As it played in their championship battle
this year too, Sebastian Vettel was forced to play second fiddle to an
imperious Lewis Hamilton at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix season finale as the
Mercedes driver took his 11th win of the season, enjoying a serene performance
that perfectly reflected his majestic run to his fifth title this year.
Strong from the very start of the
race, having recorded his 11th pole position of the year on Saturday, Hamilton
benefitted from an early switch to supersoft tyres under a Virtual Safety Car –
brought out after Kimi Raikkonen was forced to retire on lap seven in his final
race for Ferrari – before biding his time to re-inherit the lead and sweep to
his 83rd career victory.
Behind
him, Vettel had a lonely run to second place, after dispatching Hamilton’s team
mate Valtteri Bottas mid-race, while he was followed home by the Red Bull pair
of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, Ricciardo unable to claim that podium
he so dearly wanted in his 100th and final race for Red Bull before he moves to
Renault. Bottas ended up fifth.
Carlos Sainz, in his own last race
for Renault before switching to McLaren, enjoyed a strong run to sixth place to
help Renault to seal fourth place in the constructors’ title, while his team
mate Nico Hulkenberg fared less well, clashing with Romain Grosjean on lap one
and barrel rolling into the barriers, although fortunately not suffering
any ill effects from the ugly looking incident.
Charles
Leclerc was seventh in his final outing for Sauber before he moves to Ferrari
for 2019, ahead of the Force India of Sergio Perez and the Haas of Grosjean in
ninth – who managed to continue after his first-lap brush with Hulkenberg. Kevin
Magnussen’s run to 10th denied Fernando Alonso the chance to up his points
tally in his final Grand Prix before retiring, the McLaren driver employing
some questionable cornering techniques in the final part of the race – and
getting a five-second penalty for his troubles – in his bid to get after the
Dane, but ultimately ending up 11th in his 311th race. Meanwhile apart from
Raikkonen, Force India’s Esteban Ocon, Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Sauber’s
Marcus Ericcson all retired from their last races with their respective teams
due to technical trouble.
No comments:
Post a Comment