Valtteri Bottas outqualified Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to score his fourth career pole, equalling 1958 F1 champion Mike Hawthorn, Didier Pironi, Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella.
The Finn set a new overall lap record at Yas Marina Circuit with a time of 1m36.231s (207.775 km/hr).
Felipe Massa started his 269th and final F1 race in Abu Dhabi. He is sixth in the all-time list of most grand prix starters, behind Rubens Barrichello (323), Michael Schumacher (307), Jenson Button (306). ), Fernando Alonso (291) and Kimi Räikkönen (271).
Bottas set the fastest lap of the race - a 1m40.650s (198.653s km/hr). It was his third fastest lap in F1.
Bottas was mostly unchallenged through the 55-lap race and went on to claim his third grand prix win. He is now tied up with Hawthorn, Phil Hill, Pironi and Max Verstappen in the list of drivers with most grand prix wins, topped by none other than Michael Schumacher.
With pole, fastest lap and race win, he also scored his first ever F1 hat trick. He became the 45th F1 driver to achieve that feat. However, since Hamilton went longer in his first stint, Bottas couldn't achieve a grand slam, which requires a driver to lead every lap of the race in question.
Hamilton, meanwhile, came home second to record his 117th podium finish. The record holder is Schumacher, with 155 podiums to his name.
It was Mercedes' fourth 1-2 finish of the season and 40th in its entire grand prix racing history. Mercedes needs only seven more 1-2 finishes to match McLaren's tally of 47.
Hamilton, meanwhile, continued his streak of consecutive points finishes, taking his tally to 25. He is now only two top-10 finishes away from equaling record holder Kimi Raikkonen.
Hamilton finished every single race of the 2017 F1 season in the points. He is only the second driver to score points in his championship-winning season, the first being Schumacher (2002).
Sebastian Vettel couldn't put up a fight to the Mercedes pairing but finished third to notch his 99th podium finish.
Bottas, Hamilton and Vettel all recorded their 13th podium finish of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Top Comments