What emotional Lando Norris said after becoming F1 world champion
Lando Norris reacts to becoming F1 world champion for the time.
An emotional Lando Norris was fighting back the tears after becoming F1 world champion for the first time.
Norris won his first F1 drivers’ world championship by finishing third in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The 26-year-old Briton won the title by two points from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who claimed his eighth victory of the season at Yas Marina, but ultimately fell short of becoming a five-time world champion.
Norris’s McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, the other world championship contender, finished second.
"I've not cried in a while! I didn't think I would cry but I did!” Norris said immediately after the race.
"It's a long journey. First of all, I want to say a big thanks to my guys, everyone at McLaren, my parents - my mum, my dad - they are the ones who have supported me since the beginning.
"It feels amazing. I now know what Max feels like a little bit! I want to congratulate Max and Oscar, my two biggest competitors the whole season. It's been a pleasure to race against both of them. It's been an honour, I've learned a lot from both.
"I've enjoyed it. It's been a long year. We did it and I'm so proud for everyone.”
Norris added: "It's been a long journey with me and McLaren. I've been with them for nine years.
"We have been through plenty of crazy difficult times and crazy good times. For me to give something back to them, I feel like I did my part with the team this year.
“I'm very proud of myself for that but even more proud for everyone I hopefully made cry.”
Asked if he thought about becoming world champion during the race, Norris replied: "You can't not think about it. I knew it was a long race and we have seen many times, anything in F1 can happen.
"I just kept pushing until the last two or three laps when I could ease off.
"I still wanted to fight until the end. That's what we did and had to do this season with Max chasing the whole way and Oscar catching at the end.
“They certainly didn't make my life easy this year."
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