&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Lando Norris crowned champion despite Max Verstappen's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix win")
Lando Norris claimed his first Formula One world championship on Sunday (Dec 7) in Abu Dhabi, ending Max Verstappen’s four-year run at the top. Norris finished the final race in third place, behind race winner Max Verstappen and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, and claimed the crown by two points. With this win, he becomes Britain's first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020 with this 13th drivers' crown for McLaren.
Norris, in tears on the team radio, said: "Thanks so much. I love you mum, I love you dad."
"That was exciting, a little too exciting, awesome," said McLaren team principal Zak Brown.
McLaren had Norris on their books for two years before fast-tracking him into the big time following a runner-up finish to George Russell in the 2018 Formula Two feeder championship.
Paired with Carlos Sainz he narrowly missed out on a top 10 finish in his impressive rookie campaign, notably edging his more experienced teammate in their head-to-head qualifying battle.
He made his first podium appearance in 2020 and narrowly missed out on a maiden win in Russia in 2021 when he dominated another more senior teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
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His breakthrough win arrived last year in Miami - three more were to follow - as he emerged as Verstappen's biggest challenger and led McLaren to their first constructor's title since 1998.
The 26-year-old's success comes over half a century after Emerson Fittipaldi claimed the British marque's first drivers' 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), Mikka Hakkinen (1998, 1999) and Hamilton in 2008.
McLaren, headed by team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Brown, secured back-to-back constructors' titles in Singapore last month.
Sunday's season-closer was the first time the title was decided by a contest involving more than two drivers since a four-way scrap at the final race in Abu Dhabi in 2010.
With inputs from agencies