Max Verstappen Dominates 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Max Verstappen dominated 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to take his 15th victory of the season.

Verstappen comfortably led from lights-to-flag on an one-stop strategy to win from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who fought off a two-stopping Sergio Perez, which ultimately secured Leclerc the vice-champion honour in the drivers’ championship behind champion – Verstappen who sealed the title in Japan.

Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll rounded out the top eight after successfully executing two-stop strategies.

Daniel Ricciardo on an one-stopper fended off Sebastian Vettel as the departing duo completed the top-ten in ninth and tenth respectively.

Red Bull meanwhile wrapped up the Constructors’ title in the USA but Ferrari ultimately fought off a late-season charge from Mercedes to secure second ahead of the German constructor, whilst Alpine secured fourth ahead of McLaren.

(Image credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)The top 15 drivers on the grid plus Mick Schumacher, Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi all started on new medium tyres, whilst Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas opted for hard tyres as Pierre Gasly gambled in his final race for AlphaTauri with a soft-tyre opening stint.

At lights out, Verstappen made a clean start to lead from Perez and Leclerc as Hamilton leapfrogged Sainz into fourth, only for the Spaniard to fight back into Turn 6 and nudge Hamilton wide over the kerbs.

Stewards though ruled that Sainz hadn’t deliberately forced Hamilton wide and instead ordered Hamilton to concede fourth back to Sainz which he did on Lap 4 at Turn 12 before regaining the position a lap later as Russell cleared Norris for sixth.

Sainz though kept Hamilton within sight and eventually overtook the seven-time champion for fourth on Lap 8, with Russell following suit a lap later as Hamilton reported he was “losing power” which Mercedes stated was due to low energy in the battery.

Tyre degradation however proved higher than many expected with Williams’ Alex Albon triggering early pit stops on Lap 13, during which Red Bull pitted Perez on Lap 16 whilst his rival for second in the championhip – Leclerc stayed out until the end of Lap 21 after Verstappen pitted from the lead.

Verstappen though comfortably resumed the lead following Leclerc’s pit stop as he led Perez and Leclerc, although Leclerc had to fend off the fight from his Ferrari teammate – Sainz for third as he exited the pits.

Perez though found himself stuck behind Verstappen’s turbulent air so triggered a second round of pit stops as he pitted on Lap 34 and rejoined in sixth, although several drivers including Verstappen and Leclerc stayed out on a risky one-stop strategy.

The Mexican benefitted from Sainz and Russell pitting together on Lap 40 which promoted him to fourth, although Perez got a bit of karma for holding up Hamilton up at this race in 2021, as the Brit strategically let him through at Turn 6 on Lap 45 but repassed Perez at Turn 9 to retake third.

Perez eventually cleared Hamilton a lap later but found himself nine seconds adrift of Leclerc with 12 laps left, which was reduced to 4.391s with five laps left.

Up front, Verstappen cruised to a comfortable 15th Grand Prix victory of the season as Leclerc fought off Perez to finish second, which saw the Monegasque secure the vice-champion honour of second-place in the championship.

Hamilton meanwhile retired with three laps left due to a hydraulic issue, as Sainz, Russell, Ocon and Stroll completed the top eight, ahead of the departing Ricciardo and Vettel who finished ninth and tenth respectively after a late scrap went to the checkered flag.

F1 is now finished for 2022 in a competitive sense but teams will remain in Abu Dhabi for a post-season test from 22-23 November, during which each team will run a junior driver on one of the two days of testing.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	58	1h 27m 45.914
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	58	+ 8.771
3	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	58	+ 10.093
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	58	+ 24.892
5	George Russell	Mercedes	58	+ 35.888
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	58	+ 56.234
7	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	58	+ 57.240
8	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	58	+ 76.931
9	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	58	+ 83.268
10	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	58	+ 83.898
11	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	58	+ 89.371
12	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	57	+ 1 Lap
13	Alex Albon	Williams	57	+ 1 Lap
14	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	57	+ 1 Lap
15	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	57	+ 1 Lap
16	Mick Schumacher	Haas	57	+ 1 Lap
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	57	+ 1 Lap
RET	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	55	Hydraulic
RET	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	55	Mechanical
RET	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	27	Water Leak