Verstappen beats Leclerc to victory in Abu Dhabi to finish record-breaking year on high
Max Verstappen confidently transformed pole place into victory throughout Sunday night’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, making it 19 wins throughout 22 races in what has been an outstanding 12 months for the Dutchman and his Purple Bull workforce.
Verstappen defended from Charles Leclerc on the run to the primary nook and throughout the primary lap earlier than cementing his lead and regularly pulling clear, taking the chequered flag comfortably forward of the chasing pack because the solar set on the 2023 marketing campaign.
Sergio Perez crossed the road in second place for Purple Bull, however a five-second time penalty for a conflict with McLaren’s Lando Norris demoted him to fourth when the outcomes had been confirmed, leaving Leclerc second and the Mercedes of George Russell third.
Leclerc had been second on the highway till the closing laps when he elected to let Perez move him and attempt to generate sufficient of a spot between the Purple Bull and Russell to spice up Ferrari’s probabilities of beating Mercedes to second within the constructors’ standings, nevertheless, it was to not be.
Norris needed to accept fifth after his run-in with Perez, the place he began due to his pricey qualifying mistake, with workforce mate Oscar Piastri taking sixth from the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
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Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll made it double factors finishes for his or her respective Mercedes and Aston Martin groups, with Daniel Ricciardo lacking out by half a second in workforce boss Franz Tost’s last race overseeing the AlphaTauri squad.
Alpine pair Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly went unrewarded within the last race of the season, the latter having been concerned in a brush of bodywork with Hamilton halfway via proceedings, adopted by the lead Williams of Alex Albon.
Nico Hulkenberg couldn’t convert his Q3 look into factors for Haas, dropping all the way in which all the way down to fifteenth place in one other difficult race, with Williams rookie Logan Sargeant and the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu coming house sixteenth and seventeenth respectively.
Carlos Sainz had been operating within the factors within the closing phases, however his various technique required a late pit cease and left him a lowly 18th, as Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen accomplished the order for Alfa Romeo and Haas.
AS IT HAPPENED
After struggling via follow, Verstappen and Purple Bull bounced again in qualifying to safe pole place for one last time in 2023, with Leclerc becoming a member of the reigning world champion on the entrance row, adopted by Piastri, Russell, Norris and the high-flying Tsunoda.
A few drivers out of their normal positions had been Hamilton, who might solely handle eleventh in qualifying as he lamented what was mistaken together with his automobile, whereas Sainz could be beginning all the way in which down in sixteenth as he struggled for kind within the wake of a heavy crash in FP2.
When the vehicles assembled on the grid and the tyre blankets got here off, it was revealed that almost all of the drivers could be beginning on the medium compound, with Stroll, Sainz, and Bottas the three drivers to attempt one thing totally different by taking the onerous rubber.
Because the lights went out, Leclerc bought away nicely to briefly lookup the within of Verstappen on the run to Flip 1, however the pole-sitter braked barely later to swoop throughout the observe and maintain place, as Piastri maintained third and Norris muscled his well beyond Russell on the second nook.
Leclerc latched onto Verstappen’s automobile exiting Flip 5 and had one other sniff on the lead into the Flip 6/7 chicane, with the Ferrari and Purple Bull going side-by-side beneath braking, just for the Dutchman to retain the lead as soon as extra and set about placing a ways between the 2 vehicles.
“The best entrance is slowly getting a bit harm,” was the message from race chief Verstappen to the Purple Bull pit wall on Lap 12, with the highest three drivers ploughing on up the entrance however a number of extra vehicles trickling into the pits for recent tyres – Piastri narrowly keeping off Alonso’s undercut try.
Lap 15 noticed Norris and Russell pit collectively, with an agonizingly sluggish cease from the McLaren crew permitting the Mercedes to slide via because the pair rejoined simply forward of the squabbling Piastri and Alonso of their non-permanent midfield spots.
Elsewhere, Hamilton was caught out by a lock-up from Gasly on the Flip 6/7 chicane and nudged the rear of the Alpine together with his Mercedes, however regardless of obvious injury, the Silver Arrows opted in opposition to a entrance wing change when the seven-time champion pitted a lap later.
Lap 17 was the second for Verstappen and Purple Bull as they determined to pit from P1, releasing Leclerc into the lead of the race, with the Monegasque coming in a single tour later to defend from the undercut and their positions remaining unchanged.
The flurry of stops gave Tsunoda a welcome run within the lead of an F1 race throughout Franz Tost’s last look as AlphaTauri workforce boss, whereas Stroll, Sainz, and Bottas additionally stretched out their opening stints and added some strategic intrigue to the 58-lap encounter.
Hamilton’s conflict with Gasly was investigated by the stewards however information quickly arrived that there could be no additional motion, and the Frenchman had one more reason to really feel aggrieved when workforce mate Ocon – who had began behind him – moved forward with the undercut.
Tsunoda pitted from the lead on Lap 23 to launch Verstappen, Leclerc, Russell and Norris, who had all labored their well beyond the yet-to-stop Sainz, with Piastri holding sixth from Alonso, Perez, Ricciardo and Hamilton, who was spurred on with a motivational message from boss Toto Wolff.
By Lap 25, with the Twelfth-placed Bottas the one driver but to pit for a change of tyres, Verstappen’s lead over Leclerc was as much as 5 seconds, with Russell simply over a second additional again, adopted by the McLarens of Norris and Piastri and the recovering Perez, who had overtaken Alonso.
Gasly expressed frustration as soon as extra as he questioned over the radio why his Alpine was so sluggish in comparison with the opening laps, and his engineer duly confirmed that some injury had been picked up within the contact with Hamilton however urged him to push on nonetheless.
Because the race neared its midway mark, Perez made up one other place by slipping previous Piastri for fifth, whereas Hamilton had moved as much as eighth from AlphaTauri pair Tsunoda and Ricciardo, who swapped positions on their differing tyre methods to maximise the workforce’s factors potential.
On Lap 33, Gasly kicked off the second spherical of pit stops, this time altering tyres earlier than workforce mate Ocon, with Norris approaching the subsequent tour and a spotlight then turning to what Verstappen, Leclerc and the remainder of the front-running group would do.
Mercedes responded by calling Russell in a lap later, with the Briton taking to the radio to ask: “Are you positive we are able to’t make the one-stop work? The tyres really feel cheap.” He in the end pitted and got here again out simply forward of Norris, being advised as he exited the pits that his out lap could be “crucial”.
Russell’s cease in flip pressured Ferrari into motion, with Leclerc following the pattern of taking over extra onerous tyres and rejoining in the entrance of Russell and Norris, whereas chief Verstappen advised Purple Bull he was joyful for them to pit workforce mate Perez earlier than him if wanted.
With the second stops rolling in, there was extra drama for Hamilton when he got here near hitting Alonso because the pair approached Flip 5, claiming he was brake-tested by the Aston Martin forward of DRS coming into play – the stewards noting the incident for erratic driving however opting in opposition to any additional motion.
At this level, Russell requested the Mercedes pit wall how the championship scenario was trying, with Ferrari placing themselves in place to leapfrog the Silver Arrows for second within the constructors’ standings because the race entered its last 20 laps.
Lap 43 noticed Perez pit once more from second place, placing on extra onerous tyres and coming again out in sixth place, with workforce mate Verstappen doing the identical from the lead one tour later, that means Purple Bull’s last deliberate pit stops of the 12 months had been executed and dusted.
“The downshifts are pulling rather a lot,” Verstappen reported over the radio shortly after making his second cease, asking if something might be executed to enhance the scenario, whereas Perez lit up the timesheets to move Tsunoda and shut in on Norris’ McLaren.
Hamilton and Gasly’s races took one other flip within the closing phases when the stewards famous a possible pit lane infringement after which confirmed that they’d be investigating it additional after the race.
Perez had arrived at the rear of Norris’ automobile on Lap 48 and tried a transfer into the Flip 6/7 chicane, just for the pair to bang wheels. “He crashed into me,” was Norris’ view after taking to the run-off and sustaining the place, whereas Perez argued that “he changed into me”.
A lap later, Perez repeated the try and this time made it stick, however, Norris reiterated his frustration over the radio and the stewards started one other investigation – which in the end landed the Mexican a five-second penalty.
With that scenario unfolding, Leclerc radioed the Ferrari pit wall asking what he might do to assist in their shut battle with Mercedes for second within the constructors’, deciding to drop behind Perez and see if he might construct a five-second hole again to Russell.
However, it might not work out that method, with Perez following race-winning workforce mate Verstappen throughout the road solely to be jumped by Leclerc and Russell when his penalty was utilized, confirming Mercedes in P2 over Ferrari.
McLaren pair Norris and Piastri had been fifth and sixth, as Alonso, Tsunoda, Hamilton, and Stroll accomplished the factors – the AlphaTauri driver’s tally was not sufficient to see the workforce leap forward of Williams for P7 within the standings.
Ricciardo was eleventh, from Ocon, Gasly, Albon, Hulkenberg, and Sargeant, with Zhou, Sainz, Bottas, and Magnussen citing the rear within the last outing earlier than a hard-earned winter break for the drivers and their groups.
