Lando Norris secured Formula One’s World Drivers Championship on Sunday with a third-place finish in Abu Dhabi. This is Norris’s first championship, and he earned it by holding off the defending champion Max Verstappen and his own McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen won Sunday’s race, but Norris had the point advantage, and coming in third was enough for him to secure the title by two points.

Verstappen started first on the grid and he raced like he was fighting for a championship, Norris started in second and was overtaken by his teammate and championship contender, Piastri, on the first lap. Then after a pitstop on lap 17, Norris was down to ninth place, and he had to work his way back up to his third-place finish.

After Norris and Piastri got disqualified in Las Vegas, a three-way tie for the championship between Norris, Verstappen, and Piastri became a real possibility. This was the first time in 15 years that three racers went into the season’s final races all with a chance of winning the championship, making those races highly anticipated. Before this final race, Norris was ahead of Verstappen by 12 points and ahead of teammate Piastri by 16 points.

At the start of the season, the two leaders for the championship were Norris and Piastri. Norris had five race wins in the first 15 races, and Piastri had seven wins in the first 15 races.

Verstappen had a rocky start to the season, only having two wins in the first 15 races. However, he then won six out of the nine races to close out the season. But it still wasn’t enough to get him his fifth championship.