Valtteri Bottas finished off the Formula 1 season with a well-earned victory in Abu Dhabi, with Lewis Hamilton finishing second to make it a Mercedes 1-2. Sebastian Vettel completed the podium for Ferrari.
At the start Bottas got away well from pole position, and led going into the first corner from Hamilton and Vettel. kevin Magnussen had a massive spin but got away with it and had no significant damage. Nico Hulkenberg was handed a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when trying to overtake the Force India of Sergio Perez, however he managed to serve his penalty at the pitstop and still come out ahead of the Mexican.
Upfront Bottas was maintaining a healthy gap to Hamilton, with the Mercs (Mercedes guys) clearly quicker than Ferrari. On lap 15, Max Verstappen was the first of the frontrunners to make a pit stop, with Kimi Raikkonen following just a lap later but managing to re-emerge ahead of the Dutchman.
On lap 21, Daniel Ricciardo retired with a hydraulic problem a lap after making his pit stop. On lap 23 Bottas pitted for supersofts, with Hamilton staying out a further few laps in an attempt to overcut the Finn, but failed in his attempt and re-emerged behind his teammate.
On lap 33, Sainz made a pitstop but retired as soon as he exited the pitlane with an incorrectly attached wheel, but Nico Hulkenberg was still running in sixth place which would have meant sixth place in the constructors championship for Renault which could be worth a reported $6.5m bonus.
Hamilton applied the pressure on Bottas for the win, but try as he did, it was in vain and Bottas won the race with a gap of 3.8s, with Vettel following home in third 15.5s behind Hamilton. The rest of the points scorers (in order from fourth to tenth) were: Raikkonen, Verstappen, Hulkenberg (who with his sixth place enabled Renault to claim sixth place in the Constructors' Championship ahead of Toro Rosso), Perez, Ocon, Alonso and Massa in his final race in Formula 1.
That's it for the 2017 Formula 1 season, we hope you enjoyed our coverage (on Zarb times) for the season - we will return for the 2018 season which begins in Melbourne on 25th March with a new F1 era with the introduction of the 'halo' as well as a new logo.
(Also we might publish driver ratings for the 2017 season, but no guarantees on this)
Classification:
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Honda
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Pascal Wehrlein - Sauber-Ferrari
Brendon Hartley - Toro Rosso
Pierre Gasly - Toro Rosso
Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes
Retired and not classified: Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo
World Championship - Final Standings:
Lewis Hamilton - 363 points
Sebastian Vettel - 317 points
Valtteri Bottas - 305 points
Kimi Raikkonen - 205 points
Daniel Ricciardo - 200 points
Max Verstappen - 168 points
Sergio Perez - 100 points
Esteban Ocon - 87 points
Carlos Sainz - 54 points
Nico Hulkenberg - 43 points
Felipe Massa - 43 points
Lance Stroll - 40 points
Romain Grosjean - 28 points
Kevin Magnussen - 19 points
Fernando Alonso - 17 points
Stoffel Vandoorne - 13 points
Jolyon Palmer - 8 points
Pascal Wehrlein - 5 points
Daniil Kvyat - 5 points
Marcus Ericsson - 0 points
Pierre Gasly - 0 points
Antonio Giovinazzi - 0 points
Brendon Hartley - 0 points
Constructors' Championship - Final Standings:
Mercedes - 668 points
Ferrari - 522 points
Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 368 points
Force India-Mercedes - 187 points
Williams-Mercedes - 83 points
Renault - 57 points
Toro Rosso - 53 points
Haas-Ferrari - 47 points
McLaren-Honda - 30 points
Sauber-Ferrari - 5 points