Lewis calls for change after final flop
LEWIS HAMILTON has called for changes to Formula One’s season finale after a lacklustre conclusion to his world title-winning campaign.
Hamilton finished behind his Mercedes team-mate and race winner Valtteri Bottas in Abu Dhabi while Sebastian Vettel was third in a race which will not live in the memory.
Abu Dhabi has become the stage for the finale – it pays a premium – and it is one played out against the backdrop of an exotic harbour and thousands of floodlights. But the 3.3-mile Yas Marina track is notable for its lack of action and aside from Daniel Ricciardo’s hydraulics failure and Carlos Sainz’s dodgy tyre following a pit-stop error, it was another race here to pass off without incident.
“They’ve got to change this track,” said Hamilton. “It’s just impossible to overtake. You have to have a 1.4-second advantage on the car in front. Valtteri and I have got the same car and there’s not 1.4 seconds between us in ability.
“You have the long straights where you can’t even get close enough to utilise them.
“If there is some way to enable us to remain closer, it is a track which will go up in the rankings, but I don’t know if they can change it.
“I know there’s money to do it. I have hope for Abu Dhabi to get better.”
Hamilton vowed to end the season with a bang, but after finishing ninth in Mexico, recovering from last to fourth in Brazil, and a second-placed finish here, the champion will start the defence of his championship off the back of a three-race winless streak.
Bottas blasted out of the starting blocks and fended off Hamilton on the short drag to the left-handed opening turn, with Vettel slotting in behind.
With six laps to go, Bottas made a mistake when he got out of shape through turn five which saw Hamilton move to within half a second of his team-mate. But the champion failed to make a move and Bottas took the spoils. “A big congratulations to Valtteri because he did an amazing job to hold me off,” said Hamilton.
For Bottas, it marked his first victory since July and only the third of a campaign in which he had been outclassed by Hamilton. “We Finns don’t show emotion but it doesn’t mean we don’t have any,” said Bottas. “I’m so happy.”