Lewis Hamilton signed off 2018 with a comfortable victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, his 11th of the season.
The Briton held the lead from pole into Turn 1 and benefitted from being the only front-runner to pit under a Virtual Safety Car to hold a decent advantage as the rest couldn’t close up on their fresher tyres.
It was an eventful start which saw Max Verstappen slip down the field to 10th and Charles Leclerc move ahead of Daniel Ricciardo on the second back straight to Turn 11.
The biggest moment though was a scary crash for Nico Hulkenberg as wheel-on-wheel contact with Romain Grosjean punted his Renault into a barrel roll, resting upside down against the barrier.
A scary start to the final race of the season for @HulkHulkenberg ?
He walked away unscathed from his big collision with Romain Grosjean#AbuDhabiGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/bAVm0LRgtQ
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 25, 2018
A Safety Car was immediately called bringing the initial battles to an end. At the restart though, Verstappen set about making up for a slow launch passing Esteban Ocon into the Turn 7 hairpin.
Struggling for power on the exit, however, both Force Indias would pull ahead before the Dutchman remade the positions within a lap, including a rather rude move on the Frenchman again at Turn 7.
The VSC would be called soon after as Kimi Raikkonen ground to a halt on the pit straight in his final race for Ferrari following an engine shutdown.
Hamilton would take advantage to stop for the Supersoft tyre, dropping down to fifth, but lost a lot less time in comparison to those ahead who all stopped later.
The race settled with Valtteri Bottas leading from Sebastian Vettel and the two Red Bulls following, as Leclerc dropped down the order having also pitted with Hamilton under the VSC.
Both leaders would pit, however, as Verstappen joined them several laps later after starting on the Hypersoft compound, but trailed Hamilton by 11 seconds.
A very unexpected rain shower passed over the circuit without causing any problem but Ricciardo would run long on his first stint to have fresher tyres for the final 20 laps.
Bottas’ race would then fade with a lock-up at Turn 5 allowing Vettel to make a move into Turn 11 for second, Verstappen and Ricciardo followed through on the Finn dropping him to fifth as he then stopped for a second time to fall out of contention.
The question in the closing laps would be if the Australian could move ahead of his teammate for a final Red Bull podium but a serious challenge never materialised leaving Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen to complete the top three.
In the midfield, Carlos Sainz made an early charge through from P11 and would finish easily ‘best of the rest’ in sixth with Leclerc beating Sergio Perez home in seventh, the two Haas’ of Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10.
Fernando Alonso would try to hunt down the Dane in the closing laps but would instead pick up 15 seconds worth of penalties for cutting the track on the final laps as the Spaniard finished 11th.
Brendon Hartley would be 12th for Toro Rosso with Stoffel Vandoorne in between the two Williams’ as they brought up the field.
Pierre Gasly, Ocon and Marcus Ericsson would join the early retirees, all suffering from engine issues.
Full results from the season finale can be seen below:
