Abu Dhabi – Race: Bottas unfazed in front of Hamilton

For this last race of the season, the weather was not a concern at all since the capital of the United Arab Emirates always offers an ideal temperature. The wind even decreased compared to the beginning of the weekend and therefore interfered less with the drivers.

At the start, Valtteri Bottas is able to maintain his first place without too much trouble since Lewis Hamilton did not appear particularly aggressive. However, there was action behind with Nico Hülkenberg who did not have an ideal start. While he was able to maintain the advantage over the two Sahara Force India cars in the first corner, he was then overtaken on the straight. At the braking point, the German went wide and even cut the chicane, to overtake the Mexican again. The latter did not fail to complain about the maneuver and he got his way. The Renault driver thus received a five-second penalty.

One could also witness a double maneuver by Kevin Magnussen, who went wide in the first corner, before spinning in the second corner. However, he was able to resume his race without major damage to his Haas.

After 12 laps, Romain Grosjean managed to get the better of Lance Stroll, behind whom he was stuck for many laps. The Canadian then requested to pit for his only stop of the race. This initiated the wave of pit stops, notably including Max Verstappen. When Nico Hülkenberg made his stop in turn, he was still able to stay ahead of Sergio Perez, despite his penalty and a poor stop by his mechanics, which proves crucial for the championship.

Renault’s situation also improved with Daniel Ricciardo’s retirement due to a hydraulic issue on his car, which handed sixth place to Nico Hülkenberg.

In the 33rd lap, Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz finally stopped. The strategy of the French driver, to try to overtake his teammate, didn’t work, and he rejoined at a good distance from Sergio Perez. But another disaster struck for Renault as the front left mechanic didn’t tighten the wheel on the car at all! This nearly sent the Spaniard into the wall in the pit lane tunnel but most importantly led to his immediate retirement, much to the despair of Renault’s management.

But in the end, Nico Hülkenberg managed to finish in sixth place, which translates to sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship. Similarly, Kimi Räikkönen’s fourth place allowed him to achieve the same ranking in the Drivers’ Championship, just ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.

Note that with his ninth place, Fernando Alonso was able to score points in three consecutive races, something that never happened to him during the three seasons with Honda. As for Felipe Massa, he managed to secure the point for 10th place in his last F1 race.