Max Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, broke down on the pit wall after the Red Bull driver lost a potential fifth consecutive F1 drivers' championship to Lando Norris. Red Bull did everything it could in the second half of the season to hunt the McLaren pair down.At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Verstappen emerged as the quickest driver despite not starting the weekend at the top. He and Red Bull made pivotal changes to his RB21 before qualifying, which propelled him to pole position.The Dutchman had to earn pole and ensure he converted it into a victory at the Yas Marina circuit on Sunday, 7 December, and then rely on fate to have Norris finish off the podium. Alas, it was not to be. Max Verstappen did the best he could and took his eighth win of the season, but Lando Norris finished in P3 behind Oscar Piastri to win the title by just two points.Verstappen's longtime race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, looked devastated on the pit wall. After the Dutchman pulled up his RB21 into the P1 slot on the main straight, the F1TV broadcast to Lambiase on the pit wall. He was seen with his head in his hands, as the hand of an anonymous person on his shoulder consoled him.Immediately after the race ended, Lambiase sent a message to Max Verstappen on the team radio to hail his unbelievable comeback to get to the point of even being in championship contention heading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi."Max, you have given everything. You can be proud of that, mate. Hold your head up high."Verstappen replied to the message, saying he wasn't disappointed and asked his engineer and the Red Bull team not to feel downbeat.Max Verstappen keeps his emotions in check despite narrow championship loss to Lando NorrisMax Verstappen at the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Source: GettyAt his worst point of the 2025 F1 season, Max Verstappen was 104 points behind former championship leader Oscar Piastri and over 70 points behind Lando Norris. After the Abu Dhabi GP, he lost the championship by only two points to Norris and finished 11 points ahead of Piastri in the standings.If he managed to offset the entire handicap, Verstappen would've overcome the biggest points deficit in F1 history. Though he couldn't achieve it, the Red Bull driver was proud of almost scaling the mountain."I feel good," Verstappen told F1TV said post-race. "I was already prepared for these kind of outcomes because we needed a bit of luck to win. From our side, at least we optimized the weekend perfectly, we put it on pole, we won the race in, I think, dominant fashion. So there's nothing really you can say about that.""At the end, of course, you lose the championship by two points. Looks, of course, painful, but at the other hand, if you look from where we were in Zandvoort, more than a 100 behind, then I think it's not too bad," he added with a smile.Lando Norris was very emotional after clinching his first F1 drivers' championship in Abu Dhabi and shed tears of joy throughout the in-lap and the post-race interview. He congratulated his title rivals for putting up a tough fight and jokingly said:"I now know what Max feels like, a little bit."The celebrations will carry over to tomorrow for McLaren before the post-season Pirelli test later this week.