A podium finish was all the McLaren driver needed to win his maiden world title ahead of the Dutchman, and Norris finished just two points clear at the end of an enthralling campaign.

Verstappen controlled the entire 58-lap race, winning from pole to cap off a stunning comeback in the second half of the season, while Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri finished P2 as his championship bid fell short.

Norris came under pressure from Charles Leclerc throughout the race, but he held on to his third place finish with a composed drive to take third, while the Ferrari driver finished P4.

Behind Leclerc, George Russell and Fernando Alonso took P5 and P6, respectively, while Esteban Ocon finished in P7.

Lewis Hamilton's challenging debut season with Ferrari saw a nice recovery drive end his campaign with a P8 finish, while Oliie Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top ten.

Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri all had the chance to become World Champions in what was set up to be a stunning season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Norris held a 12-point gap over Verstappen, and a podium finish was all the Brit needed to become champion, while the Dutchman had to win the Grand Prix and see Norris miss out on the top three. Piastri needed multiple results to go his way if he were to take a shock world title.

Verstappen didn't get the greatest of starts from pole position, but an aggressive cut across Norris saw him hold onto P1 after starting on pole, with Norris and Piastri holding onto second and third, respectively.

However, going into the left-hand Turn 9, Piastri made the first move in the title battle, with a sweeping move from the Australian allowing him to go around the outside of his teammate and put some pressure on Norris.

Pressure then continued for Norris, with some potential tyre-saving pace allowing the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to stay within DRS range for the first ten laps of the race and challenge the championship leader.

Norris then started upping the pace slightly as the first stint went on, with that gap increasing to over a second, giving the McLaren man a bit of breathing room as Liam Lawson was handed a five-second penalty for driving erratically.

Lap 15/58 was the first round of pit stops, with the medium tyre runners coming in to put on the hard tyres, which included George Russell as he looked to undercut Leclerc.

Two laps later, Norris was the first of the championship contenders to change his medium tyres, pitting from P3 and dropping to P9 in plenty of traffic as Verstappen and Piastri continued.

Norris fought his way through the traffic easily, and then he had to get past Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver needed to hold the Brit up to allow Verstappen to pit and see his teammate come back out ahead of the McLaren driver.

Tsunoda tried his best to keep Norris behind, but a double movement that saw the Brit pushed out wide resulted in a five-second penalty for the Japanese national, while the McLaren driver escaped his investigation of an off-track overtake.

Verstappen then pitted a lap later to come out in front of Norris, but while the Dutchman showed a bit more pace, Norris held strong behind him and continued to do what he needed to do to become champion, giving himself some breathing space with a five-second gap between himself and Leclerc.

Piastri continued out in front on the hard tyres, while Leclerc came in on Lap 40 to try and undercut Norris for a second time. However, the Brit covered that move off a lap later, and a fine stop meant he came out ahead of Russell and Leclerc.

The first pit stop then came for Piastri after he was overtaken by Verstappen, and came out on the medium tyres in front of his teammate to take P2, while Norris, on the hard tyres, came under pressure from a charging Leclerc once again with just under 15 laps to go.

However, going into the final ten laps, Leclerc's medium tyres slowly fell away from him, and another calm and composed stint from Norris allowed him to hold onto P3 and do enough to win the World Championship by two points.