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Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast.

Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead, Sam Sage,

and me, Ben Hocking. Last race of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has crowned us a champion. That champion

being Sam, Lando Norris, as he takes the title two points ahead of Max Verstappen.

Lando, Lando, Lando. I can hear it now, echoing all the way from the Middle East.

Yeah, we have a champion, a new champion. Max for Stappen, despite winning the Grand Prix and in some style as well,

unable to hold on to his four times to turn it into a fifth with Oscar Piastri,

somewhat sandwiched in the middle of the both of them.

You guys are in the same place, which is bizarre.

To celebrate the new war champion, I traveled all the way to Cornwall just to be sat next to Ben for this. This is the fan club. This is the Lando Norris fan club. Yeah, yeah. Says it on your front door. Yeah, you can. Getting invite. Okay. If you turn it down, Sam, you might be the coolest out of the three of us. Lando Norris wraps up the driver's championship with that third place finish. His two

title rivals finishing ahead of him on track, Oscar Piastrian second, Max Verstappen, taking the

win. His third consecutive win, ultimately for both of them, not quite enough as Norris secures

his first driver's championship. And that seems a fitting place to start, Sam. We knew coming

into this Grand Prix as a result of that rather late overtake on Antonelli in Qatar, that he needed

third place regardless of what was to happen to Vestappen or Oscar Piastri, started the race

second, found himself third quite early on.

From there, it was a case of if he could hold it.

And the answer was yes.

Yeah, I want to start my point with saying that Lando is a very worthy world champion.

And he has had to go off against two incredibly tough competitors, one newcomer to the stage and one kind of old heads now in Max Verstappen. He's dealt with a lot of challenges throughout the year. You know, he didn't lead the title fight for a long time when Piastri kind of reigns supreme throughout the middle of this season. But he fought back valiantly. And the end of this season did throw some challenges at him. Getting past, Dancing Ellie, would have been crucial in Qatar. And this race, not as plain sailing as I think he would have liked. It felt like he was a little bit nervous coming onto the grid before the race started. And whilst he gone away all right, the move that Piastri put on him around the outside early on on the hard tide was a pretty bullseying supply move to make. It was a kind of a do or die for Oscar.

And I think Lando was sensible enough to realize, not going to fight this one too hard, don't

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