Valtteri Bottas closed the 2017 Formula 1 season with a win over team-mate Lewis Hamilton and a distant Sebastian Vettel completing the podium positions in Abu Dhabi.
It was a race long battle at the front of the field between the Mercedes drivers, with Bottas leading from his impressive pole position. Hamilton chose to leave it later into the race before making his only pit stop, giving him fresher tyres at the end of the race to close in on the leader.
After making a number of attacks at the end of the race, with the gap under a second by using the DRS, Hamilton faded away to finish over five seconds from the Finn.
Finishing third, Sebastian Vettel was a spectator for most of the race finishing over 20 seconds down on the leader, despite putting in a charge towards the end of the race. Raikkonen was the same distance back on Vettel after battling with Ricciardo in the early stages.
Red Bull didn’t have the best of races, with Max Verstappen their only finisher in fifth. He took the fight to Raikkonen, but fell back towards the end of the race on older tyres, given he was the first of the leaders to pit on lap 15.
After overtaking Sergio Perez on the opening lap by straight lining the chicane and giving him a five second penalty from the stewards, Nico Hulkenberg had a lonely race to sixth. Half a minute behind the Renault-powered Red Bull, and faster than Perez’s Force India which he was forced to overtake following his stop. The sixth place for Hulkenberg also gave the Renault team sixth in the constructors’ championship.
Perez, who couldn’t match the speed of the Renault finished seventh ahead of Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman went for a longer first stint, looking after the ultrasoft tyre until lap 32 but the intra-team battle was won by the Mexican.
Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa had a race long battle for ninth and tenth. The Williams driver in his final race was ahead until the tyre stop, Alonso stopping earlier and on warmer tyres getting ahead of his former team mate. Massa fell away though from the McLaren towards the end of the race, although still claiming the final points paying position in his final grand prix.
Carlos Sainz was also looking like a true points contender in his Renault, running longer than most on the ultrasoft tyre. Stopping on lap 33, along with Ocon on the same strategy, the Renault team didn’t attach his front left tyre correctly, with the Spaniard retiring shortly after coming out of the pitlane.
Daniel Ricciardo, after initially being the faster of the two Red Bull drivers retired on lap 21, with a hydraulic problem shortly after making his pit stop.
