05/12/2025

SPORTS FRIDAY | DEC 5, 2025 28 L ANDO NORRIS will battle his own nerves as much as his rivals’ speed as he bids to end Max Verstappen’s four-year reign as F1 world champion in Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After two weekends of self-inflicted setbacks, championship leader Norris and his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri need an error-free event to ensure Red Bull’s No. 1 cannot complete a spectacular end-of-season recovery in glorious style. For the first time since a four-way scrap at the final race in Abu Dhabi in 2010, the title will be decided by a contest involving more than two drivers with McLaren, in particular, nervously glancing in their mirrors for Verstappen. Norris has a 12-point lead on Verstappen ahead of the finale and a 16-point advantage on team-mate Piastri, and needs to finish on the podium to prevail. But it is the Dutchman who has the momentum with five wins in his last eight outings - and no distraction from a team-mate rival or blurred team orders. Last weekend, in Qatar, two weeks after both Norris and Piastri were disqualified in Las Vegas for an illegal level of wear on their under-car planks. McLaren contrived to bungle a key pit-stop decision and gifted victory to Verstappen.

Nail-biting finale Norris faces nerve-shredding three-way scrap to claim maiden title

constructors’ title and stopped bringing updates – suggests a fierce and dramatic ending lies ahead. Norris has the simplest task and a stable temperament linked to a modest if not self effacing personality. “We’ve had an incredible season with an incredible car and I am proud of everyone,” he said. “We have one more race and we will give it everything.” While a podium will be enough for Norris to claim his maiden title, Piastri needs to win or finish second and hope for help from others while Verstappen must win and hope Norris is no better than fourth. “I didn’t expect this. “But I am still in it so we will give it our best shot,” said Verstappen. The race will also see Mercedes’ bid to beat Red Bull to second in the teams’ title race and the luckless Yuki Tsunoda make his final outing with Red Bull before being replaced by Racing Bulls’ outstanding rookie Isack Hadjar. For Ferrari’s seven-time champion Hamilton, a five-time winner in Abu Dhabi, it offers a final chance to end his unwanted record of a first season without a podium while the team hunt a first win since his predecessor Carlos Sainz triumphed in Mexico last year. – AFP

The 24-year-old Australian, bidding to be his country’s first champion since Alan Jones in 1980, is managed by Webber now and will not lack in mental focus at the Yas Marina Circuit where Norris won last year and Verstappen the previous four. Verstappen, however, has seen it all before and after goading McLaren about their mistakes in recent weeks, and producing fast and near-flawless drives himself, will feel he can equal Michael Schumacher’s record of winning five consecutive titles. He has overturned a 104-point deficit to the leader since Aug 31 when Piastri last won during his spell as championship leader for 15 Grands Prix. All three drivers have won seven races this year, with Mercedes’ George Russell winning the other two, and the closeness of the competition this year – albeit that McLaren had the outstanding car until they clinched the

Piastri was the fastest driver in every session, but he finished second and Norris third - a result that set up this Sunday’s showdown in the desert, the most hotly-anticipated since Verstappen ended Lewis Hamilton’s run as champion in controversial circumstances in 2021. On paper, it is Norris’s title to lose, but history – recent and past – shows anything can happen when the stakes are at their highest. In 2010, for example, Ferrari’s two-time champion Fernando Alonso arrived with an eight-point lead on Red Bull’s Mark Webber with his team-mate Sebastian Vettel 15 adrift in third ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. Vettel took pole position and won, Hamilton was second and Alonso and Webber seventh and eighth. Piastri, therefore, remains justified in believing he still has a chance, particularly after showing outstanding form and pace in Qatar.

FROM LEFT: Mclaren’s Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. – REUTERSPIC

Five of the best F1 last race title fights

Notices

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THE Formula One season comes to a gripping climax on Sunday with a three-way title fight in Abu Dhabi. Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri will scrap it out for the 2025 world driv ers’ crown in a fitting conclusion to F1’s 75th anniversary season. 2021 Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton lined up for the season-closer in Abu Dhabi incredi bly neck and neck on points. Late in the race Hamilton held the upper hand, with then Red Bull boss Christian Horner suggesting Verstappen needed “a miracle”. They got it when Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams. Verstappen pitted for soft tyres under the safety car, denying Hamilton a record eighth world crown on a nerve-tingling last lap shootout. Mercedes mounted a furious appeal over the controversial handling of the restart but the result stood, with Hamilton boycotting the end-of-year awards ceremony in protest. 2010 Abu Dhabi was once again the backdrop as four drivers took to the grid with a shot at the title. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso held an eight point lead over Red Bull’s Mark Webber, with Sebastian Vettel in the other Red Bull 15 points

back, and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton 24 points off Alonso. Vettel won from pole to become only the third driver in F1 history to lead the championship after the last race. The title was heading Alonso’s way though only for a Ferrari pit-stop strategy blunder to leave him stranded behind Renault’s Vitaly Petrov in sev enth. 2007 After a stunning rookie season Hamilton approached the championship decider in Brazil leading the standings with 107 points from his McLaren teammate Alonso on 103 and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen on 100 – with 10 points for a win on offer. A disastrous start from second – he was stuck in second gear for half a minute – dropped Hamilton to the back of the field. He fought back to seventh but needed to be fifth to secure his maiden title, which went to Raikkonen by one point from the McLaren pair. One year later Hamilton gained sweet revenge, overtaking Timo Glock on the final corner to nab fifth and deprive home hero and race winner Felipe Massa the crown. 1994 A rancorous season that claimed the lives of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger in a horror 24 hours at Imola was settled in unsa

voury circumstances in the Adelaide finale. Williams’ Damon Hill trailed Michael Schumacher by one point. On lap 36 Schumacher’s Benetton slithered off to hit a wall, but the German, spying Hill coming to overtake, swerved back onto the circuit, hitting Hill’s car. With both drivers out of the race the title was Schumacher’s after what has been called his ‘professional foul’ on the Briton. Years later Hill reflected: “What I hadn’t factored in and still had to learn about was Michael wasn’t very good at letting people past. So it ended with a crash.” 1976 Niki Lauda and James Hunt’s monumental tussle for the title – immortalised in the film “Rush” – came to the boil in treacherous weather in Japan. Ferrari’s Lauda, miraculously still racing after suffering near-fatal injuries in a crash at the Nurburgring, led the debonair Briton by three points. But the Austrian pulled out of the race on lap two, deeming the condi tions too dangerous. An inspired drive lifted Hunt into third to take the title. “I wanted to win the championship but I also felt Niki deserved to win the championship, and I just wish we could have shared it,” the McLaren driver told media afterwards. AFP

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Item Reg No

Jenis & Model

Tahun

AM1 VAS5803 HONDA CITY 1.5L HYBRID

2017

AM2 CDL7789 MITSUBISHI TRITON 2.5 AT VGT

2014

AM3 CCJ6126 PERODUA MYVI 1.3

2009

AM4 TBG7874 PERODUA MYVI 1.3

2012

AM5 VNY7849 PROTON SAGA 1.3

2025

AM6 DDC4866 PERODUA AXIA 1.0 G (A)

2017

AM7 VFW3325 PERODUA MYVI 1.5 AV (AT)

2021

AM8 DEJ6891 PROTON SAGA 1.3

2022

AM9 DBA7717 TOYOTA AVANZA 1.5 G

2006

AM10 DCX1878 TOYOTA VIOS 1.5E AT

2016

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