Simply Abu Dhabi XXXVI

Photography: Steve Welling After a few average races, Bottas bounced back in style winning in Japan to ensure that the driver’s title was now a two-man fight between himself and Lewis. His win gave Mercedes its sixth Constructors Championship in succession. The Finn did what he needed to do at the next race in Mexico to stop Hamilton from claiming the driver’s title there before the USA GP in Austin, Texas. Valtteri two-stopped his way to victory but didn’t have enough of a buffer to stopHamilton from clinching his sixth world driver’s title. Starting from pole, Bottas went largely unchallenged, only losing track position due to Mercedes’ plan to one-stop Hamilton. With Hamilton’s tyres failing, he couldn’t find his way back into the lead, leaving Bottas to take his fourth win of the year, four seconds clear and clinching second in the Drivers’ Championship. The final race before Abu Dhabi was the most unpredictable of the season with both Ferrari and Mercedes making mistakes on the pit wall and in the cockpit. Ferrari’s drivers crashed into each in the final minutes putting both Vettel and LeClerc out of contention while a late pitstop following a safety car meant Lewis Hamilton had to charge from behind. With six laps remaining, chaos ensued with the Safety Car bunching the field after the Ferrari crash. When racing resumed, third-placed Hamilton tried to pass the Red Bull of Alex Albon in second but crashed, sending Albon back but Hamilton continued the chase, hunting down a surprised Pierre Gasly for Toro Rosso to the line. To the delight of the capacity crowd, Gasly held off Hamilton to claim his first ever podium F1 result with second and Hamilton finishing third while Verstappen went on to an emphatic second victory of the year after dominating the weekend by being quickest in every session. Post-race, Hamilton was given a 5-second penalty for the Albon crash which promoted McLaren’s Carlos Sainz into third for what was also his first ever F1 podium result. Overall, it was a result that left the crowd happy for all on the rostrum and left an air of excitement and unpredictability as we headed into the final race in Abu Dhabi two weeks later.