Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris were supremely happy after McLaren were able to secure third in the championship on a perfect day in F1 Abu Dhabi GP.
Already on Saturday, it was the best result McLaren could have hoped for with Norris ending up fourth and Sainz sixth, while only Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was in the Top 10, with Sergio Perez having a penalty and both Renault knocked out in Q2.
The race start in F1 Abu Dhabi GP worked well for both McLaren drivers as well, even though Norris lost out to Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo did try for a different strategy but was no match for the Brit and Sainz in the end.
Elsewhere, Stroll struggled in the lower half of the Top 10, while Perez retired early on. That pretty much sealed the fight in favour of McLaren as Norris finished fifth from Sainz. Even though the Spaniard had an investigation on him, it wasn’t too dangerous.
Only a disqualification would have resulted in McLaren losing, but he was left off with no action. “It was a perfect day, from the team of course, ending up P3: exactly what we wanted,” said Norris to TV media. “And from my side, P5 was the best I could do with Sainz in P6 – I couldn’t have been 40 seconds quicker.
“I kept up with Albon, so I couldn’t ask for any more. The team did a very good job. All weekend we’ve been quick and confident, and we’ve worked extremely hard to achieve this so, the perfect day and the perfect result for the team; very well deserved for everyone back at McLaren, back in England, and all the team here for their hard work.
“We thought Racing Point could sneak in with a seventh and eighth, where they would score enough points but we did all we had to and as a bonus we got P3 in constructors’. The race was more on-par with expectations, but still the car was very good. We were much quicker than the Renaults, much quicker than the AlphaTauri’s.
“We still had some very good race pace. As I said, P3 in the championship – it may not mean that much to me – but for the team, it is massive, also for the bank account (smiles), but I think the determination and the motivation shown from everyone, it is nice to be rewarded,” summed up Norris.
McLaren ended up with 202 points to Racing Point’s 195, while Norris was ninth with 97 and Sainz sixth with 105 – he tied with Albon, actually, but the Spaniard had a second place finish to the Thai’s two third place finishes. The to-be-leaving driver was happy as well.
It was another superlative drive and a fine return to points scoring streak after a difficult start to 2020. “It was a very well executed race,” said Sainz. “We did what we needed to do. The medium tyre didn’t work very well – it was worse than the softs – but other than that we managed to put a pretty good race together.
“We brought home P5 and P6, [that] gave us P3 in the constructors’ [championship], gave me P6 in the drivers’ [championship], so everything went to plan. This is the best way to close my chapter with McLaren, it’s been a great couple of years – especially this past six or seven races. We’ve managed to finish in the top seven every single race.
“We’ve been the most consistent by far, and it shows what the rest of the year could have been without the problems at the start, but I’m very happy because we closed [out] in a very strong manner this year,” summed up Sainz.
Having not sung his traditional ‘Smooth Operator’ song all-year in 2020, Sainz made sure to do it on the radio for the one last time, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx9pRTD3eQk
Here’s video of McLaren celebrating: https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/1338156870079549446?s=20
Here’s another shot: https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/1338167840411619330?s=20
Here’s news of McLaren being re-financed