Author: Giles Richards

• Hamilton admits ‘turbulent year’ was a challenging one
• Lando Norris feels ‘incredibly proud’ of win for McLaren

Lewis Hamilton described his time with Mercedes as the greatest honour of his life after the seven-time champion bowed out with his final race for the team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After a superlative drive at the Yas Marina circuit, Hamilton also admitted that, after a difficult year, it was good to bid farewell on a high.

Hamilton drove from 16th to fourth in Abu Dhabi, another mighty performance to sit alongside what has been an unmatched partnership of success with Mercedes since he joined the team in 2013. He has taken six titles with them and 84 wins over those 12 seasons and at his last race before he joins Ferrari next year, he took a moment to contemplate it all at the close when he was given a special place to park on the start-finish straight alongside the top three, where he knelt beside his car.

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• Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri collide on first lap
• McLaren now have nine constructors’ championships

The wait has been long and ­torturous for McLaren but by the close of a victory for Lando Norris at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix it was worth it as the team celebrated their first Formula One constructors’ championship for 26 years – opening perhaps a new era for the team, just as another came to an end for Lewis Hamilton.

The emotional import of the moment was writ large at McLaren but no less for a visibly moved ­Hamilton, who brought his career at Mercedes to an end with an exceptional comeback drive from 16th to fourth, bowing out with the same determined panache that has secured him unprecedented success with the team.

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• Hamilton 18th in qualifying thanks to dislodged bollard
• Mercedes’ Toto Wolff apologises for ‘idiotic mistake’

Bidding farewell with a flourish was the optimistic hope for Lewis Hamilton as he entered his final meeting with Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but even fortune, it seems, would not favour the British driver for his swansong where he finished 18th in qualifying.

His final hot lap was scuppered by the poorest of luck as he picked up a stray bollard dislodged by Kevin Magnussen, condemning his finale to probably be something of a slog from the lower reaches of the grid.

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• Mercedes driver said world champion threatened him
• Red Bull principal also responds to Toto Wolff ‘terrier’ dig

The Red Bull team principal, ­Christian Horner, has defended his driver Max Verstappen in the world champion’s increasingly ill-tempered feud with Mercedes’ George ­Russell and ­dismissed their very public falling-out as part of an end-of-year ­“pantomime season” before this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Verstappen has already been crowned drivers’ champion, a ­success overshadowed at this finale by the spat he is now embroiled in with Russell. Their ­altercation ramped up in Abu Dhabi when the British driver accused Verstappen of threatening to put him “on your fucking head in the wall” and that it was time someone stood up to the Dutchman’s bullying. Verstappen has denied making the threat.

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• British driver sanctioned at Sunday’s Grand Prix
• McLaren chief says rulebook ‘must have dust on cover’

Formula One teams are demanding more from the sport’s governing body after controversy over decisions at the Qatar Grand Prix which have caused criticism within the sport and prompted McLaren to call for a review into the penalty imposed on Lando Norris.

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, described the governance of the FIA as turning into a reality show and the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, suggested it was choosing how to apply its regulations on the hoof.

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• Verstappen: ‘For me, I lost all respect … I can’t stand that’
• Red Bull driver wins race after incident in qualifying

Max Verstappen issued a blunt condemna­tion of his fellow driver George Russell stating he had “lost all respect” for him after the pair were involved in an incident during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix. Verstappen con­sidered that Russell had tried to “screw me over” with the stewards and the pair exchanged words about it before the race at the Lusail circuit on Sunday.

Verstappen won the race in Qatar but afterwards his anger with ­Russell was direct. After qualifying ­Verstappen had been penalised for driving unnecessarily slowly and impeding Russell. Both drivers had been summoned to the stewards to give their sides of the incident and Russell’s behaviour had left ­Verstappen incensed.

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• Leclerc second, Piastri third as Norris finishes 10th
• Race director failed to remove debris from track

Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix for Red Bull with a commanding drive in a race notable for the controversy caused when the new FIA race director failed to deal with debris on track that gave two cars punctures. Charles Leclerc was second for Ferrari and Oscar Piastri third, while his McLaren teammate Lando Norris endured a torrid afternoon, relegated from second to the back of the grid for failing to slow under yellow flags, he came back to finish 10th.

The race had been very much a procession for the first half with Verstappen leading from Norris, the top ten largely circling line astern from one another a laborious exercise in tyre management.

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• Champion penalised for ‘go slow’; George Russell on pole
• McLaren closing on team title after drought of 26 years

Max Verstappen endured exhilaration and then disappointment in qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, where he took pole position against the odds, his first since Austria in June, only to lose it more than three hours later. With the stewards having taken an exceedingly long look at an incident where he blocked Mercedes’ George Russell, they finally penalised the world champion by one grid place, promoting Russell to pole.

Verstappen appeared determined to close the season hard, having sealed his fourth title at the last round in Las Vegas but his superb lap in qualifying came to naught after a painfully long investigation.

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• World champion says he will maintain ruthless style
• Lando Norris takes pole for Saturday’s sprint race

Max Verstappen has defiantly dismissed criticism of his driving in the aftermath of winning his fourth Formula One world title in Las Vegas last weekend.

Speaking before this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate round, the Red Bull driver bullishly insisted he would not change his ruthless style, which has been both penalised and criticised.

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• Long-time steward Tim Mayer says he was sacked by text
• Reveals meddling by president Mohammed ben Sulayem

The recently sacked FIA race steward Tim Mayer has delivered a stinging rebuke to Formula One’s governing body and the management of its president Mohammed ben Sulayem, with the FIA once again left reeling in the face of very public criticism.

Mayer, a race steward for 15 years, told the BBC in an interview he was sacked by text message on Tuesday and stated Ben Sulayem had involved himself in the decision-making process of the stewards, who are supposed to be independent.

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At times the world champion ground it out on will alone but an unforgettable drive in Brazil turned things back his way

Max Verstappen was clear all season he wanted to win the Formula One world title with a dominant car, just as he had the previous two years. Much as he might have enjoyed more of a canter, the fight for his fourth title, secured in Las Vegas, was not only far greater sport but also showed how complete a driver he has matured into.

Beating him in future is going to be a fearsome task, as his title rival Lando Norris acknowledged.

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• Niels Wittich leaves role with three Grands Prix left
• Follows string of exits of senior FIA officials in recent months

The Formula One race director, Niels Wittich, has stepped down from his post with immediate effect in an unexpected decision announced by the FIA on Tuesday. He will be replaced by Rui Marques, who was previously the race director for Formula Two and Formula Three. Wittich’s departure came as a surprise to F1 and is highly unusual in its timing given there are three races of the 2024 season remaining.

Wittich has made no comment on why he has stepped down during the season, but he is the latest senior FIA officials to leave. In the past 12 months the chief executive, Natalie Robyn, moved on after 18 months in post, as have the sporting director, Steve Nielsen, the technical director, Tim Goss, and the head of the FIA commission for women, Deborah Mayer, in what has been a period of turbulence for the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

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• All 20 drivers hit out after recent swearing punishments
• Verstappen and Leclerc both received sanctions from FIA

Formula One drivers have demanded the FIA stops treating them like children in a damning indictment of the governing body’s policies and its president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

The Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), which represents F1 drivers, issued a strongly worded and highly critical statement on Thursday, addressing the recent controversy over ­swearing. It took issue with the “tone and ­language” used by Ben Sulayem and questioned the financial transparency of the FIA, in a highly unusual and very public critique which puts the FIA in a difficult position.

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Dutchman produced a display in Brazil that all but sealed the title and brought to mind the greats of old

In the wake of Max Verstappen’s victory at the São Paulo Grand Prix from 17th place on Sunday, superlatives lay strewn at his feet like so many battle banners of conquest. These were accolades earned with a performance in the rain that stands as one of the best of his career and worthy of recognition in the pantheon of Formula One’s wet weather drives.

Before the race at Interlagos, damage limitation had been perhaps the best expectation but when the flag fell with Verstappen in front and his title rival, Lando Norris, in sixth, he had not only taken a famous victory but also just about sealed the world championship.

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• ‘I don’t see any British press,’ defending champion notes
• McLaren’s Andrea Stella prioritises constructors’ title

Max Verstappen sniped at criticism from British media pundits after putting himself on the cusp of his fourth consecutive world championship title with a masterclass to win the São Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Dutchman came back from 17th on the grid to take victory at Interlagos, while his title rival Lando Norris fell back from pole to finish sixth. The British driver had trailed by 44 points but is now 62 behind, with 86 remaining on the table. If Verstappen is 60 ahead after the next round in Las Vegas, then the Red Bull driver will be champion.

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