Abu Dhabi GP Race Report

At last, the final race of the season.  Several drivers had complained they had reached this point tired and sick.

Everyone lined up cleanly.  LeClerc made a good start, with Verstappen going aggressive to stay ahead, cutting him off.  The McLarens made it up to 3rd and 4th.    LeClerc battled to get past and Verstappen moved his Red Bull decisively, cutting him off and after two laps, he was more than a second ahead.  Tsunoda held his 6th place and Sainz was up to 13th from 17th.  Albon fell to 18th, Perez also lost out.

On lap 5, Norris made the crucial pass on his team mate; firmly cementing his 2023 reputation as someone who cannot put a qualifying lap together but knows how to race.  On Lap 11, Russell got past Piastri to finally get back to his starting position of 4th.  The Australian was immediately under pressure from Tsuonda, as Perez got past Gasly.

The first round of pit stops came early, led by Piastri.  Russell got past Norris in these as McLaren had a problem.  Hamilton and Gasly had a racing incident, with the Mercedes coming off worse.

The hard tyres worked really well initially, with the rest of the field all having pitted a few laps later.  Verstappen came out of it a couple of seconds ahead of LeClerc and Russell charged through the pack.  Both Williams were running last.  Gasly was fuming that they played the undercut so his team mate Ocon over took him.  The headline of this phase was Tsunoda leading the race for several laps.

When the second round of pit stops started, with Ocon returning to the garage to get him wheel tightened,  Norris got a clean stop.  Russell's undercut didn't work, with LeClerc coming out ahead of him.

The drivers continued to battle.  Perez and Norris came together, with Norris being crashed into and forced off the track.  Perez was given a 5 second penalty.  Hamilton, then Gasly, were both investigated for pit stop infringements, which turned out to be because the pit crew didn't have their helmet visors down.  LeClerc schemed to back Russell into Perez if they needed to swap the order for the Constructors Championship position.  In the end, he didn't need any help and got past Russell easily as the Mercedes driver was a little sleepy at the end of the long season.

A lot was decided behind race winner Verstappen, who doughnutted to finish: Mercedes beat Ferrari to 2nd place in the championship, Williams secured 7th, Alonso fourth ahead of LeClerc and Norris, Gasly outscored Ocon, Tsunoda outscored Ricciardo but by only by 11 points in 6 races.  LeClerc finishing 5th really doesn't reflect his season of pole to possible podiums/possible crashes.  Of the bottom four teams, Albon was the highest scoring driver, 26 points ahead of his team mate.  Sargeant did beat someone in the championship, the forgotten De Vries.

Verstappen showed himself to be a man of the people by warmly and lengthily embracing his sweaty mechanics.  Tsunoda got Driver of the Day, which was heartwarming.

And the season closes.  97 days until the next one.  I'll be back with a Drive to Survive review, although I think it will underwhelmingly focus on De Vries being dropped and the questions over Perez' position.  Enjoy the rest and pray Newey has forgotten anything he has ever learnt about how to design a car.