by Linus O'Howell
Max Verstappen dominated in Abu Dhabi like he’s done all season long to end his 2023 campaign with a ridiculous 19 race victories! Charles Leclerc finished P2 ahead of George Russell thanks to a late penalty for Sergio Perez which was enough for Mercedes to beat Ferrari to second in the Constructors’ Championship.
The Most Notable Moments
On the opening lap of the race, Charles Leclerc got multiple runs at Max Verstappen, but he just wasn’t quite able to make the pass stick whilst Lando Norris was able to clear George Russell.
📸 Leclerc stayed with Max Verstappen in the early exchanges.
After a frantic few laps which saw Norris clear his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri for third, the race died down a bit thanks to a 'DRS Train' forming behind Piastri.
Fernando Alonso was then the first of the front cars to dive into the pits on lap 13 and that forced a chain reaction from a bunch of cars which ultimately saw Russell re-overtake Norris due to a slow stop from McLaren. After most cars had made their first stops, the race started to die down again and the only overtakes that were really being done at the front of the field came on both Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz who were going longer on their Hard compound tyres. Most of the teams ended up going with a two-stop strategy due to the tyre wear being worse than expected and this created a couple of interesting battles for the final 10 or so laps of the race.
📸 Lance Stroll again scored points as he ended the season strongly.
One of those came for Yuki Tsunoda who was trying to finish 6th for Alpha Tauri to earn them 7th place in the Constructors’ Championship, something he wasn’t quite able to achieve by the flag.
📸 Tsunoda was driver of the day, and even led a few laps.
Sergio Perez was also starting to come through the field. Near the end of the race, Checo collided with Norris which resulted in Perez picking up a 5-second penalty which ultimately cost him a podium finish. However, Leclerc, who was running P2 at the time, allowed Perez to go past him in order to try and see if the Mexican driver could build a 5-second gap to Russell, something that would’ve given Ferrari second in the Championship had it happened. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t as Perez was only 3.8 seconds ahead of Russell when they crossed the line, and some 16 and a half seconds behind his Red Bull teammate who’d already well crossed the line to take the victory.
Drivers who Impressed
There were three drivers that impressed me the most in final Race of the year and the first one is Max Verstappen. It’s almost fitting that Max ended his 2023 campaign with a drive that was as dominant as his season overall.
📸 Verstappen strolled to his 19th win of the season.
The second driver I was super impressed with was Charles Leclerc because I thought Leclerc got the best result he could today, and his smart driving at the end of the race was also great to see.
The final driver that impressed me the most in 2023 was Yuki Tsunoda as I thought Tsunoda drove a terrific race which saw him lead a few laps which felt like quite a nice end to Franz Tost’s tenure in Formula 1. I also thought George Russell ended his season on a really high note which could prove to be quite important for him heading into 2024.
📸 Russell joined Verstappen and Leclerc for his second podium of the season.
Drivers who Struggled
There were two drivers that really didn’t impress me today and the first one was Valtteri Bottas. Bottas didn’t have a good race at all today and that showed with being one of only two drivers to end up a lap down.
📸 Bottas was again near the rear of the field.
The other driver who I thought had a terrible outing was Kevin Magnussen and that sort of feels fitting given how poor his 2023 season has been. I also thought Carlos Sainz had a really bad final Race of the year, even if it was hurt a bit by Ferrari’s terrible strategy whilst Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargeant, and Zhou Guanyu will all be slightly disappointed about how their final race of the season played out.
Overall Race Results
1) Max Verstappen: Winner 2)Charles Leclerc: +17.993 3)George Russell: +20.328 4) Sergio Perez: +21.453 (5 second time penalty) 5) Lando Norris: +24.284 6) Oscar Piastri: +31.487 7) Fernando Alonso: +39.512 8) Yuki Tsunoda: +43.088 9) Lewis Hamilton: +44.424 10) Lance Stroll: +55.632 11) Daniel Ricciardo: +56.229 12) Esteban Ocon: +66.373 13) Pierre Gasly: +70.360 14) Alex Albon: +73.184 15) Nico Hulkenberg: +83.696 16) Logan Sargeant: +87.791 17) Zhou Guanyu: +89.422 18) Valtteri Bottas: +1 Lap 19) Kevin Magnussen: +1 Lap.
DNF: Carlos Sainz.
📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Alfa Romeo F1 Team, Aston Martin F1 Team, Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Alpha Tauri.
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