Max Verstappen completed his record-breaking 2023 Formula 1 campaign by picking up his 19th victory of the year with a dominant display in Abu Dhabi.
The Dutchman was unopposed at the Yas Marina Circuit to take his fourth consecutive win at the venue, beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and George Russell.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez had finished second on the road but was demoted down to fourth after receiving a five-second time penalty for colliding with Lando Norris.
Russell’s second podium of the year and Lewis Hamilton’s ninth place, coupled with Carlos Sainz’s failure to score, saw Mercedes beat Ferrari to second in the standings.
As per Pirelli’s predicted optimum strategy ahead of the race, every driver starting inside the top 10 opted for the middle-range Medium compound. That left nobody electing to seek an advantage with the Soft tyre, with Lance Stroll, Sainz – starting 16th – and Valtteri Bottas on the Hard.
Leclerc got away from the line better than Verstappen and had a look into Turn 1 but the Red Bull driver retained the lead, as Norris displaced Russell for fourth place.
The Ferrari driver utilised the slipstream down the long back straight to be in a position to place Verstappen under threat once again into the braking zone at Turn 6.
However, Verstappen squeezed Leclerc to the inside and hung it around the outside of the chicane to preserve first place before maintaining the high ground into Turn 9.
Further back, Sainz had recovered three places on the opening lap to 13th, while Hamilton had also been on the move to gain two positions up to ninth from 11th.
But the Mercedes was demoted one place when Perez came steaming through at Turn 6, a fight which Hamilton decided against contesting as the Red Bull moved up.
Meanwhile, Norris had been tucked up behind team-mate Oscar Piastri through the early laps but got through on Lap 5 to only be running behind Verstappen and Leclerc.
As early as Lap 6 Kevin Magnussen came into the pits for a change of tyres, with replays showing the Haas driver had locked up into the downhill right-hander at Turn 12.
Piastri’s struggles in the opening stages had seen him drop outside of DRS range of the front three and forced him to defend valiantly from Russell into Turn 9 on Lap 7.
Daniel Ricciardo had been informed that a visor tear-off had got caught in his brake duct and action may need to be taken. The Australian then pitted, dropping him to 19th.
After catching Piastri flat-footed into Turn 6, Russell got a stronger exit out of Turn 7 and the aid of DRS saw him get a car length ahead before the braking zone for Turn 9.
Perez’s slow recovery from another lacklustre qualifying display saw him finally overhaul Pierre Gasly’s Alpine for seventh place.
Verstappen, who only had a 1.5s margin over Leclerc at this stage, reported tyre concerns, something shared by Aston Martin as Fernando Alonso pitted at the end of Lap 12.
McLaren opted to follow suit the next lap with Piastri stopping to discard his starting Medium tyres for a new set of the Hard compound, emerging three-tenths ahead.
The rookie was then under threat from Alonso but managed to remain ahead of the two-time champion, as McLaren informed his team-mate to come into the pits.
However, a slow stop from the McLaren crew witnessed Norris lose a place to Russell, while Hamilton made contact with the rear of Gasly, who had locked up into Turn 6.
Hamilton came into the pits along with Esteban Ocon and the Alpine sized up the Mercedes driver, who voiced concerns that he had sustained damage from the touch.
Verstappen had also stopped as Ferrari left Leclerc out for a further lap, extending the gap between the net top-two to 3.4s on Lap 18, with Russell close behind the Ferrari.
Yuki Tsunoda took over the race lead, ahead of Stroll and Sainz, but the Ferrari was powerless to defend from Verstappen on fresher tyres and DRS down the back straight.
Unsurprisingly, the Spaniard then pulled aside to allow his team-mate through without any time loss before Russell and Norris also demoted Sainz down to sixth.
Ricciardo’s early stop had seen him get ahead of Hamilton and the pair had closed on Valtteri Bottas. Despite the Finn’s best attempts, Ricciardo got through at Turn 9.
Hamilton followed the Australian through at the beginning of the next lap, with Tsunoda the next to demote Bottas after finally relinquishing the race lead by pitting.
Ferrari brought Sainz in at the end of Lap 23, fitting his SF-23 challenger with another set of Hard tyres to ensure that he would be stopping again later on in the race.
Two laps later and Perez overtook Alonso to progress into the top six, behind the two McLarens, Russell, Leclerc and Verstappen, who now had a comfortable 5s lead.
Despite his earlier troubles, Hamilton breezed past Ricciardo before receiving a radio call from Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff to tell him he was the fastest car on track.
Ricciardo then allowed team-mate Tsunoda through, with Stroll demoting the AlphaTauri outside of the top 10 before the pair had even reached the braking zone of Turn 6.
In between Ricciardo’s plight down the order, Perez’s charge continued with a move on Piastri to elevate his Red Bull into the top five at the chicane, now only 4s behind Norris.
Following Gasly’s remonstrations surrounding the decision to pit him after his team-mate at the first round of stops, this time around Alpine serviced him before Ocon on Lap 32.
McLaren was the next team to commit to a two-stop strategy to the end as Norris came in at the end of the next lap. This time it was a clean stop and he stayed ahead of Ocon.
Mercedes responded to Norris’ stop with Russell to apply pressure on Leclerc, prompting the Ferrari crew to emerge into the pit lane to fit Leclerc with new tyres to the end.
Leclerc remained ahead of the British duo, who were tucked up behind Stroll. Russell completed the move before Turn 6, with Norris unable to get past the Aston Martin at Turn 9.
A lap later than he would have wanted, Norris got ahead of Stroll but the McLaren driver had lost 2s to Russell, who closed up on Leclerc when he got stuck behind Tsunoda.
At the first time of asking on Lap 38, Leclerc breezed past Tsunoda, with the Japanese racer taking advantage of DRS between Turns 7 and 9 to keep Russell at bay behind.
Russell, however, easily overtook Tsunoda the very next lap, while behind team-mate Hamilton was busy battling away with ex-rival Alonso for 11th position on the road.
Hamilton complained the Spaniard had brake-tested him before the Turn 5 braking zone. The stewards noted his complaint but swiftly dismissed it many laps later.
Ocon ended up on the wrong side of a three-car tussle between Piastri and Sainz and then both Alonso and Hamilton had no issue demoting the Frenchman further.
Red Bull finally called Perez in for his final pit stop at the end of Lap 43, one lap before Verstappen stopped, leaving him with a tyre advantage to chase down a podium place.
Ferrari told Sainz he would remain on track in the hope of a late Safety Car bringing him into play but his race unravelled further as Alonso passed with a lunge into Turn 5.
Hamilton was the next to overtake Sainz around the outside of Turn 9 on Lap 47, but the seven-time champion was under investigation for a pit lane infringement.
Gasly was also noted by the stewards, with it being revealed that both were “relating to pit crew potentially not wearing the required eye protection during a stop”.
Having overtaken Tsunoda with ease, Perez had Norris in his sights but the pair collided as the Mexican attempted to mount a move up the inside through the chicane.
Although Norris retained the position as he cut the corner and rejoined ahead, the Briton couldn’t prevent Perez from getting past on the next lap at the same point.
However, the stewards decided to hand Perez a five-second penalty for causing a collision, which would be added to his overall time at the end of the 58-lap race.
But Perez managed to overtake Russell on the track for third and would have four laps to build a five-second buffer over the Mercedes driver now behind him.
Ferrari finally called Sainz into the pits for his final mandatory stop on the penultimate lap, dropping him down to 14th position and out of any contention for points.
Further ahead, Alonso had overtaken Tsunoda into Turn 9 for seventh place as the AlphaTauri driver struggled on his degrading tyres in the closing exchanges.
Meanwhile, Leclerc slowed down and allowed Perez through to try and help the Red Bull driver build the 5s gap to Russell to boost Ferrari’s championship hopes.
Verstappen cruised to the chequered flag to end the season with seven successive wins, having already rattled off 10 straight wins earlier in the campaign.
The three-time World Champion had also done enough to become the first driver in F1 history to surpass the 1000-number mark for laps led in 2023.
Sergio Perez took second on the road but dropped behind both Leclerc and Russell to ensure the latter two completed the podium places behind Verstappen.
The two McLarens were fifth and sixth, Norris ahead of Piastri. Alonso took seventh, with Yuki Tsunoda holding off Lewis Hamilton. Stroll completed the points.
