Max Verstappen’s 19th win of the season, putting him on 1,003 laps led across the entire campaign, was never really in doubt from the moment he made it out of Turn 1 in the lead.
After Charles Leclerc’s valiant attempt to trouble the 2023 dominator failed, his focus switched to those behind him and hauling Ferrari above Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, which came to no avail despite some impressive lateral thinking.
As Fernando Alonso took fourth in the drivers’ standings with a late move on Yuki Tsunoda, inadvertently confirming AlphaTauri just missed out on catching Williams for seventh, the final prizes and positions were handed out at the Yas Marina circuit as the season drew to a close.
Here’s the 10 key things we learned from F1’s 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale.
1. Verstappen signs off with yet another new F1 record
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Verstappen led a total of 1,003 laps in 2023
Verstappen’s waltz to the 2023 world title had been a long time coming, his triumph sealed back in Qatar nearly two months ago. Since then, he’s been demolishing and then extending the record he broke last year for wins in a single season. With his Abu Dhabi triumph, that stands now at 19.
But once he’d crossed the line and set off the massed pyrotechnics at the Yas Marina track, Verstappen ended the year with one more record. This was for total laps led, his final tally at 1,003. This makes the Dutchman the first driver to reach 1,000 laps led in one season and equals the total McLaren led in its famous domination of 1988 – albeit the total in that case split between two more F1 legends, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
Verstappen was also the only driver to complete every single lap of the 2023 campaign and he revealed afterwards the 1,000-lap milestone was something he was thinking about even as he still had one more pitstop to make last Sunday.
PLUS: Why F1’s 2023 Abu Dhabi GP finale wasn’t a better race
When Autosport asked why he’d told Red Bull it should consider pitting Perez first for their second services with the Mexican far behind and battling others in the pack, the world champion replied: “It was to try and lead for 1,000 laps in the season.
“I knew that that was on the cards. So, I said to GP [race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase], he was also of course aware of that, just to make sure that they wouldn’t pit me too early.” AK
2. Mercedes grabs second place ahead…
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