A year on from the controversial battle for first in the Drivers Championship, Yas Marina played host to another tense battle to the end. Max Verstappen may have already secured the first place and drove to a comfortable victory almost nine seconds from the following pack, but all eyes were on his teammate and rival Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.
Sergio Perez found himself embroiled in a game of ‘Cat and Mouse’ with Leclerc; both drivers playing a game of strategy and holding their nerve as the race boiled down to the smallest of margins. Leclerc, however, proved victorious in the fight for second, clinching it by one single point.
Strategies varied today; some teams opted to aim for a single stop race, while others planned for a two-stop strategy. How important was this gamble in the grand scheme of not only the race, but the championship? It proved very costly for many throughout the 58 laps.
Lights out saw a clean start for the top three of Verstappen, Perez and Leclerc; Leclerc found himself looking at the back of his rival’s car initially. Heading into the first corner, Lewis Hamilton was pushed wide by Carlos Sainz, seeing him airborne over the kerb and landing heavily, but gaining him a place nevertheless. No further investigation was required by race control, however Hamilton was later instructed to give the position back – contrary to the rules put in place at the start of the season, which suggested that teams would be responsible for deciding whether they thought the place should be given back to avoid a penalty.
As DRS was activated on lap 3, both of the Red Bull drivers had pulled away from their rivals, with Perez 2.5 seconds in front of Leclerc. Hamilton and Sainz continued to scrap behind, before Hamilton finally made a move on Sainz that stuck, leaving the Spaniard vulnerable to George Russell behind in the second Mercedes which showed significant pace even in the early stages. A few laps later, the battle still raged on between Hamilton and Sainz, and as Russell approached he was confirmed to be “cleared to race” his teammate.
Further down the grid, Sebastian Vettel held the fort in ninth in his last Grand Prix before his retirement and was eyeing up eight from Esteban Ocon. The two quickly found themselves embroiled in a battle as a DRS train began to form behind, helping Mclaren’s Lando Norris ahead of Vettel to look after his tyres without having to defend against his Constructors rival Alpine.
At the front of the pack, Perez began to slip further behind his teammate as he sat three seconds back, with Leclerc in third place an extra 2.5 seconds behind Perez.
Track limits seemed to be another issue for Hamilton to deal with today; the Brit was warned twice to watch the placement of his car as he dealt with a phantom problem with the car that couldn’t be seen on the data in the pits.
On lap 13, Alex Albon became the first car to enter the pits for a fresh set of tyres, quickly followed by some of the midfield drivers from Alpha Tauri, Haas, Williams and Alpine; Esteban Ocon was called in, releasing Vettel from the battle he found himself in but still being chased by Fernando Alonso behind.
George Russell was the first of the top six to enter the pits, with his pit stop not going as smoothly as he would need it to; an issue with the back-right tyre being fitted left him stationery for 5.2 seconds, and in the rush to get back into the race, he found himself almost causing a collision with Norris as he drove down the pit lane. The issue was investigated by the stewards, who then issued him a five second penalty for an unsafe release.
Second-place Perez was next into the pits in the game of strategy, having a significantly better pit stop for a new set of hard tyres – only to find himself stuck between Vettel and Ocon as he exited the pit lane, holding him up momentarily. Sainz was next to be caught behind Vettel and Alonso, hindering his race and seeing Russell gaining on him.
Lap 21 saw the race leader Verstappen enter the pits with a hefty margin in front to help him, but it wasn’t enough; a slow pit stop of 3.4 seconds combined with not enough of a gap to second saw Leclerc go into first, and Verstappen slotting in in front of Perez.
A lap later, Leclerc pitted from first place onto a new set of hard tyres, in his first and final stop of the race and found himself behind his teammate Sainz, before quickly overtaking him.
As the race approached the mid-way point, rumblings of a strategy change began to circulate amid the teams who previously were looking at a two-stop race, exploring the possibility of going long on the tyres they had on. However on the opposite end of the scale, the Aston Martin of Vettel set on a one-stop strategy began to slip back, with the German describing them as ‘sitting ducks’ in his final race of his career. A slow stop in the pits saw him returning to the field in 19th place, with a lot to make up.
Lap 28 saw the first retirement of the race as Alonso was wheeled back into the garage with a suspected water leak, Alpine with one car remaining to secure maximum points for the team in their battle against Mclaren.
Tyres began to wear down and paces got slower heading into the mid-30 laps; Sainz began to struggle as he lost grip around Yas Marina and Perez was called in for a fresh set on lap 34, seeing Leclerc stay out and take Perez’ place. The split in strategies was confirmed – Perez was now running a two-stop race and had boxed 3-4 laps earlier than advised for best performance by the tyre manufacturer Pirelli, while Leclerc gambled to stay on the old set, which were 12 laps older than Perez’.
The surprise move to a one-stop race by Ferrari left Perez with a difficult fight on his hands – as lap 37 approached, he would have to make up a whopping eighteen seconds and overtake four cars in the last stint of the race. Never one to back down, he then set the fastest lap of the race on lap 37.
In another eerily similar moment to last year, yellow flags were waved at the sight of the wounded Williams of Latifi but unlike last year, no safety cars were required. The accident was caused by Mick Schumacher, who clipped Latifi as he rounded the corner particularly slowly, causing both drivers to spin out but both cars continuing on. Schumacher picked up a five second penalty for causing a collision.
Towards the front of the grid, Lewis Hamilton was back gaining on his teammate, who was very quickly pulled into the pits alongside the Ferrari of Sainz – but Russell was stationary for an extra five seconds as he served the penalty he received earlier. Hamilton, on the other hand, was running a one-stop race much to his dismay, telling his team “Don’t leave me on one stop mate”.
With Verstappen now 7.3 seconds ahead of the pack, victory seemed almost completely tied up, all eyes remained on Perez, who was catching Leclerc on tyres twelve laps younger going into the last fifteen laps. In between Perez and Leclerc, however, Lewis Hamilton was still looking for good points and locked in a brief battle with the Red Bull driver, before Perez made it through. The challenge had taken its’ toll on Perez’ bid for second, though, losing him a valuable lap to make up time to Leclerc and leaving him still eight seconds behind going into the final ten laps. To add insult to injury, Leclerc posted his personal best time for the race so far – was it all slipping away from Perez?
It began to look like it had all slipped away for Vettel, too, asking his team “how did we get the strategy so wrong?” following his teammate pushing him out of the points and taking on Daniel Ricciardo for ninth.
Lewis Hamilton also found it all going wrong too; his tyres began to drop off going into the last eight laps and he was shown the black and white flag for track limits going into the final six laps. To add insult to injury, as well as his strategy proving a hindrance for him, the Mercedes suffered a hydraulic problem sending him tumbling down the standings, forcing him to retire with two laps to go.
Nicholas Latifi became the last retiree of the race, the damage to his car from the previous incident with Schumacher proving fatal. He retired to the garage on the second last lap of the last race of his F1 career.
In the thick of the brawl for second place, Perez was still quickly gaining on Leclerc but on the last lap it proved too tall of an order for the Red Bull number two – he would have to settle for third in the standings.
Leclerc passed the chequered flag second to Verstappen, seeing him take second in the Drivers Championship by three points and depriving Red Bull of their first 1-2 in the overall standings.
Fourth across the line was Carlos Sainz followed by George Russell, Lando Norris took home sixth and Esteban Ocon seventh. Lance Stroll finished in eighth on a different strategy to his teammate Vettel who finished with a point in his last career race in tenth, and Daniel Ricciardo finished his last race for the time being in ninth.
Smoke and burning rubber covered the track as the top three drivers took part in the ceremonial doughnuts, signifying the end of the season. A lone Sebastian Vettel then signified the end of something a lot more significant with some doughnuts, drawing the race and a magnificent career to a close.