis Hamilton and that statistically the greatest driver of all time in terms of race victories would leave Mercedes - a team he would have spent 12 years with as the season concluded in Abu Dhabi. This would leave Carlos Sainz without a seat and a whole five-month saga evolved with many debating could he join the Audi project but no he chose Williams. Daniel Ricciardo, Logan Sargeant and Esteban Ocon would be three drivers who would not see out the full season out of those who started in the opening round in Bahrain, back in February. Only Ocon has a full-time seat in 2025. On track, at the top, Max Verstappen was not advocated from his throne by the challenges of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc - those who got closest but ultimately unsuccessful. His start of the season form, when he had the car, made sure he made it count when he had clearly the best car. While questions will be asked at Red Bull about how their performance just evaporated, almost in sequence with Adrian Newey's departure around the Miami Grand Prix in May, Ma Verstappen showed his talent with some key moments and key high-placed finishes while Sergio Perez, his teammate drowned. For a championship fight that was closing between he and Norris, Verstappen shone with a delightful drive in Brazil. A drive that was arguably his best ever and also one of the best wet drives in Formula One history as he won from 17th on the grid. With how close the season was, no one could have imagined certainly prior to Brazil taht the title would be wrapped up with two rounds to go but sure enough in Las Vegas, he would clinch his fourth world championship. Only three drivers in Formula One history have achieved more titles - Juan Manuel Fangio (five), Michael Schumacher & Lewis Hamilton (seven). However, while Verstappen was able to take the drivers, his team Red Bull were engulfed in the Constructors Championship and the reigning champions would slump to third - making Verstappen the first driver in over 40 years to win the championship with a team that finished third or lower in the Constructors Championship. Instead the battle would be between McLaren and Ferrari heading into a final round showdown that would be considered retro and back to the 1990s - a reminiscing of the Ayrton Senna vs Alain Prost and the James Hunt vs Nikki Lauda battles. A battle that was more focused on the teams than the drivers. Mutual respect by pit crews after the chequered flag showed that this rivalry will remain classy into the future and that as two of the most iconic teams in the history of Formula One they have great respect for one another even whilst competing. McLaren though have achieved something that the last time they did, neither Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were born. It would seem something really peculiar to have neither driver been born for the last time their achievement had been reached but in fact it wasn't all that peculiar at all, it's winning the Constructors title. 1998 was the last time McLaren won a Constructors title which seems a quite unbelievable drought for a team like this but it is a drought no more and both drivers played their part in what was a phenomenal Papaya campaign and Zak Brown and Andrea Stella have changed the shape of McLaren and now they look like a challenger for titles once again. Their two drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both working together as a team and winning Grand Prix for the first time in their careers. It has been a season of history with so many records and memorable moments. Seven different drivers have taken victory throughout the course of 2024 and all have won multiple Grand Prix in the same season. This would be the first time ever in the history of the Formula One World Championship this would occur. Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri all being part of history. Charles Leclerc became the first ever Monegasque to win the infamous Monaco Grand Prix in 93 years. Lewis Hamilton won his final British Grand Prix with Mercedes as he bids farewell after an unforgettable period in a truly iconic set of pictures. Oliver Bearman, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Jack Doohan, Gabriel Bortoleto will all become full time Formula 1 drivers with Bearman, Antonelli and Bortoleto all graduating out of the Formula 2 class of 2024 with Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar potentially to race next year too with the uncertain future of Sergio Perez. Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton will all move teams while Kevin Magnussen, Franco Colapinto, Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas will all move on to new adventures and all the best wishes are fully deserved upon them. In a season full of unexpected drama, wholesome moments, maiden wins and so much entertainment, 2025 promises to be a fantastic season of action. From everyone at F1 Journal, thank you for following our racing action in 2024. Pre-season testing will take place in Bahrain, in late February, before Australia returns as the season opener at Albert Park in March 2025. 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship: Round 24 - Abu Dhabi Grand Prix provisional classification
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal
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