
2018 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton signed off the season in style, winning the final race held in Abu Dhabi with a well-controlled drive. His main rival for the World Championship this season, Sebastian Vettel, finished the race in second place for Ferrari, whilst Dutch driver Max Verstappen finished in third place for Red Bull.
At the start, Hamilton got away very well and led going into turn 1 ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who also got a decent start and held his second place. Verstappen, down in sixth, got a decent initial getaway, but in the second phase his engine went into some safe mode and he dropped down to ninth place. Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg was involved in a scary-looking accident where his car rolled after touching Romain Grosjean's Haas, and he (Hulkenberg) landed upside down. Fortunately, however, Nico Hulkenberg emerged unscathed and fine from the crash - and the incident was deemed a racing incident, and neither driver was penalised in any way.
The Safety Car (SC) was deployed in the wake of that crash, and at this point the order was: Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Charles Leclerc (who made an impressive start and overtook the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo), Ricciardo, Grosjean, Esteban Ocon, Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
The SC came in at the end of lap 5, and Hamilton got a great restart and led. Verstappen was initially overtaken by Perez after seemingly still having problems with his engine, but he then reclaimed the place back and it seemed like the issues were sorted. On lap 6, Verstappen got past Ocon for eighth place.
On lap 7, Raikkonen, driving his final race for Ferrari, stopped on the start/finish straight with what seemed to be an engine failure - a disappointing end to his time with the Scuderia. As a result of the incident, the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed.
Hamilton from the lead pitted during the VSC, whilst Leclerc and Grosjean also took advantage of the VSC to switch onto the super-soft tyres. At this point, the order was: Bottas, Vettel, Ricciardo, Verstappen and Hamilton (who had made a pitstop for new tyres).
The VSC ended on lap 9, and not long after on the restart, Hamilton got past Verstappen, but the Dutchman re-passed him on the main straight and held the position. On lap 16, Vettel pitted from second place in an attempt to undercut Bottas, however, it was a slow stop for the German and he ended up re-emerging in sixth place behind Ocon (who of course had not stopped yet at this point), but quickly got back past the Frenchman. Bottas himself pitted a lap later, and thanks to a smooth pitstop, re-emerged ahead of Vettel fairly comfortably. Verstappen pitted on the following lap, and re-emerged back in fifth place. The order at this point was: Ricciardo (who had not yet stopped), Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel and Verstappen.
On lap 26, Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson, taking part in his 97th and last Formula 1 race, retired after a loss of power. Meanwhile, on lap 32, drivers Esteban Ocon and Stoffel Vandoorne were involved in a wheel-to-wheel battle which ended up with Ocon running wide, and he was penalised with a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
On lap 34, Ricciardo finally pitted from the lead of the race, and re-emerged back in fifth place. Meanwhile, on lap 35, Bottas began to struggle severely with his tyres and Vettel managed to get past the Finn for second place, with Verstappen following suit on lap 39 in what was certainly a rather aggressive move from the Dutchman. Just to add insult to injury, Bottas got passed by Ricciardo not too long after. He pitted after being overtaken by Ricciardo for a new set of ultra-softs, with the team thinking he had an issue with his right-rear tyre following contact with Verstappen when duelling for the position.
On lap 46, Ocon retired after smoke began to appear from the back of the car, whilst not too long after, Pierre Gasly, who will be driving for Red Bull in 2019 in place of Daniel Ricciardo, also retired with what could have been an engine issue after there was smoke in the back of his car. Fernando Alonso, making his last Formula 1 appearance, was given a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
However, up at the front, there was just no stopping Hamilton, who controlled the race beautifully upfront, winning his 11th race of the season, a personal record which he equals from the 2014 season. Vettel came home in second place, with Verstappen taking third, and thanks to his third-place finish, it was enough for him to overtake Bottas for fourth in the World Championship classification, but it wasn't enough to overtake Raikkonen who failed to finish the race. Verstappen's team-mate, Ricciardo, in his 100th and final race for Red Bull, finished fourth, with Bottas finishing fifth. Renault's Carlos Sainz, also making his last appearance for the team before moving to McLaren, finished in an impressive sixth place, whilst Leclerc, in his last appearance for Sauber before making his move to Ferrari for next season, finished in 7th. The rest of the points scorers were Perez, Grosjean and Magnussen.
Classification:
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Carlos Sainz - Renault
Charles Leclerc - Sauber-Ferrari
Sergio Perez - Racing Point Force India-Mercedes
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Renault
Brendon Hartley - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Renault
Sergey Sirotkin - Williams-Mercedes
Did not finish the race and therefore not classified: Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Marcus Ericsson, Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg.
World Championship final classification:
Lewis Hamilton - 408 points
Sebastian Vettel - 320 points
Kimi Raikkonen - 251 points
Max Verstappen - 249 points
Valtteri Bottas - 247 points
Daniel Ricciardo - 170 points
Nico Hulkenberg - 69 points
Sergio Perez - 62 points
Kevin Magnussen - 56 points
Carlos Sainz - 53 points
Fernando Alonso - 50 points
Esteban Ocon - 49 points
Charles Leclerc - 39 points
Romain Grosjean - 37 points
Pierre Gasly - 29 points
Stoffel Vandoorne - 12 points
Marcus Ericsson - 9 points
Lance Stroll - 6 points
Brendon Hartley - 4 points
Sergey Sirotkin - 1 point
Constructors' Championship final classification:
Mercedes - 655 points
Ferrari - 571 points
Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 419 points
Renault - 122 points
Haas-Ferrari - 93 points
McLaren-Renault - 62 points
Racing Point Force India-Mercedes - 52 points
Sauber-Ferrari - 48 points
Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda - 33 points
Williams-Mercedes - 7 points
Thanks a lot for following us during the season for regular updates, and we look forward to the 2019 season which will begin on the 17th March in Australia! We will keep you updated with any major headlines during the post-season.