Verstappen comfortably holds off Mercedes to seal victory in Abu Dhabi season finale
Dec 13, 2020
Abu Dhabi [UAE], December 13 : An imperious display from Max Verstappen saw him breeze through to his second victory of 2020 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix season finale, leading the Mercedes duo of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, who had no answer to the Red Bull's pace around the Yas Marina Circuit.
With Mercedes having taken every pole and race win in Abu Dhabi since 2014, Verstappen reversed that trend with the pole on Saturday, before converting it with a dominant performance under the floodlights, as he led home Bottas by 15 seconds, with Hamilton coming home just behind his teammate on his first race back since contracting Covid-19.
Verstappen's teammate Alex Albon supported Red Bull's cause by coming home P4, although having lacked the pace to really challenge the Mercedes in front of him.
Meanwhile, in a fantastic evening for McLaren, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz finished P5 and P6 - while although Sainz was set to be investigated after the race for driving unnecessarily slowly in the pit lane, McLaren seems likely to have claimed P3 in the constructors', leap-frogging Racing Point who scored just one point.
That was partly due to Sergio Perez retiring with a suspected transmission issue on Lap 10 of the race, an unfortunate end to the Racing Point career of last week's race winner.
Daniel Ricciardo came home seventh on his final outing for Renault, ahead of the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, while behind Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll took the final points-paying position in P10 having been passed on the final lap, Ocon cementing Renault's fifth in the constructors'.
Meanwhile, on his final race for Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel finished P14, behind teammate Charles Leclerc, while in what looks to be his last race in F1, Kevin Magnussen finished P18 for Haas.
But as a dominant season for Mercedes draws to a close, it's Verstappen with the advantage heading into the winter, after a fantastic race for the Dutchman - and a fast and furious 2020.
After the race, Hamilton congratulated Verstappen on his victory. "LEWIS: 'Considering the past couple of weeks I've had, I'm generally happy with how the weekend went, maybe not as good as perhaps what we would have liked, but congratulations to Max'," Formula 1 tweeted.
