The final race of this unconventional season took place on 13th December. This was unusually late in the season, but these are not normal times. It’s a race that starts in twilight and ends in darkness.
The good news was that Lewis Hamilton had tested negative and returned to participate in the final race of the year. Russell went back to the Williams team. Fittipaldi continued as the reserve driver for Haas.
Max Verstappen took pole position in qualifying. The Mercedes of Bottas and Hamilton followed with Norris in 4th. The second Red Bull of Alex Albon was 5th with Norris’s team mate, Sainz, 6th. Kvyat, Stroll, Leclerc and Gasly finished the top ten. Leclerc, however had a 3 place grid penalty from his accident in Bahrain and started 12th.
The Renault of Ocon was 11th with his teammate Ricciardo 12. Vettel, Giovinazzi and Perez rounded out the places up to 15th. The final grid slots were taken up by Raikkonen, Magnussen, Russell, Fittipaldi and Latifi. Magnussen and Perez both had engine penalties so were relegated to the back of the grid.
As the lights went out for the final time this year, Verstappen got away well and stayed in the lead. Everyone got round the first corner without incident. Down the field, Vettel had gotten past Leclerc and Magnussen had made up four places to 17th. Gasly and Ocon got themselves into a good fight, with Gasly taking 9th place.
By the end of lap 3, Verstappen had pulled out a 2 second lead over Bottas with Hamilton a further 2 seconds behind.
Perez was making his way through the field from the back. By lap 6 he was up to 15th place. Meanwhile Albon had made up ground to Norris and overtaken him and the Red Bull driver moved up to 4th, but he was 6 seconds behind Hamilton. Ricciardo had overtaken Ocon for 10th, but Leclerc was still unable to get past Vettel with the Ferraris in 12th and 13th.
Lance Stroll moved up to 7th on lap 8, with his teammate Perez now up to 14th.
Gasly was able to use DRS to get past his teammate, Kvyat for 8th place on lap 10. Then the yellow flags came out. The Racing Point of Sergio Perez had ground to a halt. Virtual safety car was deployed. The marshals tried to move the car but it wasn’t cooperating. The front runners dived into the pitlane to take advantage of the virtual safety car situation. Mercedes double stacked and got it right this time. The Ferraris and Ricciardo in the Renault decided to stay out and retain track position. This could have been a great move, but the Racing Point was still stuck on the track and there was oil on the ground. The safety car was deployed to enable the Racing Point to be safely removed. Those who had not pitted would have to hope that the strategy worked in their favour. Vettel and Ricciardo were banking on their hard tyres staying good to enable them to gain track position. Leclerc had the medium tyres which were not projected to last as long. This was a strategy gamble on whether the front runners could get to the end of the race without any further stops.
The safety car came into the pits at the end of lap 13. Verstappen led the pack over the line as the race went green.
It was confirmed that Perez’s car had transmission failure.
Carlos Sainz on his fresh tyres, got past Leclerc in the Ferrari. Leclerc tried to fight it out but ended up having to concede. In no time, the Racing Point of Lance Stroll was looming up on the rear wing of Leclerc’s Ferrari. On lap 16 Stroll took Leclerc’s place. Leclerc took the place back in the DRS zone.
Sainz was put under investigation for driving unnecessarily slowly in the pitlane. Had he backed the pack up to give his team time for a double stack? With third place in the Constructors’ Championship on the line, this was a crucial decision. Meanwhile, Sainz tried to take on Sebastian Vettel. After some valiant defending from Seb, Sainz got past to take 7th place.
As darkness fell, the circuit lights came on. Stroll got past Leclerc again and made it stick this time. Gasly moved up to the rear ring of the Ferrari. He made the move easily with his fresher tyres and the DRS system. Leclerc on his older medium tyres, was now out of the points.
Esteban Ocon in the Renault now loomed large in Leclerc’s mirrors. Meanwhile at the front, Verstappen was once again building a lead over Bottas. Mercedes seemed to be down on power and it was reported that both cars had an MGUK issue.
Ocon overtook Leclerc, only for the Ferrari driver to find Kvyat practically on top of his Ferrari. Leclerc bowed to the inevitable and took to the pitlane. He returned to the race in 19th place.
This left Vettel and Ricciardo as the only drivers in the top ten yet to make a pit stop.
Lap 28, just past half way through the race, had the field as follows: Verstappen, Bottas, Hamilton, Albon, Ricciardo, Norris, Sainz, Vettel, Stroll, Gasly in the top ten. Then Ocon, Kvyat, Raikkonen, Russell, Leclerc, Magnussen, Latifi, Fittipaldi and Giovinazzi who pitted that lap, resuming in last place.
Lap 30: Gasly robustly but fairly overtook Stroll for 9th and sets off in pursuit of Vettel. At the front, Verstappen was now over 7 seconds ahead of Bottas and driving beautifully.
Two laps later, Gasly uses the DRS to get past Vettel; Vettel fights back and tries to keep in touch with the Alpha Tauri. Gasly manages to put some distance between himself and the Ferrari. Leclerc was getting warnings for track limit violations, which could cause him to take a penalty.
The stewards decided to investigate the Sainz pit lane situation after the race.
Stroll was closing down Vettel, who was rapidly running out of useable tyre. Stroll appeared to be having problems of his own, reporting traction problems. Ocon and Kvyat were looming large in Stroll’s mirrors. Leclerc, who was lapping a second a lap faster than Vettel was catching up to the back of that group.
Lap 36: Vettel finally pits. Only Ricciardo is still out on his original tyres.
Lap 40: Renault finally call in Ricciardo in for a pitstop. He resumes on medium tyres, re-joining the race in 7th place. Leclerc tries and fails to get past Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo.
On lap 43 the Mercedes pit radio Bottas to ask him to “give it everything you’ve got”. Two laps later and Bottas is still 9 seconds behind. There’s clearly not much left in the Mercedes for Bottas to give. Albon is still over 7 seconds behind Hamilton and hasn’t put him under any pressure.
Charles Leclerc gets the black and white flag, warning him that he has violated track limits 3 times. The next transgression will incur a penalty.
Max stretched his lead to over 11 seconds and lapped everyone up to and including Vettel in 14th. Bottas seemed to be falling back. Hamilton was less than 2 seconds behind him.
With 5 laps to go, Verstappen is looking imperious. Bottas is still second, with Hamilton in third. Albon is 4th, still without making any impression on Hamilton. The two McLaren’s are 5th and 6th with Ricciardo in 7th, Gasly in 8th, Stroll 9th and Ocon closing out the points positions in 10th.
As the cars enter the final couple of laps, Albon suddenly finds some speed to close down Hamilton but it’s too little too late.
Verstappen started his final lap where he had been the entire race: in the lead. Bottas was still in second, with a clearly out of sorts Hamilton hanging on in third. Albon was still in 4th with the Mclarens of Norris and Sainz over 40 seconds behind. It would be enough, however, for Mclaren to take third in the Constructors’ championship. Ricciardo in the Renault were in 7th, followed by Gasly, Stroll and Ocon. Ocon managed to snatch 9th off Stroll as they came to the end of the race.
Verstappen took his 10th win. He drove brilliantly throughout and didn’t put a foot wrong. It was an assured and mature performance. Bottas was second and an exhausted Hamilton was third. Verstappen just missed out on the fastest lap, which Daniel Ricciardo took from him on the final lap.
The stewards later determined that Sainz had not committed an offense in the pitlane and no penalty was therefore applied, confirming their Constructors’ Championship 3rd place.
It has been a difficult season. The Covid 19 crisis meant that it didn’t start until July, but the teams still managed 17 races. It was no real surprise that this final race will not go down as a classic. It has been a season that Ferrari can only learn from and will probably want to forget as soon as possible.
Congratulations to Formula One for managing to produce a season that gave all of us something to look forward to and enjoy in this most stressful and trying of years.
By Clare Topic
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