Hamilton seals 11th win of year

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — World champion Lewis Hamilton’s 11th victory of another dominant season proved so easy that the driver who finished way back in second place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix joked that he should have eased up a bit.

Hamilton’s 84th career win saw him finishing around 17 seconds clear of Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver had started from second place behind Hamilton.

“I wasn’t expecting to have the pace advantage to that extent,” Hamilton said.

After Hamilton pulled clear from pole, he was five seconds ahead within 10 laps and Verstappen never got remotely close to catching his Mercedes in a season-finale resembling more of a coronation procession for the six-time Formula One champion.

Hamilton is now just seven wins behind seventime F1 champion Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91, and could realistically overtake the F1 great next season.

After clinching a record-extending 88th career pole, Hamilton won on the Yas Marina circuit for the fifth time in his career— four with Mercedes and once when driving for McLaren in 2011.

FERRARI: Hamilton appeared to open the door for a possible future move to Ferrari when he refused to deny meeting with its chairman John Elkann.

Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport reported Saturday that the Mercedes driver has met Elkann twice this year, and that they discussed Hamilton potentially replacing Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari from 2021 onward.

Both four-time champion Vettel and Hamilton have yet to renew contracts expiring at the end of 2020.