History proves the race isn't run until the chequered flag

Lando Norris only needs a podium finish this weekend, but a trio of last-day deciders should serve as a warning shot to the champion-elect Briton, writes Kieran Jackson in Abu Dhabi

- Kieran Jackson

Sweeping across the Gulf to Abu Dhabi, host of Formula One’s season finale for 12 consecutive years, Lando Norris really should be home and dry by now. Without those Las Vegas disqualifications a fortnight ago, Max Verstappen would be out of the running. Without last week's mistakes in Qatar, McLaren could rest easy in the knowledge that the drivers' champion would, at the very least, be donning papaya colours. Yet here we are; on we go.

This weekend's three-way fight in the desert is the first F1 championship decider involving more than two drivers for 15 years. Back then, a four-way hammer-and-tong concluded with a surprise champion at the chequered flag: Sebastian Vettel's first of four triumphs, and other shock winners before him on the final day, are telling case studies for Sunday's final curtain call.

It goes some way in explaining why Verstappen and Oscar Piastri should not give up the ghost just yet. Twelve and 16-point deficits respectively are significant obstacles to overcome, for sure, and Norris holds most of the cards. A podium is all the 26-year-old from Somerset needs and, in the fastest car on the grid, it should be something of a banker.

HOW THEY STAND IN F1 CHAMPIONSHIP RACE

Lando Norris – 308 points

Max Verstappen - 296 points (+12)

Oscar Piastri - 292 points (+16)

But history tells us that unfathomable events occur on judgement day. It is why Norris would be well advised to glance ominously over his shoulder, while every permutation should be memorised to a tee on a McLaren pit wall under immense scrutiny, following the incorrect call in Qatar.