@Max33Verstappen cruises to dominant 54th-career victory at season-closing #AbuDhabiGP. #F1

Verstappen Abu Dhabi GP Victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen lead from start-to-finish to take a dominant victory at the season-closing Abu Dhabi GP as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell completed the top three.

 

 

Verstappen scored his 19^th-victory of the campaign and moved up to third on the all-time Grand Prix winners list with 54 victories to his name and became the first driver to lead over 1000 laps in a single-season.

 

Mercedes wrapped up second place in the World Constructors’ Championship standings after Sergio Perez’s five-second time penalty was applied for causing a collision with McLaren’s Lando Norris on lap 48 at the turns six and seven chicane.

 

The Mexican originally crossed the line 16.653 seconds behind his race-winning team-mate Verstappen in second after Leclerc let Perez by in an attempt to try and allow the Red Bull driver to finish five seconds in-front of Russell with the Monegasque driver looking to try and back up the Mercedes to push the gap to over five seconds to grab the crucial points, but Perez could not increase his lead over Leclerc and Russell and thus Perez was demoted to fourth as a result of the incident with Norris.

 

 

When the 58-lap Abu Dhabi GP began, pole-sitter Verstappen got an equal getaway with Leclerc, but the latter drops behind the former into turn one.

 

On the back straight Leclerc got into the slipstream of the Red Bull, but Verstappen covered the Ferrari in the turns six and seven complex and moved out of DRS range before it gets activated on lap three.

 

At the end of the opening tour, Verstappen held a 1.146 second lead over Leclerc with Piastri third, Norris fourth as Russell rounded out the top five.

 

On lap three, Perez made a dive up the inside of Hamilton into turn six and moved up into ninth place.

 

Lap four saw Norris with DRS assistance on the first long back straight overtake his team-mate Piastri just before reaching the turns six and seven complex to move up into third place.

 

The fifth tour saw Verstappen’s lead stable with a 1.358 second gap over Leclerc with Norris third, Piastri fourth as Russell completed the top five runners.

 

The following lap saw Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen become the first driver to pit for a fresh set of hards and came out at the back behind Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant.

 

Lap seven in the fight for fourth saw Russell have a look at pinching the position off Piastri into turn six, but then the Mercedes driver got into the slipstream on the McLaren down the long back straight on the run-down to the turn nine Parabolica hairpin and made a move on the outside of the Australian but, Piastri kept the Silver Arrow behind into turn 11.

 

On lap nine, Russell attempted the same move into turn nine on Piastri, but the latter covered the Briton with ease.

 

On lap 10, Verstappen’s lead remained at 1.391 seconds over Leclerc, followed by the two McLaren’s of Norris and Piastri in third and fourth respectively as Russell tucked behind the MCL60 rounded out the top five.

 

A tour later, Russell got a solid slipstream on Piastri on the run-down of the first back straight, but the McLaren covered the Briton, then on the following back straight with DRS assistance Russell moved to the inside of Piastri and overtook the Australian to take fourth place before the turn nine Parabolica.

 

Lap 12, in the battle for eighth, Perez made the jump on Alpine’s Pierre Gasly to take seventh.

 

Meanwhile on the 13^th lap, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso pitted from eighth for a fresh set of hards and came out in 18^th behind Sargeant.

 

A tour later, Piastri came in for fifth for his fresh set of C3 harder rubber and emerged in 15^th just in-front of Alonso as the latter had a look on the Australian and suffered a lock up into the turns six and seven sequence. Then Alonso tried on the second long back straight, but could not make his way ahead of the McLaren.

 

Lap 15 saw both Norris and Russell pit from fourth and fifth as the former had trouble with his front-left tyre and wound up behind his fellow British-compatriot as they exited the pit-lane and came out in-front of Alonso.

 

On the same tour Hamilton ran into the back of Gasly damaging his front wing end-plate into the turn six and pitted for a new front wing and harder compounds to come out in 14^th place behind Ricciardo.

 

A lap later, race leader Verstappen pitted from the lead for his fresh set of hards and came out in seventh.

 

Leclerc stopped a lap after along with Perez for their fresh set of hards as the former emerged behind Verstappen in fifth and Perez in-between Ricciardo and Hamilton in 12^th.

 

Lap 19 saw Verstappen on his fresher rubber with DRS assistance make short work of Sainz on the first long straight passing the Ferrari on the inside before the turns six and seven chicane to grab third place.

 

On the 20^th lap, the yet-to-pit AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda lead the Grand Prix by 4.414 seconds over the hard-tyre-starting Stroll with Verstappen third, Sainz fourth, Leclerc fifth and Russell completed the top six runners.

 

Lap 21 saw Sainz move over on the back straight to let Leclerc by for his Ferrari team-mate to jump up into fourth as Verstappen breezed his way ahead of Stroll up into turn nine to take second place.

 

The following lap saw Russell with DRS assistance make the move on Sainz on the outside to take fifth place off the Spaniard.

 

Lap 23 saw both Tsunoda and Stroll stop from first and second respectively as both emerged on their new sets of harder tyres in 12^th and 15^th respectively, whilst Norris flew past the Ferrari of Sainz to snatch fourth place.

 

Meanwhile on lap 24, Sainz pitted for a new set of hards and came out in 16^th behind Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg in 16^th.

 

Lap 25 saw Verstappen’s lead increased to 5.037 seconds over Leclerc with Russell holding third as the two McLaren’s of Norris and Piastri were fourth and fifth respectively.

 

Behind them Perez with DRS assistance on the first back straight passed Alonso to take sixth place before the turns six and seven complex as Hamilton made the same move on Ricciardo to jump into eighth.

 

A lap later, AlphaTauri duo Ricciardo and Tsunoda swapped places with the latter moving ahead of the former into ninth.

 

Perez with DRS assistance on lap 28 in the battle for fifth saw the Mexican pass the McLaren of Piastri on the inside just before the turns six and seven complex to dispatch the Australian for fifth place.

 

Lap 29 saw Stroll move his way up into the tenth doing the same identical move as Perez onto Ricciardo.

 

With 28 laps remaining, Verstappen’s race lead was 6.500 seconds and ahead of Leclerc with Russell third, Norris fourth as Perez completed the top five.

 

Lap 33 saw Alpine’s Esteban Ocon pit and came out in 18^th behind the second-time pitted Ricciardo.

 

A tour later Norris pitted from fourth for his second stop to take on another set of hards and came out in tenth place behind Stroll.

 

The following lap saw Russell pit in an attempt to undercut Leclerc in the battle for second and emerged in ninth behind Stroll on a set of harder tyres.

 

Leclerc and Ferrari reacted to Mercedes and pitted for a set of hards and came out in sixth place in-front of Stroll to cover Russell.

 

Meanwhile Russell breezed his way ahead of Stroll on the first back straight to move crucially up into fifth place behind Leclerc.

 

A lap later, Norris did the same move as Russell on Stroll to take sixth place before reaching the turns six and seven sequence as Hamilton done likewise on Alonso for 11^th.

 

With 20 laps remaining, Leclerc with DRS assistance dived up the inside of Tsunoda on the first main straight and overtook the Japanese driver into the turns six and seven chicane to move up into third whilst Alonso snatched 11^th place back from Hamilton.

 

The following tour, Russell done the same move on Tsunoda like Leclerc done to jump into fourth.

 

On lap 41, Verstappen’s lead over his Red Bull team-mate Perez was 16.463 seconds as Leclerc was a distant third, Russell fourth as Tsunoda rounded out the top five runners.

 

A lap later, in the fight for fifth place, Norris with DRS assistance got into the slipstream of Tsunoda and made the move up the inside of the AlphaTauri and made the move stick into the turns six and seven complex.

 

Meanwhile Perez stopped on lap 43 from second for a fresh set of hards and came out in sixth place behind Tsunoda.

 

Lap 44 saw race leader Verstappen pit for a fresh set of hards and came out comfortably ahead of Leclerc as the former’s team-mate made short work of Tsunoda to take fifth place.

 

In the battle for eighth on lap 45, Alonso drew ever closer to Sainz and ran side-by-side with the Ferrari on the run-down to the turns six and seven chicane as the latter covered his fellow Spanish-compatriot to remain in the position.

 

A tour later Alonso made his way ahead of Sainz around the inside into the turn five hairpin to take eighth from the Ferrari driver.

 

The following tour saw Perez attempt a move on the inside of Norris into the turns six and seven complex and the pairing made contact, pushing the McLaren off the track and the latter remained in-front.

 

On lap 49, Perez made the move in the same spot on-track and this time made the move stick on the McLaren to take fourth place.

 

Perez’s incident with Norris on lap 48 was under investigation by the stewards meanwhile Piastri overtook Tsunoda as the second McLaren jumped up into sixth place.

 

On lap 51, Perez was hit with a five-second time penalty for his incident of causing a collision with Norris.

 

With five laps remaining, Verstappen’s lead was 11.466 seconds over Leclerc with Russell third, Perez fourth as the two McLaren’s of Norris and Piastri rounded out the top six.

 

Perez with DRS assistance on the back straight made a lunge up the inside of Russell’s Mercedes into turn nine to move up to third place, but the former needed to be over five seconds clear at race end to hold the final podium position.

 

On the penultimate lap, Leclerc let Perez by in an attempt to try and keep Russell behind and to beat Mercedes in the World Driver’s Championship.

 

Verstappen crossed the line to take his 54^th-career victory at the Abu Dhabi GP ahead of Leclerc with Russell completing the final points place as Perez was demoted from second to fourth due to his five-second time penalty for his collision with Norris.

 

This meant that Mercedes wrapped up second place in the World Constructors’ Championship standings over Ferrari.

 

Verstappen on his cool-down lap also offered tribute to AlphaTauri’s departing Team Principal Franz Tost after being mentored by the Austrian on his road to moving up into the senior team: “Thank you to everyone and thank you to Franz Tost, he had lots of us under his wings and it’s his last race so thank you.”

 

The McLaren pairing followed as Norris and Piastri finished in fifth and sixth respectively as Aston Martin’s Alonso came home seventh.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda finished the Grand Prix eighth to score four points for the Faenza based-squad whilst Mercedes’ Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Stroll completed the top ten.

 

AlphaTauri’s Ricciardo ended the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 11^th and in-front of Alpine duo Ocon and Gasly who were 12^th and 13^th respectively.

 

Williams Racing pairing Albon and Sargeant placed 14^th and 16^th as Hulkenberg split the two in 15^th place.

 

Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu crossed the line in 17^th as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was the sole retiree and was 18^th in the classification as Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen brought up the rear and a lap down from the lead.

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2023 Abu Dhabi GP – The Top Three

 

 

2023 Abu Dhabi GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB19:

“It’s been an incredible season. It’s emotional on the in-lap, the last time sitting in the car that has given me a lot. It will be hard to do something similar again, but we definitely enjoyed this year. It will be so hard to have another season like this, we know that. We are working hard for next year to have a very competitive car and we’ll be ready for the battle. But now we’ll enjoy this as well.”

 

2^nd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, +17.993s:

“It was all in the last few minutes, with Checo’s penalty we had to help him in a way, so I tried to give him the DRS and slipstream, but it wasn’t enough. There was nothing we could have done better, we did everything right – strategy, qualifying. It’s all that mattered to me at the end, but we didn’t achieve [P2]. But the team has done an incredible job pushing to the final race.”

 

3^rd Place – George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W14, +20.328s:

“It means a huge amount [to secure P2]. It’s been a really challenging season, I’ve let the team down a couple of times this season, so it was nice to contribute. I thought Charles was going to back me up but credit to him for keeping it clean. It was really tense at the end, the tyres were dropping off. Massive relief to have brought the car home P3, can’t believe it’s only the second podium of the year!”

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Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2023 Race Results Classification (58 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	58	1:27:02.624	26
2	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	58	+17.993s	18
3	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	58	+20.328s	15
4	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	58	+21.453s	12
5	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	58	+24.284s	10
6	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	58	+31.487s	8
7	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	58	+39.512s	6
8	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	58	+43.088s	4
9	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	58	+44.424s	2
10	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	58	+55.632s	1
11	3	Daniel Ricciardo	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	58	+56.229s	0
12	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	58	+66.373s	0
13	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	58	+70.360s	0
14	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	58	+73.184s	0
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	58	+83.696s	0
16	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	58	+87.791s	0
17	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	58	+89.422s	0
18	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	57	DNF	0
19	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	57	+1 lap	0
20	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	57	+1 lap	0

* Provisional results. Note – Verstappen scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1226/abu-dhabi/race-result.html

 

Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

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