That’s it from me - but here’s Giles Richards’ race report:
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Meanwhile, Liberty Media have unveiled a new logo for Formula One:
After an amazing season – a new #F1 era awaits
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 26, 2017
Our greatest races are ahead of us
#Unleash2018 pic.twitter.com/1g0KSjeVhj
Williams have paid tribute to Felipe Massa, who retires from F1 (for now, possibly, who knows?).
Felipe crosses the line and finishes his final @F1 race with some donuts! Thank you for everything, and congrats on a fantastic career! #ObrigadoMassa #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/KjtglewM0h
— WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) November 26, 2017
If you missed it earlier, an interesting tale from the business desk:
There’s plenty more live action this afternoon - Gregg Bakowski has the tail end of Southampton v Everton here. And Simon Burnton is getting stretched for the start of Huddersfield v Manchester City here.
Well, that’s that for the 2017 Formula One season. When it comes back in March, it’s going to look different, what with the mandatory use of the halo system, but are we going to get different faces on the podium? Can anyone compete with Mercedes? Can they retain their dominance? Can Ferrari sort their act out? Or are we going to see Red Bull pull to the front of the grid?
Vettel says: “After three or four laps, I couldn’t go any faster and they pulled away. It was pretty lonely. But in the second part of the race, I got into the rhythm and was better. But congrats to Valtteri and to Lewis for the championship, as much as I hate to say it!”
Lewis Hamilton: “I gave it everything. But it’s very hard to overtake here. I want to say thanks to the team both here and back at the factory. Thanks to all the fans here.”
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Valtteri Bottas says: “It was a really important win for me after a difficult start to the second half of the year. I couldn’t be happier to end the season like this. Congratulations to Lewis for the championship and Sebastian for second plce.”
Asked how he felt seeing Hamilton pushing him hard: “I was really managing the race. Then in the last couple of laps I was able to open up a gap.”
Updated
Nico Rosberg is in the crowd, looking wistful as Bottas holds the trophy aloft. Is there a part of him that wishes it was him up there? Given he’d be stood next Lewis Hamilton, probably not.
Bottas strides onto top step of the podium, looking justifiably chuffed to bits. Hamilton and Vettel pat him on the back on the way up, before he stands for the Finnish anthem.
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Backstage in the winners’ room, it’s all warmth and friendliness between Hamilton, Bottas and Vettel but not towards the track. “It was impossible to get past,” says Hamilton to Bottas. “I think they’ve got to change this track.”
Updated
The Yas Marina circuit looks pretty under the lights, there are a lot of pretty people in the crowd, but it delivered a pretty rotten race. Aside from Ricciardo, who retired, and Massa and Alonso’s switcheroo, the top 10 finished in grid order. That cannot be good for the sport.
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Hamilton, the championship winner, and Bottas, the race winner, do some donuts on the finish straight, before Massa pulls up alongside them to wave an emotional farewell (for now, possibly, who knows?)
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Final results
1. Bottas (Mercedes)
2. Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Vettel (Ferrari)
4. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
5. Verstappen (Red Bull)
6. Hulkenberg (Renault)
7. Perez (Force India)
8. Ocon (Force India)
9. Alonso (McLaren)
10. Massa (Williams)
11. Grosjean (Haas)
12. Vandoorne (McLaren)
13. Magnussen (Haas)
14. Wehrlein (Sauber)
15. Hartley (Toro Roso)
16. Gasly (Toro Rosso)
17. Ericsson (Sauber)
18. Stroll (Williams)
Ret: Ricciardo, Sainz
Raikkonen is fourth, Verstappen fifth and Renault seal sixth in the Constructor’s Championship as Hulkenberg finishes sixth in the race. Raikkonnen goes past Ricciardo to take fourth in the drivers championship. Massa, in his final race (possibly, who knows?) as a driver comes in 10th and in the points.
Bottas wins the Abu Dhabi GP!
He has led from pole, and comes home for a very strong win. A dominant drive. Lewis Hamilton finishes second, Sebastian Vettel is third.
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Lap 54/55: So, with two laps to go, Bottas on course for pole, fastest lap and the race win, having led every lap except the ones immediately after he pitted. Fair play.
Lap 53/55: Bottas takes the race’s fastest lap back off Vettel, and it’s to his credit he’s still pushing. He’s opened up a 3.68sec lead over Hamilton now, who appears to have stopped trying to get past and has more or less handed the Finn the race.
Updated
Lap 51/55: Vettel, out of nowhere, sets the fastest lap of the race. For no good reason whatsoever. But well done him - should have thought about that about 40 laps ago. He’s 20 seconds behind Hamilton in second place. Here’s the Top 10, and it’s likely to stay that way.
1. Bottas (Mercedes)
2. Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Vettel (Ferrari)
4. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
5. Verstappen (Red Bull)
6. Hulkenberg (Renault)
7. Perez (Force India)
8. Ocon (Force India)
9. Alonso (McLaren)
10. Massa (Williams)
Lap 50/55: Here comes Hamilton! He brakes very late, nearly concertina-ing Bottas into a bend, than comes after him like a bat out of hell. With DRS on his side he comes within six feet of Bottas, but there’s no obvious way past. Alonso, in ninth, is in the midst of it and scampers to get out of the way, but still Hamilton cannot get past.
Updated
Lap 49/55: Gasly is complaining about vibrations in his tyres, so Sauber have told Ericsson to have a crack at him. Gasly is in 16th, Ericsson 17th. So, fine, enjoy yourselves lads, it’s not going to make much difference.
Lap 48/55: Hamilton has steeled himself again and is taking time out of Bottas once more. Is this one last attempt to get past? It feels like a futile effort, but he may as well have a crack - he doesn’t have anything to lose.
Lap 45/55: With 10 laps to go, here’s how it stands. Aside from Alonso and Massa, and Ricciardo’s retirement, the top 10 are in the same order they started in. It’s not been a classic.
1. Bottas (Mercedes)
2. Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Vettel (Ferrari)
4. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
5. Verstappen (Red Bull)
6. Hulkenberg (Renault)
7. Perez (Force India)
8. Ocon (Force India)
9. Alonso (McLaren)
10. Massa (Williams)
11. Grosjean (Haas)
12. Vandoorne (McLaren)
13. Magnussen (Haas)
14. Wehrlein (Sauber)
15. Hartley (Toro Roso)
16. Gasly (Toro Rosso)
17. Ericsson (Sauber)
18. Stroll (Williams)
Ret: Ricciardo, Sainz
Lap 44/55: Hulkenberg, in splendid isolation in sixth, is just cruising along. Basically, if he can keep the car on the road here, he’ll earn Renault sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
Lap 43/55: Bottas is hitting back at Hamilton - he has just set two fastest laps in a row, sending a message to the man in second position that he may as well get used to being stuck there.
Lap 42/55: It’s all happening down in 14th, 15th, and 16th, with Magnussen having to hold off Wehrlein and Hartly. It’s been said before, but if the best action in the race is for 14th position, your track isn’t very good.
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Lap 41/55: Verstappen bobs and weaves down the home straight - is he trying to get heat in his tyres at this stage? Or perhaps he’s trying to clean off some dust after going a bit wide on an earlier turn?
Lap 41/55: Aside from the top two, the only other battle up top is between Verstappen and Raikkonen. The Red Bull driver is 1.1sec behind the Ferrari but is on older tyres. Raikkonen appears happy enough to just be holding off Verstappen for the benefit of Vettel, 12 seconds up the road.
Lap 38/55: Hamilton is beginning to look frustrated at not being able to get past Bottas now, wheelspinning and having to employ some opposite lock as he piles on the juice while coming out of a corner. He still delivers a fastest lap with it, keeping the pressure on Bottas. It’s perhaps a sign of how much he wants to carry some momentum into the off season.
Lap 38/55: Gasly goes for a lovely Sunday drive around the outskirts of the marina, not allowing the strict edicts of the track to hamper his freestyle jazz definition of where he should be driving. Lovely stuff.
Lap 37/55: This was the end of Sainz’s race:
LAP 33/55: ❌That loose wheel has put an end to @Carlossainz55's race #AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/UEvwqVovLi
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 26, 2017
Lap 36/55: Down at the back end of the race, Ericsson leaves Stroll for dead as he goes past him. Perhaps an issue with Stroll’s car. He’s pitted twice already and is saying the car is un-driveable.
Lap 35/55: Hamilton chips another six tenths of a second out of Bottas’s lead and looks like he was getting ready for another crack at him. He appears to get himself into play, has a go for a couple of laps, then drops off and allows his engine to recover.
Lap 34/55: So Sainz’s retirement means Hulkenberg is up to sixth, Perez in seventh, Ocon in eighth, followed by Alonso and Massa in that order.
Lap 32/55: What’s happened here? Sainz slides off the track, and parks his car on the grass. “One tyre is off,” he says. He had pitted moments ago and, even as he was driving down the pit lane, it was obvious it was wobbling and he nearly lost control there. He could have baled out in the pit lane, but would have blocked the tunnel, instead, he headed out onto the track and parked on the grass. Could be a fine for Renault for letting him out onto the track with his car in that state.
Lap 31/55: Hamilton is still lapping faster than Bottas - by two tenths of a second - and the pair have a gap of 13 seconds between them and Vettel in third.
Lap 30/55: Top 10 as Hamilton starts beginning to engage Bottas in a proper battle.
1. Bottas (Mercedes)
2. Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Vettel (Ferrari)
4. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
5. Verstappen (Red Bull)
6. Ocon (Force India)
7. Sainz Jr (Renault)
8. Hulkenberg (Renault)
9. Perez (Force India)
10. Grosjean (Haas)
Updated
Lap 29/55: Hamilton wants this. The two Mercedes are running into back markers and the British driver is hoping that might confuse Bottas. He’s far later on the brakes than Bottas, and seems utterly focused. If he can get alongside Bottas, he’ll go past - but if he pushes too hard, he’ll go off.
Lap 27/55: Hamilton is screaming around the track, lapping seven tenths faster than Bottas ahead of him. Vettel? Not so much:
Vettel chasing both Mercedes cars like... #F1 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/uygqXYvegB
— Giedo van der Garde (@GvanderGarde) November 26, 2017
Lap 26/55: “I dispute Hamilton’s claim to not have learned anything from any teammate but Alonso,” emails James Chambers. “It seems that he might have learned something from Rosberg after all. His mature, quiet, perseverance since the break, has led to five first place finishes and the championship. Very reminiscent of Rosberg’s ice cold laser focus to close out the 2016 F1 Championship.”
Lap 25/55: It was close but Bottas gets out in front of his team-mate. Actually, it was not that close - Hamilton is 2.19 sec behind Bottas. So Bottas leads again, Hamilton second, Vettel third, Ricciardo is out, leaving Raikkonen in fourth and Verstappen in fifth.
Lap 25/55: Hamilton has got bogged down behind back markers, so Mercedes pit him. Let’s see if he can get out in front of of Bottas.
Lap 24/55: Alonso finally goes past Massa, the man he has been fighting all race. A lovely overtake sees him into 11th, with Massa unable to fight back in his final race.
Lap 23: Hamilton has a lead of 19.6 seconds. Pitting costs about 21 seconds, so if he can get the hammer down, he can engineer a lead here.
Lap 23: So Hamilton now leads with Bottas pitting. The top 10 looks like this:
1. Hamilton (Mercedes)
2. Bottas (Mercedes)
3. Vettel (Ferrari)
4. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
5. Verstappen (Red Bull)
6. Ocon (Force India)
7. Massa (Williams)
8. Sainz Jr (Renault)
9. Hulkenberg (Renault)
10. Grosjean (Haas)
Updated
Lap 22: Ricciardo is out! He touched a wall, got a puncture, and now has a hydraulic issue. It’s another slice of bad luck for the likeable Australian! Bottas comes in for a tyre change.
Lap 20: Ricciardo pits at the last minute, thinking he might have a puncture. The crew scramble to be ready for him, and make a hair of their teeth stop. He comes back out in fourth, not losing a position.
Lap 18: Hulkenberg comes in for his five second penalty and a pit stop - but his crew mess up the tyre change. Will justice be served and will he come out behind Perez? No. Gah.
Lap 17: Gasly has an enjoyable little spin in Sector 3, losing position to his team-mate Hartly.
Lap 16: But not for long! Verstappen wriggles past Ocon brilliantly, then holds him off as he is attacked back. Hamilton, meanwhile, has told his crew to stop the chatter on the team radio - a suggestion of stress up front?
Lap 16: There’s a bit of a scrap between Alonso in 11th and Massa in 10th, with the Brazilian holding off the Spaniard masterfully. Raikkonen comes into the pits now, aiming to come back out in front of Verstappen … he skids in the pit lane … and still manages it! He’s out in seventh, Ocon is in eighth and Verstappen, furious, is in ninth.
Lap 15: The Red Bull crew are in the pit and giving Verstappen a fresh set of tyres. A 2.1sec stop - oof! He wasn’t going anywhere behind Raikkonen so he may as well have come in. He pops back out in ninth.
Lap 14: Vandoorne has pitted too now as the sun is about to set over the Yas Marina. There are suggestions some in the crowd are wondering whether the formation lap is still going on, given how little racing appears to be happening out there.
Lap 12: Stroll immediately pits. Here’s some reading for you since nothing much is happening on track.
Lap 11: Grosjean and Stroll touch as Grosjean goes past the Canadian, then Stroll uses DRS to go back past him. But Grosjean holds him off! And finally the Frenchman is through. An overtake! An overtake! The most engrossing action of the race is happening down in 13th and 14th! Good old Yas Marina.
Here’s how it looks on lap 10:
1. Bottas (Mercedes)
2. Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Vettel (Ferrari)
4. Ricciardo (Red Bull)
5. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
6. Verstappen (Red Bull)
7. Hulkenberg (Renault)
8. Perez (Force India)
9. Ocon (Force India)
10. Massa (Williams)
11. Alonso (McLaren)
12. Sainz Jr (Renault)
13. Stroll (Williams)
14. Grosjean (Haas)
15. Vandoorne (McLaren)
16. Gasly (Toro Rosso)
17. Wehrlein (Sauber)
18. Hartley (Toro Roso)
19. Magnussen (Haas)
20. Ericsson (Sauber)
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Lap 10: It’s a track renowned for being awful for overtaking … and the top 13 are exactly as they were from the grid at the moment. Grosjean has another crack at Stroll down in 13th and 14th, but the Frenchman can’t make it stick for the second time.
Lap 8: The two Mercedes are out in front, with Hamilton 1.8sec behind Bottas. Then there’s a 2.5sec gap back to Vettel, with a further 2.1sec gap to Ricciardo. Raikkonen is 2.8sec behind him with Verstappen all over the back of the Finn.
Lap 7: There’s a feeling at Red Bull that Raikkonen is holding Verstappen back, deliberately creating a gap ahead to make Vettel’s life easier.
Lap 7: Grosjean muscles past Stroll into 13th, but Stroll DRSs his way back again. It’s an entertaining battle but doesn’t bring the Frenchman much joy.
Lap 5: Hamilton sets a fastest lap. Meanwhile, seeing the replay, Hulkenberg may get a time penalty but not be forced to give the place back - that’s probably the wrong call.
Lap 2: Bottas drives the fastest lap of the race - he’s 1.3sec ahead of Hamilton. And with the order undisturbed by the the start, the leaders are settling into a pattern and consolidating. An investigation has been opened into Hulkenberg and Perez - Hulkenberg locked up, went off the track and came out of turn 12 ahead of Perez. He’ll have to give the place back, reports suggest.
Lap 1: Did Hulkenberg gain an unfair advantage over Perez by going off track? Perez thinks he has.
Lap 1: Magnussen had a spin, Hartly neglected the chicane, but nothing has troubled the top six and Mercedes have pulled away at the front.
GO! GO! GO!
It’s as you were from the grid into turn one, Bottas, Hamilton, Vettel (who locks up) and Ricciardo.
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Bottas slots his car into pole position and the rest of the grid roll in behind him. We’ll have a race here in a minute.
The tyre warmers are off the tyres, the mechanics are off the grid. It’s just the cars now. They take their feet off the brakes, slip the cars in gear, and set off around the three-and-a-half mile Yas Marina track. Everyone seems to be on the ultrasoft, except the three back markers.
Early reports are suggesting Sam Allardyce was on the grid pre-race. Sheesh. And Gordon Ramsay.
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Right, let’s get down to business. It’ five minutes until lights out, and we’re about to get the formation lap. Th race itself is 55 laps, all under the setting sun of Abu Dhabi.
An email from Luis Monteiro Duarte, who says it’s the first he’s sent to the Guardian. “This was the first F1 season I’ve followed properly, and as a Ferrari sympathiser, it was a little disappointing. However, since I’m not a huge fan, I found Hamilton’s title chase quite exciting. I am looking forward to the next season, with a secret hope that Red Bull can achieve the levels of performance of Mercedes and Ferrari. In my opinion, a third element always makes things more interesting …”
It looked a bit like this:
🇦🇪 #AbuDhabiGP @F1 pic.twitter.com/ttarHFX8uC
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) November 26, 2017
It’s national anthem time, but before that, there’s just time for a fly past from a bunch of jets, a jumbo and a load of smoke. And then a curious, lengthy silence in which absolutely nothing appears to happen.
Martin Brundle is doing his guerilla interviewer schtick for Sky Sports on the grid. It’s utterly insane how many people are millig about an F1 grid 15 minutes before kick-off - celebrities, TV presenters, former drivers, hangers on, mechanics etc. The drivers just seem to accept it with good grace. Imagine 500 people milling about a Premier League dressing room pre-match.
Felipe Massa is on the grid for the last time as a driver (possibly, maybe, who knows etc). “Thank you all of you guys for supporting me,” he says into the camera. “Thank you.”
Fernando Alonso is in chatty mood on the starting grid, seemingly relaxed and positive. A far cry from this earlier in the season when he was told to maintain his rear tyres:
The grid
1. Bottas (Mercedes)
2. Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Vettel (Ferrari)
4. Ricciardo (Red Bull)
5. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
6. Verstappen (Red Bull)
7. Hulkenberg (Renault)
8. Perez (Force India)
9. Ocon (Force India)
10. Massa (Williams)
11. Alonso (McLaren)
12. Sainz Jr (Renault)
13. Vandoorne (McLaren)
14. Magnussen (Haas)
15. Stroll (Williams)
16. Grosjean (Haas)
17. Gasly (Toro Rosso)
18. Wehrlein (Sauber)
19. Ericsson (Sauber)
20. Hartley (Toro Roso)
Meanwhile in Abu Dhabi, the pit lane has just opened and the cars are rolling out from the garages and onto the tracks.
An opinion from Elliot Wilson in Korea (south presumably, he doesn’t specify): “There is a strangeness about Vettel at key moments ... and they aren’t necessarily the moments you’d predict. The hectoring of Charlie Whiting; the tyre-to-tyre action in Azerbaijan. These didn’t happen in make-or-break races yet the red mist descended on Vettel. My view is that as undeniably brilliant as he is, Vettel had it relatively easy at Red Bull while winning his four titles - Ferrari and McLaren had problems, Mercedes were on the way up but not there yet - and that deep down, while Hamilton and Alonso see each other as the true greats of this era, Vettel isn’t quite a member of that elite party. They know it, Vettel knows it, and he knows they know it. I could be wrong ...”
It’s been quite the season and it’s hard to pick an outright highlight - but I wonder if the defining moment was the incident between Hamilton and Vettel in Baku. Before it, the pair had been weirdly friendly - Hamilton said “there’s no bromance but we have hugely respectful competitiveness) - but after Vettel thumped into him while behind the safety car, then shook a fist at him, the relationship changed. Hamilton called the move “dangerous”, “disgusting” and “disgraceful”. It seemed very much that was the end of the bromance - from there on, the gloves were off.
It was an impression reinforced when Hamilton beat Vettel in Spa despite clearly having a slower car - the resilience he showed there in not letting Vettel through was impressive. “I never really had a chance,” admitted the German.
Or was it the Hamilton win in Singapore? Ferrari should have had it in the bag, and Hamilton admitted he needed a miracle. He got it when Vettel was eliminated within seconds of lights out after a crash. Before the race, Hamilton had a three point lead over Vettel, after it, he had a 28 point lead.
Thoughts?
So long, then (again), Felipe Massa (for now, possibly, who knows?). After an emotional farewell in Brazil last year, another emotional farewell in Abu Dhabi in 2016, an emotional farewell in Brazil two weeks ago, who knows what we’ll get today - or even how long it will last?
The Brazilian retired from F1 in 2016, saying he had achieved “many of many dreams” in a brilliant career in which he came back from that awful incident in which he fractured his skull, and lost the 2008 championship in gracious fashion to Hamilton. And then he made a U-turn, rejoining Williams after Bottas joined Mercedes.
Actually, to be honest, he seems less emotional about retiring now, and slightly narked about it: “I’m at the top of my competitiveness,” he come and get me-ed, before promising he would “risk everything” in this race and wouldn’t care what happened as a result. Could be a recipe for a thrill ride.
Preamble
The title-race might be over, but there’s an awful more than that going on in the final grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi. Valtteri Bottas upstaged Lewis Hamilton in qualifying on Saturday and though the new world champion offered plenty of plaudits to his junior Mercedes team-mate, you sense he was a piqued and wouldn’t mind beating him off the line to seal the lead going into the first bend.
Bottas still has much to prove - he’s signed on for another year at Mercedes but there’s a feeling he still needs to improve his consistency and a win here, particularly after the disappointment of his start in Brazil, would do much to give him momentum going into next season. Bottas should have won in Brazil with a bit more aggression and nous and must improve his first lap performances going into 2018. Today could be a chance to prove he can do that. Mercedes, for their part, have nothing to lose by letting their two drivers slug it out.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has given off something of a bulldog chewing a wasp vibe since losing out on the F1 title, so will be keen to exact some measure of revenge by grabbing the headlines on the final race of the season. He starts from third. Both Ferrari drivers seemed to struggle with tyre inconsistencies in qualifying, with Raikkonen pipped by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo to fourth on the grid but ahead of Max Verstappen who is in sixth, and the battle between the two teams could be the most interesting of the race. Ricciardo’s second run in Q3 was rocket-powered and if that means he’s got to grips with car and track, he could be onto something here. “I think we can have a chance for the podium,” he said. “I don’t think the start will be straightforward, it’s the last race of the year and everyone wants to win, so there could be some action and hopefully I’m there to be a part of it
Of other interest is the constructor’s championship, with Toro Rosso (53 points), Renault (49) and Haas (47) likely to be slugging it out for sixth. Nico Hulkenburg is seventh on the grid and if he can keep himself there, should seal sixth for Renault.
Over-taking is tricky in Abu Dhabi, tyre degradation is minimal and, since it is an evening race, heat will be less of an issue than it might have been, so it’s a race that should be all about pace. A one-stop strategy seems most likely with drivers on a mix of ultrasoft and supersofts.
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