F1: Lando Norris leads McLaren to first Constructor’s title in 26 years, Carlos Sainz finishes second in final race for Ferrari | Motor-sport News

An emotion-filled last race of the season came to an end as McLaren came out on top to win the 2024 Formula 1 World Constructors Championship, as Lando Norris’s dominating drive helped the team win the title after more than a quarter of a decade on Sunday at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
Norris led every lap of the race with Carlos Sainz in close pursuit for the lead, but the Spaniard could only manage P2 in his last race for Ferrari before moving to Williams. He was followed Charles Leclerc, who powered through the field to acquire the final position on the podium after starting 19th on the grid.
There was chaos right from the start of the race, as Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri collided on turn one in the first lap itself. The Dutchman received a 10 second time penalty, which he served in the pit stop, and had to settle with P6. Piastri gave McLaren a small scare as he too received a 10 second time penalty for causing a collision with Franco Colapinto, who retired the car in his last F1 race for now. But Lando did enough to hold his former teammate behind him and win the Constructors title, as Piastri finished P10.
In their last race too, Valtteri Bottas turned into Kevin Magnussen, which caused the former to retire the car, and the latter to finish his career with a P16. Sergio Perez’s potential last race for Red Bull too came to an end with him retiring the car after a small crash, as the Virtual Safety Car came on in lap 2.
Lewis Hamilton crept up behind teammate George Russell from P16, and his late overtake in the final sector of the race pushed him to P4, in what was an emotional race for the seven-time World Champion, being his last for Mercedes. Hamilton won six World Drivers Championship titles with the Silver Arrows in his tenure of 11 years with the team.
Nico Hulkenberg managed to score points for Haas in his last race for them at P8, the other two points slots being taken two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso in P9 and Alpine driver Pierre Gasly in P7.
Yuki Tsunoda of RB in P12 lost to Alex Albon in P11, while Zhou Guanyu finished his final race for Kick Sauber in P13, ahead of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin in P14. Prior to his first full season in the sport the following year, Jack Doohan’s Alpine debut finished with a P15 score.