Abu Dhabi GP: Hamilton dominates to take victory at season finale

  • Published on 01 Dec 2019 15:48
  • 3
  • By: Fergal Walsh

Lewis Hamilton has won the final race of the 2019 season in Abu Dhabi, dominating the 55 laps to take his 11th race win of the year.

Hamilton crossed the line over 16 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, who started the race from the front row. However he had to fight for the position after losing out to Charles Leclerc at the start of the race.

After both drivers had made their first pit stop, switching onto the hard tyre, Verstappen closed up on Leclerc and overtook him, despite complaints of turbo lag.

Leclerc made a second pit stop to cover off the fast charging Valtteri Bottas, who started from the back of the grid due to taking on fresh engine components this weekend.

Leclerc crossed the line in third place, however, his podium finish is under scrutiny, as the FIA found that its car breached technical directive 12-19.

Bottas closed in onto the back of Leclerc in the final laps, despite Leclerc making a second pit stop onto the soft tyres on lap 39.

His teammate Sebastian Vettel also completed the race on a two-stop strategy, with the fresh soft tyres allowing him to overtake Alexander Albon for fifth place on the penultimate lap.

Sergio Perez crossed the line in seventh place to take the 'best of the rest' spot. The Mexican spent 38 laps on the mediums before switching to the hards, which saw him battle through the point finishers in the last laps.

He managed to overtake Lando Norris on the final lap, who was running in seventh place until that time. 

However, the McLaren driver had to settle for eighth place, while teammate Carlos Sainz picked up one point to see him move clear of Pierre Gasly in the drivers' championship.

Gasly's race effectively ended on the opening lap of the race when he made contact with both Racing Points, which ripped the front wing from his car.

The trip back to the pits and the resulting lengthy pit stop put Gasly out of contention for points, and crossed the line only ahead of the two Williams'. Lance Stroll retired from the race late on.

Renault failed to cross the line inside the top ten, as both Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg were passed by Perez and Daniil Kvyat in the later stages.

Both Haas' and Alfa Romeos had unspectacular races, crossing the line outside of the points. 

Yas Marina Circuit - 01 December 2019

Replies (3)

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  • far from the best race this year but it all went so fast

    • + 1
    • Dec 1 2019 - 18:07
  • It was a pretty standard Abu Dhabi affair. Decent results from RBH, all things considered, but while I wasn't snoozing, I had fun plotting the 2014-> F1 results from teams and PU-suppliers to see how things've developed. Thank you GPToday and community for this year! Was a pretty fun year what I enjoyed, overall good racing this year!

    • + 0
    • Dec 1 2019 - 19:15
  • JuJuHound

    Posts: 352

    Perez - what a race, what a pace !! Great strategy but if you want to have a decent result you need, someone who will make it right and today Sergio, yet again this season, impressed me a lot. Good job!

    • + 0
    • Dec 2 2019 - 08:32

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