Max Verstappen never looked under threat as he won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to end his season with a record 19 grand prix victories.
The world champion led home team mate Sergio Perez to win by almost 20 seconds, but a five-second time penalty dropped Perez behind Charles Leclerc and George Russell, who were promoted onto the podium.
Ahead of the start of the race, the vast majority of the grid headed off on the formation lap on medium tyres, with only a handful of drivers down the order choosing to start on hard tyres. Verstappen lined up on pole position with Leclerc alongside him on the front row for the final start of the 2023 season.
When the lights went out, Verstappen got a good launch off the line but Leclerc was alongside him into the first corner. Verstappen held the lead but Leclerc continued to challenge the Red Bull over the opening lap, attacking into turns six and nine but being rebuffed by Verstappen each time.
Verstappen led at the end of the first lap from Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in fourth after jumping George Russell at the start. Verstappen broke out a lead of over a second by the time DRS was activated at the end of lap two but it was Norris who passed team mate Piastri with DRS along the back straight to move up into third.
The leader continued to hold his advantage at around 1.3 seconds as the drivers at the front of the field all appeared to be managing their tyres. Russell was eager to retake fourth place and successfully did so on lap 11, demoting Piastri down to fifth before quickly dropping the second McLaren out of DRS range.
Piastri was the first of the top drivers to pit at the end of lap 13 for hard tyres. Norris and Russell both followed him in at the end of the next lap, but the Mercedes team had the superior pit stop and Russell emerged ahead of the McLaren. Lewis Hamilton lost part of his front wing after making contract with Pierre Gasly in turn six, but despite immediately pitting Mercedes decided not to change his front wing.
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Verstappen pitted soon after from the lead for hard tyres, handing the lead to Leclerc. The Ferrari driver was in the next lap and emerged out of the pits behind Verstappen, just over three seconds behind.
Yuki Tsunoda inherited the lead of the race having stayed out on his medium tyres, while Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz Jnr ran behind him on the hard tyres they had started on. Verstappen picked off Sainz and Stroll with each to…
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