McLaren seals third place ahead of BWT Racing Point

https://indiainf1.com//?s=malhaarBy Malhaar Khaladkar

Max Verstappen took victory as the sun set on the 2020 season at the twilight Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas finished P2, his first podium since the race held at Imola as returning champion Lewis Hamilton took P3 after recovering from Covid-19.

London, 13 December 2020: Max Verstappen dominated the Abu Dhabi GP to take his 10^th career victory ahead of Valtteri Bottas and his fellow Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton- who achieved the 165^th podium of his career. The second Red Bull driver, Alex Albon crossed the line in P4- who’s place at the Austrian squad remains in doubt for next year. McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz finished in P4 and P5 respectively, which sealed McLaren 3^rd place in the constructor’s championship ahead of Racing Point and Renault. Racing Point- leading the trio of teams in the championship before the weekend- scored just one point as Sergio Perez retired due to a suspected gearbox failure and Lance Stroll finished in P10. Daniel Ricciardo finished a respectable P7 in his last race for Renault, meanwhile, teammate Esteban Ocon finished P9. AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly finished in P8.

Daniil Kvyat finished P11, who is most likely going to be out of a drive for next season. Finnish veteran Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line in P12 ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in P13 and outgoing Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel in P14. Last week’s Mercedes super-sub George Russell finished P15 for Williams, his teammate Nicholas Latifi finishing in P17. Antonio Giovinazzi was P16 as the Haas duo of Kevin Magnussen and Pietro Fittipaldi finished in P18 and P19 respectively. Sergio Perez was the sole retirement in the race.

Verstappen got a good start from pole, as did Bottas and Hamilton who maintained their positions. As the race settled, Verstappen maintained a lead of 2s to Bottas, who further maintained his gap to Hamilton at 2s. Behind, Norris who started P4 was overtaken by Albon with the help of DRS.

It was heartbreak for Sergio Perez in his last race for Racing Point and potentially in F1 as he retired with a gearbox issue. The Virtual Safety car was deployed as the stricken Racing Point was being cleared away. Meanwhile, the whole field pitted except the Renault of Ricciardo who started on the hard tyre and the two Ferraris. Further, the field bunched up as the full safety car was deployed this time.

Racing got underway on lap 14 as Verstappen pulled off into the lead. He had a 1.5s gap to Bottas who had a 2s gap to Hamilton in P3. It looked like Ferrari’s strategy to keep Leclerc out on medium tyres had backfired, as he was getting overtaken and finally pitted on lap 22 from P12. He emerged P19, in last place.

The Mercedes drivers were unable to challenge and match Verstappen’s pace. Albon was in P4, and just 5s behind Hamilton. Therefore, Mercedes could not do anything clever strategy wise too. Ricciardo pitted on lap 39 from P5 for medium tyres, emerging in P7, he overcut Stroll, who was stuck behind Gasly in P9.

By lap 45 Verstappen had almost a 10s lead over Bottas at the front. Meanwhile, Ocon overtook Stroll to claim P9 in the race. As the chequered flag dropped, Verstappen ended Mercedes’ six-year dominance at the Yas Marina circuit. In the constructor’s championship, McLaren achieved P3 thanks to a double points finish in P5 and P6.

The aftermath of the race was emotional as it consisted of thank you and goodbyes from drivers. Some drivers leaving the sport forever and some drivers changing teams as allies become foes next year. Of course, how can we forget the mandatory end of season donuts, as Hamilton and Bottas gave us a batch of freshly baked ones on the start/finish straight after the race.

Red Bull were dominant for the first time this season. They had pace over the silver arrows in qualifying as well as the race.Interesting to note, Red Bull tried out their 2021 spec floor in practice to get real life data. Mercedes lacked the pace to challenge Red Bull this weekend. It was down to their MGU-K issue, which they had to turn down due to reliability concerns. This meant that the W11 was slower than normal in qualifying and race. McLaren showed impressive qualifying and race pace as they finished best of the rest not only in the race, but as well as the championship. This bodes well for them next year, especially with the Mercedes engine in the back for 2021.

Renault showed good pace over the weekend. They struggled in qualifying and could not make it out of Q2. Good race pace and clever strategy propelled them to a double-points finish. AlphaTauri have shown improvement race by race this season with another points finish. Their qualifying pace has improved significantly, as evident from Abu Dhabi GP where both cars made it to Q3.Racing Point’s true pace was not evident this weekend as Perez started from the back of the grid due to engine penalties and later retired. Stroll struggled in the race with tyres and as a result could only finish P10. They managed P4 in the constructor’s standings. Had their 15 points not been deducted due to the controversial brake ducts at the start of the season, they would have finished P3 easily.

Alfa Romeo showed good race pace this weekend with Raikkonen beating both the Ferrari cars. Their weakness this season was the Ferrari power unit. Next year with a good baseline and an improved engine from Ferrari, Alfa Romeo could regularly challenge for points. Ferrari endured a miserable season as they finished P6 in the constructor’s championship. They had no qualifying or race pace this weekend as the engine was their main downfall, much like the whole season. The signs for next year look encouraging according to Ferrari themselves, with the 2021 power unit showing improved figures. Haas to struggled in the engine department being a Ferrari customer as well as some fundamental issues with the chassis.They did not have the pace to challenge either for Q3 or for points in the race. Williams ended the season on a high note as they beat both Haas cars in the race. They have improved their race pace over the 2020 season and the signs are positive for 2021 as they look to challenge for points. The only way is up from here.

Saturday Qualifying results were:

Note – Leclerc penalised three grid places for causing a collision at the previous round. Perez and Magnussen required to start race from back of grid for use of additional power unit elements.