– Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc beat the Dutchman’s team-mate Sergio Perez to secure second in the championship.
– Leclerc, who was Verstappen’s title rival earlier this year before Ferrari’s season imploded in a flood of errors and reliability failures, held off Perez on divergent strategies to take second place.
– Sebastian Vettel’s final race ended in disappointment, the four-time champion bemoaning when he felt was a poor strategy from Aston Martin.
– Vettel took the final point for 10th place after Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes retired from fourth place with three laps to go.
– Hamilton’s result means he has finished a season without a win for the first time in his career – ending a record only he held.
– Verstappen’s win was his 15th of 2022, extending the new record he has set this year for wins in a single season.
Max Verstappen completes a hat-trick of wins at Abu Dhabi, and notches a remarkable 15th first place of the season π#AbuDhabiGP#F1https://t.co/R54yPG7gNk
– “It was a good race,” said Verstappen. “It was all about tyre management. I think we looked after the mediums quite well and then on the hard tyres managing until the end.
– “A 15th win of the season is unbelievable. It’s been really enjoyable to work with the whole team and to be able to achieve something like this. I know it is going to be hard to replicate but it is also very good motivation to try and do well again next year.”
π£οΈ "Every season in #F1 is grueling but it truly has been a herculean effort from everyone this season."
The thoughts of Max, Checo and Christian after our 17th win π
– Max Verstappen is refusing to talk to British F1 broadcaster Sky Sports at the Mexican Grand Prix following comments made by pundit Ted Kravitz.
– The reigning double world champion is unhappy at comments Kravitz made in his ‘Ted’s Notebook’ show after the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, when he referred to Lewis Hamilton being “robbed” of the 2021 title.
– Verstappen beat Hamilton to the 2021 championship by passing him on the final lap of the final race in a controversial finish.
– The FIA later acknowledged that “human error” from former race director Michael Masi had seen the restart procedure applied incorrectly, forcing a one-lap sprint finish. Masi was sacked as a result.
– Verstappen did not speak to Sky Sports after qualifying on Saturday, having been made aware of the comments, and will not do so on Sunday.
– According to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Verstappen also plans to do the same with Sky Sports Italia and Sky Sports Germany.
– Verstappen and Red Bull are yet to confirm whether the boycott will continue beyond this weekend, with races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi left this season.
– In the show, Kravitz was referring to Brad Pitt being in the Circuit of the Americas paddock and what a Hollywood-style script it would have been if Hamilton had claimed his first win of 2022 by beating Verstappen.
– “[Hamilton] doesn’t win a race all year, and then finally comes back at a track where he could win the first race all year, battling the same guy who won the race he was robbed in the previous year, and manages to finish ahead of him.
– “What a script and a story that would have been. But that’s not the way the script turned out today, was it?
– “Because the guy that beat him after being robbed actually overtook him, because he’s got a quicker car, because of engineering and Formula One and design, and pretty much because of [Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s lead car designer] over there.”
– It is not the first time Verstappen has taken action against the media.
– The Dutch driver boycotted Netflix after growing unhappy at the portrayal of driver rivalries in “Drive to Survive”, meaning he barely featured in the series covering 2021 and his first championship.
– Verstappen confirmed earlier this year to he is now ready to cooperate with Netflix this season after talks with the American company and F1 this year.
– Verstappen headed Sergio Perez in a Red Bull one-two after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who crossed the line second, was penalised for cutting the track and gaining an advantage on the last lap.
– There was confusion after the race as to whether Verstappen had done enough to tie up the championship, because it was not immediately clear whether full points would be awarded for a race that ran just over half distance.
– But governing body the FIA said that reduced points only applied if a suspended race could not be resumed.
– Awarding full points or three-quarter points – as all the teams expected would be the case – was the difference between Verstappen leaving Japan as a double world champion, or having to go to the next race in the USA needing to gain one point on Leclerc and Perez to seal it.
– Even Verstappen asked: “Are you sure?” when he was told he was champion, reflecting the historical precedent that reduced points are awarded in such circumstances.
Max Verstappen
– But it seems that this protocol was inadvertently left out of the rules when they were rewritten over last winter following the controversial Belgian Grand Prix, when a result was declared despite no racing taking place.
– Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said this was “a mistake” and he was “certain” the rules would be revised over the winter.
– There can, however, be no question marks about the validity of Verstappen’s championship, after he secured his 12th victory of the season in the same manner as he has taken control of the championship, by being a class apart from everyone else in his Red Bull car.
– “It’s crazy, very mixed emotions,” said Verstappen, who was told of Leclerc’s penalty and his title victory during the podium interviews conducted by former F1 driver Johnny Herbert.
– “Winning the championship, what a year we’ve had. It’s incredible!
– “I’m so thankful to everyone who’s been contributing to the success, the whole team has been working flat out. Beside that, the work we did with Honda every year, constantly improving, gets very emotional especially here. I’m very proud we could do it here.
– “The first is more emotional but the second is more beautiful. We’re leading the constructors so we want to focus on that, to secure that.”
– The race was marred by a controversy over officials deploying a recovery vehicle on to the track while cars were still running after a crash on the first lap.
– Drivers and team bosses united to call the decision from race control “unacceptable”, eight years after Jules Bianchi lost his life after crashing into a tractor on track.
– The race was stopped shortly afterwards, leading to a two-hour delay while officials waited for the persistent rain to ease sufficiently for racing to resume.
– When it finally did, Verstappen and Leclerc initially pulled away from the rest of the pack, but as the laps ticked by Ferrari’s tyre problems reared their head.
– Leclerc dropped back from Verstappen and Perez began to reel in the Ferrari. Leclerc held him off for several laps and looked to have done enough, only to lock up at the final chicane on the last lap and cut the corner.
– Leclerc held Perez off to the line, but was deemed to have gained an advantage by going off track and was demoted back behind.
– “From lap five, it was all downhill,” said Leclerc. “I really struggled with the tyres but after three four laps we just destroyed them.
– “Huge congrats to Max on his second championship. Max’s title this year was just a matter of time. We expected him to win the title. Now we just use the last few races to become a better team.”
– Behind the top three, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon held off Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes for the entire race, with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel doing the same to Fernando Alonso’s Alpine.
– Alonso made a stop for fresh tyres with just 15 minutes of race time remaining and dropped to ninth, reclaiming sufficient ground to finish the race right on Vettel’s tail, but unable to pass.
– Mercedes’ George Russell climbed up to eighth from 13th, after being delayed by being stacked behind Hamilton in the pits when the field changed from wet to intermediate tyres, and the final points when to Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and McLaren’s Lando Norris.
– Verstappen’s 11th win this year puts him 115 points clear of Leclerc and means he could potentially clinch the championship at the next race in Singapore.
– Mercedes’ George Russell took third place, ahead of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, both of whom fought up from the back of the grid.
– Verstappen drove another consummate race, moving up quickly from seventh on the grid after a penalty for excessive engine usage to be second after five laps.
– He edged closer to Leclerc until a virtual safety car was deployed on lap 12 when Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin broke down on track.
– Ferrari decided to gamble on a stop, hoping to benefit from the time saved from doing so under caution, although they stopped as the VSC was ending so did not gain all of it.
– Verstappen, though, ran his planned race and did not come in for his stop for tyres until lap 25.
– Verstappen came out 10 seconds adrift of Leclerc and soon began to close on the Ferrari. Within seven laps, he had receded the lead to just over five seconds and looked certain to catch and pass Leclerc.
– But Ferrari called Leclerc in again on lap 33, changing to soft tyres, hoping to close on Verstappen over the remaining 18 laps.
– But he came out 20 seconds behind and made little progress before a full safety car was deployed with five laps to go when Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren broke down with an engine problem and stopped at the Lesmo corners.
– Everyone bar Hamilton pitted for fresh tyres but officials ran out of time to restart the race, and it finished under the safety car.
– There will be questions as to why the safety car initially picked up Russell rather than Verstappen, why it took so long to run through the procedures required to restart the race, and why officials could not have red-flagged the race and gone for a re-start and short sprint to the flag.
– Max Verstappen claimed an astonishing and dominant victory despite starting from 14th on the grid at the Belgian Grand Prix to move even closer to successfully defending the F1 championship.
– Verstappen had qualified quickest but started down the order after an engine penalty. Nevertheless, he looked ominously quick from the first lap.
– Verstappen was in the lead by lap 12 of 44, vindicating Red Bull’s decision to give him a fresh engine at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
– The Dutchman controlled the race once he had the lead and, with title rival Charles Leclerc finishing sixth, now leads by a huge 93 points lead over teammate Sergio Perez and 98 to Leclerc with eight races left.
– As it stands, Verstappen could wrap the title up as early as the Japanese Grand Prix in October.Β
– Perez, who finished a distant second, said: “Max was on a different planet today”.Β
– Leclerc had started one place behind Verstappen and was following him up through the order until he was forced to make an unscheduled pit-stop for a brake duct issue under an early safety car.
– He looked set for fifth position but Ferrari pitted him for fresh tyres to set the fastest lap, meaning he emerged in sixth behind Fernando Alonso.Β
– Although Leclerc got past Alonso on the final lap, he was given a five-second time penalty after the race for speeding in the pit-lane, dropping him back behind the Alpine driver.Β
– Behind Perez was Carlos Sainz, who had started from pole position and claimed the final spot of the podium ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.Β
– The mixed up grid caused by a slew of engine penalties had raised hopes of a chaotic race and there was drama from the very start.
– Old rivals Lewis Hamilton and Alonso collided while fighting for third position on the opening lap.
– Hamilton had reeled Alonso in down the Kemmel Straight and attempted to go around the outside, but the two made contact, with Hamilton’s car briefly pitched into the air.
– Alonso, who had been squeezed on the inside of the corner, was furious and let his feelings be known on his race radio.
– “What an idiot,” Alonso said after the collision. “Closing the door from the outside. We had a great start but this guy only knows how to drive and start in first”
– Hamilton accepted blame, saying: “Looking back at the footage, he was in my blind spot and I didn’t leave him enough space so it was my fault today. Just sorry for the team.
– Hamilton’s car clearly had floor damage and a few corners later Mercedes told him to stop the car and retire from the race.
– The race stewards disagreed Hamilton was at fault, deciding neither driver was predominantly to blame.
– A Safety Car came out the following lap when Williams driver Nicholas Latifi got wide on the exit of the Les Combes chicane and collided with Valtteri Bottas, ending both drivers’ race on the spot.
– Alonso recovered from the opening-lap clash to finish fourth, with Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon driving from the rear of the grid to sixth.Β
– It was a strong weekend for Alpine as McLaren, who they are fighting for fourth in the championship, failed to score a point.
– Lando Norris was struggling in the final laps — with McLaren amusingly telling him it was too late to move on to Plan G — while Daniel Ricciardo’s miserable run of form continued.
– Ricciardo had started from seventh on the grid but he faded across the grand prix, finishing a lowly 13th.
– The result comes just days after McLaren and Ricciardo confirmed they will part ways at the end of the season.
– Sebastian Vettel finished eighth ahead of Pierre Gasly, who started from the pit-lane.
– Alex Albon claimed a deserved point after a brilliant qualifying performance on Saturday.
– Max Verstappen ripped through the field from 10th on the grid to take a memorable victory at an action-packed Hungarian Grand Prix as Ferrari’s title chances took another critical blow.
– Using a superior strategy to his Ferrari rivals and with more outright car performance than Mercedes, Verstappen won the race by 7.8 seconds from Lewis Hamilton, who recovered from seventh to second with a remarkable drive of his own.
– The victory means Verstappen is now 80 points clear of title rival Charles Leclerc, who finished sixth thanks to a disastrous tyre strategy.
– Ferrari’s championship hopes now look in tatters, with Verstappen’s current trajectory putting him on course to take the title with several rounds remaining.
– The race was indicative of Leclerc’s title campaign as he went from leading on lap 31 to 16 seconds off Verstappen by the finish.
– Leclerc had looked like a contender for victory until Ferrari switched him to the hard compound tyre at his second pit stop, which proved to be a disastrous tyre choice for every driver that used it.
– Leclerc eventually made a third pit stop for soft tyres on lap 54, but by that point the damage to his race was done.
– Due to the various strategy options available, five different drivers led over the 70-lap race as different tyre performance saw the strategies overlap.
– The threat of rain lingered throughout the race but ultimately failed to impact the result, with drizzle arriving over the circuit in the final couple of laps.
– Verstappen won despite a spin on lap 41, which briefly handed the lead back to Leclerc before a decisive overtake on the Ferrari on lap 45 to take the position back.
– George Russell, who started from pole position, dropped to third by the finish after a thrilling battle over second place with teammate Hamilton five laps from the finish.
– Carlos Sainz took fourth for Ferrari despite starting second — underlining the Italian team’s struggles at the Hungaroring — but was ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez in fifth and Leclerc in sixth.
– Outside the top three teams, Lando Norris was seventh ahead of Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel.
– Charles Leclerc gifted Max Verstappen victory and a huge advantage in the World Championship by crashing out of the lead of the French Grand Prix.
– The Ferrari driver, in need of a good result to keep his title hopes alive, lost control at the Beausset right-hander two laps after the Red Bull had made its first pit stop.
– Verstappen’s seventh win in 12 races gives him a 63-point lead with 10 races to go.
– Lewis Hamilton, on his 300th Formula 1 start, took a strong second, and his Mercedes team-mate George Russell third and the final podium place after a frantic and bad-tempered fight with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in the closing laps.
– Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fifth, questioning his team’s decision to make a second pit stop just after he had taken third place from Perez with 11 laps to go.
– Leclerc’s catastrophic error rendered redundant questions as to who would prevail in what had until then been a finely-poised race between him and Verstappen.
– Leclerc, who started from pole position, held on to the lead on the first lap and had to weather heavy pressure from Verstappen for the first 10 laps.
– But after that, Leclerc managed to extend his advantage to more than a second, preventing Verstappen from using the DRS overtaking aid, to make his lead a little more comfortable.
– Red Bull blinked first, bringing Verstappen in for his first pit stop on lap 16.
– Leclerc stayed out and the question was how long he would run before his stop, and whether he would be able to regain the lead from Verstappen after he pitted.
– But less than two laps later, none of that mattered, when the Ferrari looped into a spin at the demanding double-right corner after the long Mistral straight and the flat-out Signes curve.
– Leclerc spun across the run-off area before nosing into the barriers, relatively lightly given the speed at which he lost control.
– He tried to reverse out but couldn’t, saying over the radio: “I can’t go on the throttle.”
– Shortly after, well aware of the consequences of his error, he let out an anguished: “No!”
– It was the continuation of an extraordinary run for Leclerc, who led Verstappen by 46 points after three races at the start of the season.
– Until now, the errors have nearly all been from Ferrari – two engine failures and two strategy errors while leading – but now Leclerc has made a big one, to add to the small mistake that turned third place into sixth at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix back in April.
– Max Verstappen easily beat the squabbling Ferraris to victory in sprint qualifying at the Red Bull Ring to ensure he starts Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix from the front of the grid.Β
– Verstappen led off the line from pole position and held off Charles Leclerc at Turn 1 and Carlos Sainz at Turn 3, before the Ferraris slipped backwards into a fight of their own for second position.Β
– Leclerc and Sainz appeared to cost each other time in that fight and almost collided at one stage at Turn 4.Β
– The result meant championship leader Verstappen claimed the full eight points on offer for winning the 23-lap sprint race, with a maximum of 26 available on Sunday.Β
– “We are quick, we can get them tomorrow,” a bullish Leclerc told Ferrari on the radio after the sprint finished.Β
– George Russell finished a comfortable fourth for Mercedes as Perez fought back from 13th to fifth position in the other Red Bull.
– Perez had started down the order after one of his lap times from Q2 and all of his lap times from Q3 were retrospectively deleted after qualifying.Β
– Esteban Ocon finished a solid sixth for Alpine ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.Β
– Lewis Hamilton grabbed the final point on offer for the sprint after being stuck behind Mick Schumacher in the other Haas for seven laps.Β
– Hamilton was unable to get by Schumacher’s impressive defensive moves for a while and at one point radioed Mercedes to say the Haas driver had gone off the track several times to keep position. He eventually got by to ensure he will start eighth.Β
– Pierre Gasly might well have been fighting for a place in the top eight were it not for a tangle with Hamilton at Turn 1, which spun the AlphaTauri driver around and saw him drop down the order.Β
– Sebastian Vettel did not finish the race after contact with Alex Albon on lap eight that spun him into the gravel, with Aston Martin later calling him into the pits to retire the car.Β
– In a bizarre turn of events, Fernando Alonso did not start at all. When the formation lap started the tire blankets were still on his Alpine car, suggesting the team was still working on a problem on the grid.
– Alonso’s car was eventually wheeled into the garage and he did not start the race, meaning he will be at the back of the grid on Sunday.Β
– Alpine will have concerns with both cars going into the race, with Ocon’s car slowing to a stop on the in-lap after the finish.Β
– Formula One world champion Max Verstappen says he is now ready to work with the Netflix docuseries ‘Drive to Survive’ after previously shunning it for the way the protagonists were portrayed.
– The Red Bull driver did not cooperate with producers for the fourth season of the behind-the-scenes show which premiered this year.
– The latest season covered Verstappen’s controversial and heated title battle with Mercedes rival and seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton.
– In March he said it was not his thing and his stance was unlikely to change, but Netflix and Formula One confirmed two more seasons in May and the Dutch 24-year-old said he was now more involved.
– “I just sat together with them and I explained how I thought about it and what I thought went wrong in the past and it was actually a very good, quick little chat and we’ll try to improve from there,” he told reporters at the British Grand Prix.
– He said he would get more of a say in how he was portrayed and footage was used.
– “That’s all I’m asking for. That’s it just more realistic, at least from my side,” he said.
– “I cannot control, of course, what they do with other drivers, but at least I want to be in control with what I’m releasing. That’s what we’re going to do.
– “I hope, of course, that it’s going to be good, because I also understand that Netflix really helped a lot for the popularity, especially in the U.S., and I don’t mind playing a role in that but it needs to be good for both of us.”
– In March, Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali said he would talk to Netflix about keeping the narrative rooted in reality.
– ‘Drive to Survive’ has played a key role in drawing new, younger fans to the sport, bringing a surge of popularity in the previously hard-to-crack American market.
– But it has drawn criticism for manufacturing rivalries between drivers and placing conversations and radio comments out of context.
– Max Verstappen held off a spirited late challenge from Carlos Sainz to win the Canadian Grand Prix and extend his championship lead to 46 points.
– Verstappen crossed the line 0.9 seconds ahead of the Ferrari driver, who had been right behind him for the final 15 laps after a late Safety Car restart set up a grandstand finish.
– Sainz was unable to get close enough to overtake as Verstappen drove faultlessly to record his sixth win of the season.
– With teammate Sergio Perez failing to finish and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc only scoring 10 points in fifth place, Verstappen is looking like a comfortable favourite to successfully defend his championship crown.
– Lewis Hamilton ended a rotten recent run of recent form by claiming third position — his first trip to the podium since the opening race of the season in Australia.
– “Honestly I’m ecstatic,” Hamilton said after the race. “I didn’t expect this coming into the weekend.”
– Mercedes teammate George Russell finished behind in fourth as the reigning world champions recorded another impressive haul of points as the third best team.
– Leclerc, who started 19th after an engine change led to a grid penalty, fought back to a superb fifth position.
α΄‘Κα΄α΄ α΄ Κα΄α΄α΄ π₯
It was a tricky one with the strategy because of the safety cars, but luckily we were able to make it work in the end @redbullracing π pic.twitter.com/ijmPh9iI60
– Alpine’s Esteban Ocon finished sixth, with the team telling an angry Fernando Alonso not to overtake him in the final laps.
– Alonso had started second but was shuffled back through the order through the race and told the team he had been “100 times faster” than his teammate all weekend.
– Alfa Romeo recorded a strong double points finish, with Valtteri Bottas eighth ahead of rookie teammate Guanyu Zhou, who turned in the best performance of is young F1 career.
– Canada’s own Lance Stroll claimed the final point in 10th thanks to a massive long stint on the tyre he started the race on. His reward for the long stint was a well timed Safety Car.
– What had looked like a very promising race for Haas failed to deliver a single point.
– Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher started fifth and sixth but the team’s race unravelled in dramatic fashion early on.
– Magnussen went on the offensive at the start and made contact with Hamilton as they battled for position, which left a small part of the Haas’ wing hanging off the car.
– A few positions back, Alpine driver Esteban Ocon told the team he felt the piece could fall off the car and hit him in the face, and a few laps later the FIA waved a black flag with an orange circle at Magnussen, denoting a driver has to pit for safety reasons.
– Magnussen pitted for a new wing but was at the back of the field for the rest of the race. Several laps later, Schumacher’s car slowed and he retired the car, ruining what had looked like a great chance for his first Formula One point.
– McLaren also provided a bizarre moment late on, when Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris were called into the pits during a Virtual Safety Car moment. McLaren did not appear to have the tyres ready for either driver and Ricciardo’s stop was delayed, before Norris sat idle for nearly 30 seconds waiting for the team to get his tyres ready.
– The next race is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 3.
