Hamilton dominates in Abu Dhabi to end championship campaign in style; Verstappen P2, Leclerc P3, as Bottas battles from last to fourth

Mercedes’ ace Lewis Hamilton capped off his sixth championship season with a dominant win at Yas Marina Circuit in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In the final race of the 2019 F1 campaign, a late afternoon affair that goes from day to night conditions, Hamilton and his Silver Arrow were as untouchable as they gave been throughout the year. The newly minted 6-time champ claimed his 11th victory of the year out of twenty-one GPs and finished far ahead of his closest pursuers. Hamilton won from pole and also set the fastest lap of the race for a bonus point, coming home a whopping 16.77 seconds ahead of the second place Red Bull of Max Verstappen. It was a suitably perfect performance in what has been another banner year for the 34-year-old, who was justifiably left wishing that the season could continue after his effortless win. It also gave Hamilton 84 career wins, shockingly close to what seemed to be Michael Schumacher’s record F1 total of 91. No doubt Lewis will be dreaming of overtaking Schumacher for that milestone in 2020, as well as tying the German legend’s even more awesome achievement by racking up a seventh Drivers’ title. But all that is in the future and for now Hamilton can ride off into the winter break knowing that he was unquestionably the supreme Formula 1 ace in 2019 and has put himself in the conversation as one of the best in the sport’s fabled history.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

For Verstappen it was also a relatively easy day that saw the Dutchman hold off challenges from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and turbo lag issues from his own car to secure a P2 finish and lock down third place in the Drivers’ ahead of the hard-charging Leclerc. The Monegasque Ferrari man, who had  breakout year and seems destined for greatness if given the right equipment, finished P3 in the race and survived an after-race investigation for fuel irregularities that led to a hefty fine for Ferrari but no penalties for Leclerc. Behind the top three, Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas drove a superb race after starting from the rear of the grid due to engine penalties, clawing his way all the way up to a P4 finish just about a second behind Leclerc for the last podium place. One wonders if the Finn’s result might have been even better had a technical glitch not prevented the DRS system from operating until Lap 18.

Leclerc’s stablemate Sebastian Vettel was undone by an uncharacteristically slow pit stop on Lap 13 when Ferarri double stacked their drivers and got Leclerc out rapidly but fumbled their way to a fat 6.9 seconds stationary for Vettel. The Scuderia’ braintrust was never really able to strategize their way to make up for that error and Vettel was stuck running a fairly desultory race to finish P5, a suitably mediocre result in what has been arguably the veteran four-time champion’s worst F1 campaign and a clear second best to Leclerc within the Ferrari team. Verstappen’s Red Bull partner, Alexander Albon, fought gamely but couldn’t withstand Vettel’s last race onslaught and had to settle for a P6 result, a position down from this starting spot. On the other hand, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez had a superb race to improve from a P10 start on the grid to a P7 finish, making the most of a long 38-lap first stint on Medium Pirellis to execute a passel of passes on fresh Hard tires against other midfield runners struggling with used up rubber as the laps wound down in this 55-lap event.

McLaren finished strong with another solid double points result that saw rookie Lando Norris come home in P8 and Carlos Sainz securing the last point at P10 on the final lap. It was a crucial result for Sainz, who bested Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly by that single point for sixth in the Drivers’ Championship. Gasly, who endured a an up and down year that saw him demoted from the lead Red Bull team only to earn his best-ever P2 finish in Brazil two weeks ago, DNF’d after damage from a coming together with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll on the opening lap forced an early retirement midway through the race. But his Toro Rosso teammate Daniil Kvyat ended 2019 on a personal high note with an aggressive but not reckless drive to take P9.

Top 10 finishers of the Abu Dhabi GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The final 2019 Drivers’ Standings are here.

The final 2019 Constructors’ standings are here.

That does it for 2019 — the next F1 race weekend to open the 2020 season will be on March 13-15 in Melbourne, Australia. Enjoy the winter break and your holidays and I’ll hope to see you then as Lewis Hamilton begins his quest to tie Michael Schumacher heretofore untouchable record by hunting a mind-blowing seventh Formula 1 title!