Tonight, Abu Dhabi supplied the proper showcase for the top of the 2024 season in a race that had loads of pleasure from begin to end and even after the flag.
Lando Norris took the win for McLaren, main from lights out to the chequered flag, which was waved by the primary ranked tennis participant on the earth, Jannik Sinner. Additionally on the rostrum have been the 2 Ferrari drivers, Carlos Sainz second forward of Charles Leclerc, whereas the winner’s team-mate Oscar Piastri completed tenth. The consequence sees McLaren take the Constructors’ World Championship title, its ninth, which thus places it second equal with Williams on the checklist of all time winners, behind Ferrari on 16. For the Woking-based squad it was their first title since 1998, even earlier than Piastri and Norris have been born!
For Norris it was profession win quantity 4, whereas it’s McLaren’s 189th from 970 Grands Prix entered. Piastri prevented being lapped by his team-mate and is thus the one driver this season to have accomplished 100% of the overall laps (1444) and kilometres (7314) of the 24 Grands Prix this season.
Ferrari completed second within the Constructors’ championship, with probably the most podium finishes (22) of the season, forward of McLaren and Purple Bull with 21 apiece.
Kevin Magnussen, who drove his final System 1 race as we speak, set the quickest lap, the third time he has performed so, following on from Singapore 2018 and 2019, all on the wheel of a Haas.
Purple Bull completed the season third within the Constructors’ standings. It’s the first time since 1983 that the group that took the Drivers’ title completed outdoors the highest two within the Constructors’: on that event, Nelson Piquet was champion and his Brabham group completed third.
On the beginning grid, 19 of the 20 drivers have been on the Medium with solely Hamilton choosing the Arduous. The one-stop technique proved to be quickest: of the highest ten finishers, solely Fernando Alonso (eighth for Aston Martin) made a two-stop work. Piastri additionally pitted twice however that was on account of a collision with Verstappen on the first nook on the opening lap.
The longest stint total was delivered by two specialists on this discipline, particularly Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg, who did 45 laps on a set of Hards. As for the Medium, the prize goes to Max Verstappen, who cut up his race precisely in two, doing 29 laps on the C4 adopted by the identical quantity on the C3.
The C5’s look within the race got here courtesy of Magnussen, who clearly solely fitted it with a view to set the quickest race lap, which he did each on his first set, used for a complete of 25 laps after which on the second, fitted only for the final two laps.
Mario Isola: “At first, congratulations to McLaren on profitable the Constructors’ title and properly performed too to Ferrari for having pushed all of them the best way to the very finish, which made for a really thrilling finale, filled with suspense to actually entertain the followers.
“It was the easiest way attainable to finish a really busy season, the longest ever in System 1 historical past. For our half, we imagine we met the expectations of the groups and the opposite main gamers on this sport, the FIA and System 1, who’re our most necessary “prospects”. We did it by offering a dependable and high-performance product, which additionally delivered the specified impact of unpredictable racing. In actual fact, it is no coincidence that this season has been. Properly balanced between races the place a one-stop technique labored finest and people the place a two-stop was simpler, thus assembly the aims we had been set.
“As for as we speak’s race, we noticed much less graining than throughout Friday free observe, and even then it had little affect on efficiency. Degradation was additionally very restricted, a lot in order that the one-stop was clearly the simplest technique, even with many alternative divisions of stint lengths. Verstappen for instance stopped at precisely half-distance, whereas others like Gasly and Hulkenberg stopped very early after which managed to complete within the factors. We nonetheless have yet another job to finish this 12 months. This coming Tuesday, we will probably be again on monitor right here at Yas Marina for an important collective check. All of the groups will have the ability to consider 5 of the six compounds homologated for 2025, the exception being the C1 which isn’t suited to this monitor. Moreover, we will probably be supplying 2024 tyres for the same old rookie finish of season check.”
