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Entering into the last race– worth 25 points for a win– Norris was on 408, Verstappen on 396, and Piastri on 392 points. A podium surface was all Norris required to seal the champion. If Verstappen won and Norris came 4th or even worse, the Dutch motorist would declare his 5th champion. Piastri, for a long period of time the title leader, had the hardest job of all– absolutely nothing less than a win, and some misery for the other 2, would do.
Sometimes, the orange automobiles have actually made their life more difficult than it required to be.
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Qualifying went Verstappen’s method, with Norris a couple of hundredths of a 2nd faster than Piasrtri for 2nd and 3rd. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and the Mercedes of George Russell might have made complex things by placing themselves in between our 3 lead characters however lost.
The special day
Come race day, Verstappen made an okay start, safeguarded his position, then got his head down and drove to the checkered flag. The Yas Marina circuit, which is supposedly the most pricey race course ever produced, had actually some corners reprofiled in 2021 to enhance the racing, so the sort of “sluggish your competitor down and back them into the chasing pack” video games that Lewis Hamilton attempted to have fun with Nico Rosberg in 2016 no longer work.
Verstappen was pursued by Piastri, who saw a possibility to pass Norris on lap 1 and took it. For his part, Norris let him go, then provided his group some cause for panic by letting Leclerc’s Ferrari near within a 2nd before revealing more speed. An early rest stop suggested Norris needed to do some surpassing on track. Which he did decisively, a far cry from the more shy motorist we saw sometimes previously this year.
With 8 wins this year, Verstappen has actually remained in incredible kind. That makes Norris’accomplishment much more remarkable.
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Verstappen’s colleague, Yuki Tsunoda, remained in among the vehicles he required to pass. Promoted from the junior Racing Bulls team after simply 2 races this season, Tsunoda has had the generally torrid time of Red Bull’s 2nd chauffeur, and Abu Dhabi was to be his last race for the group after scoring less than a tenth as numerous points as Verstappen. Tsunoda attempted to hold up Norris and ran him to the far edge of the track however got a five-second charge for swerving while doing so.
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