The Albany Gazette - Norris faces nerve-shredding three-way scrap to claim maiden title

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 number one 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.

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.

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.

- 'Best shot' -

He has overturned a 104-point deficit to the leader since August 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 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.

(A.Thompson--TAG)