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Hamilton finishes off title-winning season with win in Abu Dhabi!

Hamilton finishes off title-winning season with win in Abu Dhabi!

25-11-2018 14:54
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Lewis Hamilton has won the final race of his title-winning season, as the Brit won his 11th race of the season in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina Circuit, with Fernando Alonso finishing 11th in his final race in F1.

The five-time champion started from pole position and stayed there after a good start from his part. As the Safety Car was out for seven laps after a massive crash from Nico Hülkenberg, Hamilton decided to pit very early and drive the rest of the race on supersoft tyres.

Filling out the podium were the usual suspects Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, with the two finishing second and third respectively. Kimi Raikkonen saw his final race for Ferrari end in drama, as his car lost all power just a few laps into the race. 

Fernando Alonso, who was voted Driver of the Day in his final race before retiring from Formula 1, finished just outside of the points in P11. Marcus Ericsson and Esteban Ocon, two drivers who will leave the sport for at least the 2019-season, both ended their races in mechanical retirements as well, with the total amount of retirements going up to five in the end.

How it happened

The start was fairly straight-forward at the top of the field, except for Verstappen. The Dutchman tumbled down the grid with a very bad start, dropping all the way down to P10. He had problems with ERS deployment which cost him a lot of straight-line speed, and it even looked like he could retire from the race, but a system reboot fixed that problems a few laps in.

The first lap also saw a spectacular crash from Nico Hülkenberg. The German tried to take Romain Grosjean in a chicane but left the Frenchman no room, and when the two touched Hülkenberg's Renault got catapulted into the air. He flipped several times before landing upside down against the boarding. He was fine, but out of the race.

Another man who was out of the race early-on was Kimi Raikkonen. In his final race for Ferrari, his system simply failed on him only a few laps into the race. He stopped on the start/finish line. What an anticlimactic end of his second stint at Ferrari. He deserved much better than that.

Meanwhile, Verstappen rebooted his system and regained his power, and he made the most of it. He climbed back to P5 and snuck higher as Hamilton went for an early stop.

Hamilton did that to have a very long stint on the supersoft tyre, the hardest compound available. He came out of the pit in P5 but went back up as all drivers in front of him started to come in for their pit stops. Daniel Ricciardo went longest out of all of them, going well over half of the race on his first set of tyres. He finally came in after 35 laps and emerged behind his teammate Verstappen.

The Red Bull pair went charging together, though. Valtteri Bottas, who was in second, got picked off by all drivers behind him. Vettel first sent his Ferrari down the inside of Bottas, and Verstappen and Ricciardo soon followed with two nice overtakes on the Finn. Verstappen touched wheels when overtaking him, but in a fair way. Verstappen was in the podium places.

Cars then started to drop like flies. Ericsson first had an engine failure, with the Swede's final race in F1 ending in tears before he heads to IndyCar next year. Then, it was Ocon's turn, another driver who will leave F1 after this race. He had a hydraulic issue and his car stopped as he entered the pit lane to retire. And lastly, Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman lost power in his final Toro Rosso race before heading to Red Bull at the start of 2019. Five retirements in total.

That's it for 2018

With Hamilton leading Vettel and Verstappen to the podium, we conclude the 2018 season. A season where Ferrari truly looked like they were going to win one of the two championships at least in the first months, and a season where Hamilton once again reminded everyone, whether you like him or not, why he is one of the best drivers of all time in F1. 

Ferrari will absolutely come back stronger in 2019, when the grid will look so different. 12 drivers will either make their debut in F1 or will make their debut for a new team next season (well, 11, Raikkonen has already driven for Sauber in 2001). We can't wait to see how next season will unfold, but we'll have to wait a few months before that. Until then, we at GPblog will keep you updated on all the latest news.