McLaren’s Lando in tears after winning maiden title by edging out Red Bull’s Verstappen by two points; feels proud to bring glory to team after seven seasons with them
Norris holds the F1 world champion’s trophy in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Pics/Getty Images
A tearful Lando Norris claimed his maiden Formula One world drivers’s championship title in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, ending Max Verstappen’s four-year reign.
The Briton finished third in the season-ended behind Red Bull’s race winner Verstappen and the other title challenger, McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, to claim the crown by two points.
After crossing the line his team engineer told him: “That’s it mate, you are world champion, world champion!” “Thank you guys, you made a kid’s dream come true,” he replied, before adding at the post-race media interaction, “I haven’t cried in a while, I didn’t think I would cry, but I did. [Winning the title] feels amazing, I know now what Max feels like a little bit. I want to congratulate both Max and Oscar, I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve been at McLaren for seven years – plenty of crazy, difficult times, plenty of good times. I’m proud to bring them a world title”
Lando Norris is cheered on by the McLaren crew as he takes the chequered flag
McLaren, headed by team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Brown, secured back-to-back constructors’s titles in Singapore last month.
Norris becomes Britain’s first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020 with this 13th drivers’s crown for McLaren. Interestingly, Hamilton was also the last McLaren driver to win the title in 2008.
Norris’s success comes over half a century after Emerson Fittipaldi claimed the British marque’s first drivers’s title in 1974. A galaxy of F1 greats followed — James Hunt (1976), Niki Lauda (1984), Alain Prost (1985, 1986, 1989), Ayrton Senna (1988, 1990, 1991), Mika Hakkinen (1998, 1999) and Hamilton in 2008. Piastri, who had led the championship for much of the season before being overtaken by Norris in Mexico, finished third in the standings. Sunday’s race was the first time the title was decided by a contest involving more than two drivers since a four-way scrap in 2010.
17
No. of years since a McLaren driver last won the F1 championship
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