What did we learn from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
The season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix perfectly mirrored the picture of the 2019 Formula One season – the utterly dominant Mercedes outfit once again demonstrated its strength with Lewis Hamilton's easy and commanding victory and Valtteri Bottas' shocking marching towards the sharp end of the field.
In a different world – In Sunday's race, Mercedes enjoyed a competitive advantage that can't be described with any other word than 'scary'. On a set of hard tyres that had already completed 26 laps, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap of the race. The Briton did not only set the benchmark of the grand prix with the time of 1m39.283 , but he also achieved a new lap record around the Yas Marina Circuit. Second on this list was his teammate Valtteri Bottas who proved four tenths of a second slower. On fresher and softer compounds, Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc were 0.845 and 1.159 seconds slower than the Briton's astonishing lap record. On the same tyre compound with almost identical age, second-placed Max Verstappen was over 1.8 seconds slower than Hamilton which further highlights Mercedes' indescribably enormous pace advantage in the current hybrid era.
The usual six – Six different outfits managed to score points in the 11th Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull occupied the first six positions while McLaren, Racing Point and Toro Rosso secured the lower point-scoring places. Mercedes collected the highest amount of points with 38 while their rivals Red Bull and Ferrari collected a total of 26 and 25 points respectively. McLaren finished with both their cars in the top ten, but Racing Point outscored the Woking-based outfit due to Sergio Perez's sixth-place finish.
The vital point – Carlos Sainz scored a vital point in the season finale thanks to his tenth-place finish. The Spaniard needed that single point more than anyone else as he could overtake Pierre Gasly in the Standings in the dying moments of the year. Before the Abu Dhabi round, both drivers were on identical 95 points, but the Frenchman had the upper hand due to his second place in the previous event, the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The longest stints – Stretching his longest run to 52 laps, Pierre Gasly completed the longest stint on the White hard compound while it was Sergio Perez to cover the longest distance on the Yellow medium compound with 37 laps. When it comes to the Red soft tyres, it was Lance Stroll who completed the most laps on the same set. However, it was a hard battle with the degradation for the Canadian as he lost around two seconds on lap 18, the last full lap of his stint compared to the start of that run.
Single retirement – The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw only one driver retire from the action. Of the twenty drivers, only Lance Stroll was forced to retire after his Sportpesa Racing Point car developed brake issues, prompting the team to call the Canadian in on lap 45 for safety reasons. However, Stroll had hardly any chance for a point-scoring finish after his clash at the start with Pierre Gasly, and a brake issue forced him to retire from the last race of the season.
The closest battle – Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz finished the 55-lap race in the closest distance. Completing the grand prix on a two-stop strategy, the Australian had a used set of softs for his last stint while the Spaniard had a new set of mediums. The double stops meant that they both had to overtake on tracks after their second visit to the pits and eventually crossed the line with only 901 thousands of a second separating them.
Astonishing top speeds – Although it is a circuit with the walls in close proximity, the Yas Marina Circuit enables drivers to reach astonishingly high top speeds thanks to its two long straights in Sector 2. Using his drag reduction system, Max Verstappen recorded the highest top speed with 345.6kph while the second highest top speed of 335.2kph belonged to Lance Stroll.
Qualifying and race speeds – Comparing the best sectors times of the qualifying session and the race, it is surprising that Hamilton could come relatively close to his best time set in the qualifying session in the last sector where the differences in engine modes, fuel loads and tyre degradation are critical. Demonstrating the dominance of his W10, the Briton achieved his best time in Sector 3 on a set of used hards at the end of a 29-lap stint.
The longest stints – Stretching his longest run to 52 laps, Pierre Gasly completed the longest stint on the White hard compound while it was Sergio Perez to cover the longest distance on the Yellow medium compound with 37 laps. When it comes to the Red soft tyres, it was Lance Stroll who completed the most laps on the same set. However, it was a hard battle with the degradation for the Canadian as he lost around two seconds on lap 18, the last full lap of his stint compared to the start of that run.
