LANDO NORRIS won the war with himself to rise to the occasion and join F1’s promised land as Britain’s 11th world champion.
For so long the Bristol-born 26-year-old’s confidence has been questioned, not just by pundits, rivals or fans – but mainly by himself.
Tonight Norris shattered the self-doubt with a fearless drive to live out his childhood dream of wearing F1’s crown.
He was told by his race engineer NOT to do donuts, but he ignored that and did exactly the opposite before lining up his car in first place with the worst parking ever.
Norris was left in tears and so was his family in the garage.
He joked “I’m not crying” after saying “I love you mum, I love you dad”.
He also shared an emotional kiss with his girlfriend Magui Corceiro, the pair embracing on his way to the podiums.
This season he has also overcome a ruthless Max Verstappen who has dominated the sport for the last three years, having been out of sight by this point in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
He also had to block out Verstappen’s mindgames at the end, his gutsy teammate Oscar Piastri throughout, while McLaren’s sainted Papaya rules often stole the show.
The boos from fans, that would previously have got under his skin, didn’t make a mark either.
Piastri looked the favourite to win the title when he snatched the championship lead from the Brit in Saudi.
But Norris went on to be crowned king in the creme de la creme of F1 races in Monaco while also standing on the top of the podium at his home race in Silverstone.
All that was left to do was to finish on the podium in Abu Dhabi, and there was nothing that Verstappen or Piastri could do to prevent him winning the title.
He did just that with a third-place finish making him Britain’s first F1 world champ since Lewis Hamilton five years ago.
But, the seven-time world champ knows all too well how it can go wrong at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Norris knew that and was absolutely bricking it before the race, as his engineers went through the game plan while he took deep breaths on the grid.
The nerves bled into the race as he played it safe as Piastri, who started in P3, made an overtake on him look easy at Turn Nine on the first lap while Verstappen soared ahead.
The Aussie steamed past the Brit and into the sunset, while plunging Norris closer to jeopardy in third.
Norris could not risk a crash and soon he had Leclerc snapping at his heels.
The Ferrari driver came within a whisker of Norris at Turn Nine as the Brit was forced to cover and stayed ahead.
Piastri was urged to pick up the pace as his race engineer told him to put pressure on Verstappen.
Norris was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 17 as he reemerged in ninth place, behind a DRS train of four cars, which was not good news for the Brit.
It didn’t take him long to dive down the inside of Italian youngster Kimi Antonelli though and his best pal Carlos Sainz.
He then produced a gut-busting move to overtake both Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson.
Norris was closing in on Tsunoda who was told to give it everything once the Brit caught him.
The Japanese driver snapped at this team, saying: “I know what to do, so leave it to me.”
When the pair did battle on lap 23, Norris snarled past Tsunoda who was waving all over the place on the straight as the McLaren nearly went off track before the incident was investigated.
Verstappen swiftly made his pit stop, reemerging around five seconds clear of Norris in second place, as Piastri took the lead.
There was no further action for Norris while Tsunoda was hit with a five-second penalty.
Piastri had to pit soon, as his tyres wore down and Verstappen hunted him like a shark.
The McLaren strategy to run the Aussie for so long has handed Verstappen a free pit stop and the chance to back up the Papaya cars.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/15603944/lando-norris-f1-title-win-abu-dhabi-grand-prix/
