Simply Abu Dhabi XXXVI

5 7 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I I t will take some time for the enormity of this Formula One season to kick in as Mercedes-Benz won a record-equalling sixth consecutive Constructors’ title while Lewis Hamilton passed the great Juan Manual Fangio to claim his sixth World Driver’s Championship . He is now just one championship shy of equalling the all-time best of seven titles, held by Michael Schumacher. For those who rose early in the morning to watch the Australian and Japanese races and stayed awake late at night and into the early hours for Mexico and Texas will hopefully appreciate the small part they played in his historic season that will go down in the record book as one of the greatest ever. Before the summer break in August, Lewis Hamilton's strengthened his grip on the top spot of the standings with victory in Budapest, putting him on course to claim a third successive title and six in total, but no one could have predicted the comeback fight Ferrari would deliver after the three-week mid-season hiatus. Following the break, Ferrari took the next six pole positions in succession and backed it with a hat trick of wins in Belgium, Italy and Singapore. The arrival at Ferrari of Monaco’s first F1 driver since Louis Chiron in 1950, Charles LeClerc, gave his four- time world champ teammate Sebastien Vettel more than a few grey hairs with mature, calculated performances that belied his 21-years of age. It was only a matter of time before the young Monegasque would achieve his first breakthrough win. Mercedes got the season off to a flying start in Australia with a win, but it was Valtteri Bottas rather than the expected Lewis Hamilton who grabbed the lead at turn one and charged on to the biggest win of his F1 career, finishing more than 20 seconds ahead of teammate Hamilton. Out-driving Hamilton, many dubbed this ‘Valtteri 2.0’ as it appeared that Lewis was going to have a season-long fight on his hands with this own teammate. Lewis finished second with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third. Pre-race favourites Ferrari struggled with Vettel coming home 57 seconds off the pace in fourth but in front of LeClerc. Bahrain hosted the next round where Ferrari hoped to bounce back. LeClerc lead and was set for his maiden victory until his engine blew, gifting a lucky win of what was the start of a string of victories for Mercedes. This time the positions were reversed with Bottas backing up Hamilton for a second Mercedes one-two. When the championship arrived in China, Ferrari found more horsepower which most assumed would play into their hands on the long straights of Shanghai but poor strategy handed Hamilton and Bottas another one-two. An early fight for third between the Ferrari duo breathed life into the 1,000th world championship race. LeClerc passed Vettel at the inside of Turn 1 but struggled to keep up with the Mercedes in the early stages, prompting Ferrari to allow his teammate to pass. When Vettel couldn’t pull away, the team worked a pitstop strategy that would allow LeClerc to regain his place over Vettel but it was too little, too late. Rolling into Monaco, the Mercedes team had endured a tough week after losing their non-executive director and mentor to both team boss TotoWolff and Hamilton, the great Niki Lauda. The triple world champion passed away after an extended illness and nothing short of a win would do as an appropriate send off. Hamilton delivered after fending off Verstappen who later dropped to fourth following a time penalty promoting Vettel to second with Bottas third. Mercedes was on fire, winning every race from the start of the season until round nine at Red Bull’s home track in Austria. Verstappen charged to a stunning win following a controversial pass on LeClerc placing the Red Bull driver under investigation post-race. Max fought back