Lando Norris secured McLaren’s first Formula 1 constructors’ championship for 26 years with victory in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Norris led from start to finish and his fourth win of the season was enough to seal the championship by 14 points, despite Ferrari finishing second and third with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc’s brilliant drive after starting 19th on the grid kept the tension high – had anything happened to Norris’ car, Ferrari would have clinched the title.

Lewis Hamilton took fourth place in his final race for Mercedes, passing team-mate George Russell with six corners of the race to go.

Hamilton did doughnuts on the pit straight after crossing the line and then took a few moments with his car, collecting his thoughts, before congratulating Norris and McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown and consoling Sainz and Leclerc.

The anxiety for McLaren started at the first corner when Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri, who had qualified second to the Briton, was tapped into a spin by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The world champion was given a 10-second penalty for causing the incident.

That put Piastri to the back of the field and left McLaren’s hopes hanging on Norris.

Leclerc increased McLaren’s nerves with a stunning first lap, in which he gained a remarkable 11 places, including passing five cars in one go approaching the chicane at Turns Six and Seven.

Leclerc’s climb continued, as he passed the Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, and then after his pit stop on lap 20 Pierre Gasly’s Alpine. He took third when the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen pitted out of his way.

Sitting in third behind Norris and Sainz in the final 15 laps, Leclerc asked if “like this we lose the constructors'” and was told, yes, but the race was not over.

But Norris and McLaren had everything under control and he crossed the line six seconds ahead of Sainz to end a long and painful period without a title.