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Formula 1 Abu Dhabi GP
F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins Abu Dhabi GP
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina, extending his all-time winning record to 15 victories in the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Nov 20, 2022, 10:00 PM
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Verstappen led from the start of the race, only giving up his lead briefly to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the pitstop cycle. The race was spiced up by divergent tyre strategies between Leclerc and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez in their fight for second in the World Championship.
The one-stopping Leclerc was caught by two-stopper Perez in the closing stages, aided by tyre information from Verstappen, who was also on a one-stop out front.
But Perez just couldn’t get close enough to attempt a move, so Leclerc took second by 1.3s, both in the race and the points.
Read Also:
- Abu Dhabi GP: Verstappen wins 15th race of F1 2022 as Leclerc beats Perez
- The Abu Dhabi GP as it happened
2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix results
Cla Nº Driver Car / Engine Laps Time Delay/Retirement 1 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 58 1:27'45.914 2 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 58 1:27'54.685 8.771 3 11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 58 1:27'56.007 10.093 4 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 58 1:28'10.806 24.892 5 63 George Russell Mercedes 58 1:28'21.802 35.888 6 4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 58 1:28'42.148 56.234 7 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 58 1:28'43.154 57.240 8 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 58 1:29'02.845 1'16.931 9 3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 58 1:29'09.182 1'23.268 10 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 58 1:29'09.812 1'23.898 11 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Red Bull 58 1:29'15.285 1'29.371 12 24 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 57 - 1 lap 13 23 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 57 - 1 lap 14 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Red Bull 57 - 1 lap 15 77 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 57 - 1 lap 16 47 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 57 - 1 lap 17 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 57 - 1 lap 18 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 55 - Hydraulics 19 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 55 - 3 laps 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 27 - Water leak
How the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix unfolded
Verstappen just held his pole advantage on the run to Turn 1, the majority of the field starting on the medium-compound tyres, ahead of Perez, Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari). On the run to Turn 6, Sainz lunged inside Hamilton and sent him wide on the exit, the Mercedes briefly being sent airborne over the kerb.
Hamilton initially kept his position, after straight-lining the apex of Turn 7, but was asked to allow Sainz back in front, which he did on Lap 4. A lap later, Hamilton DRS-ed past Sainz into Turn 9, but Sainz stayed in DRS range and repaid the favour at the same corner four laps later.
In the second Mercedes, George Russell then overtook Hamilton – who was complaining of a loss of power – for fifth.
Verstappen pulled out a 2.7s lead over Perez by Lap 10, with Leclerc and Sainz equidistantly spaced by 3s behind them. Behind the Mercedes duo, Lando Norris ran seventh for McLaren, while, in his last-ever Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel duelled with the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.
Ocon was the first of the top 10 to pit for hard tyres on Lap 15, followed by Perez and Russell (who had a very slow stop and was released into the path of Norris, resulting in a 5s time penalty) a lap later. Perez rejoined battling Vettel, which cost him time in his battle for second with Leclerc – both in the race and the World Championship standings.
Sainz pitted on Lap 18, and also got caught up behind Vettel, as Verstappen and Leclerc ran long in the top two spots. Verstappen stopped on Lap 20, allowed Leclerc to lead until he pitted two laps later. A slow stop meant he rejoined just in front of Sainz but way behind Perez, who caught Verstappen in this stint and was 2s behind his teammate by half distance.
Leclerc closed up on Perez, who pitted again for new hards on Lap 34 – as teams juggled the pros and cons of committing to a one- or two-stop strategy. Ironically, Leclerc was told to pit if Perez didn’t – so the scenario could have been flipped.
Sainz and Russell pitted for a second time on Lap 40, Russell taking his 5s penalty at this point which allowed the one-stopping Hamilton to be well ahead.
Perez was delayed in having to pass and then repass Hamilton as their strategies converged with 12 laps to go, Hamilton using the second DRS zone to good effect. But once clear, Perez had to chase down the 10s gap to the one-stopping Leclerc in second.
Sainz caught and passed Hamilton for fourth, just as Hamilton was forced to slow with a hydraulic problem and he toured in to retire – the team’s first mechanical retirement of the season.
Despite being told by Verstappen that he could go “full send” on the tyres, Perez didn’t have sufficient pace to get close enough to get into Leclerc’s DRS range on the final lap.
Verstappen won by over 8s from Leclerc and Perez, with Sainz a distant fourth, ahead of Russell, Norris, Ocon, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) and Vettel – who scored a point in his final race thanks to Hamilton’s retirement.
Mick Schumacher (Haas) and Nicholas Latifi (Williams) got together at Turn 5 but both rejoined without causing a safety car. Schumacher was penalised 5s for causing the clash.
Alonso retired from his Alpine F1 career on Lap 28 with a water leak.
Read Also:
- Verstappen: Holding up Leclerc not a nice way to end F1 season
- Hamilton’s sour Abu Dhabi F1 race “sums up the whole year”
- Perez vents frustration at Gasly blue flag F1 incident in Leclerc chase
2022 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix fastest laps
Cla Nº Driver Car / Engine Time Delay Lap km/h 1 4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1'28.391 44 215.085 2 63 George Russell Mercedes 1'28.836 0.445 48 214.007 3 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1'28.879 0.488 50 213.904 4 11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1'28.972 0.581 52 213.680 5 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1'29.333 0.942 45 212.817 6 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1'29.392 1.001 54 212.676 7 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1'29.489 1.098 40 212.446 8 24 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1'29.600 1.209 53 212.183 9 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1'29.620 1.229 42 212.135 10 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1'29.719 1.328 48 211.901 11 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1'29.788 1.397 42 211.738 12 47 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1'29.833 1.442 39 211.632 13 23 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1'29.939 1.548 40 211.383 14 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1'30.309 1.918 45 210.517 15 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1'30.312 1.921 35 210.510 16 77 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1'30.352 1.961 47 210.417 17 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1'30.579 2.188 24 209.889 18 3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1'30.785 2.394 45 209.413 19 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1'31.081 2.690 17 208.732 20 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1'31.158 2.767 40 208.556
2022 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix laps led
Cla Nº Driver Car / Engine Laps 1 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 57 2 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1
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