Bottas makes Hamilton settle for second in F1 finale
El finlandés Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) ganó este domingo el Gran Premio de Abu Dabi, la vigésima y última prueba del Campeonato Mundial de Fórmula Uno, que se disputó en el circuito de Yas Marina de la capital de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos.
Bottas se impuso por delante de su compañero inglés Lewis Hamilton -que hace un mes ya había celebrado su cuarto título mundial, en Ciudad de México- y del alemán Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), que concluyó tercero y de esta forma mantuvo el segundo puesto en el certamen.
El finlandés, que arrancó desde la ‘pole’, logró su tercera victoria en Fórmula Uno, asimismo la tercera del año, después de las que logró en el circuito del anillo olímpico de Sochi (Rusia) y en el Red Bull Ring de Spielberg (Austria).
El mexicano Sergio Pérez (Force India) finalizó séptimo, idéntico puesto que ocupó en la general final del Mundial, logrando 100 puntos en esta temporada. ‘Checo’ batió de nuevo a su compañero francés, Esteban Ocon, que finalizó octavo en Abu Dabi. ENGLISH Valtteri Bottas won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix yesterday as Mercedes wrapped up the Formula One season with a onetwo finish and four- times world champion Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second.
The win was a career third for the Finn, who had started on pole position at the Yas Marina circuit, and denied Hamilton a 10th of the campaign.
“It’s a really important win for me after having a pretty difficult start to the second half of the year,” said Bottas, who joined Mercedes after 2016 champion Nico Rosberg retired abruptly a year ago.
“This weekend, pole and win, I couldn’t be happier to end the season like this.”
In a processional race under the floodlights, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vet- tel took third place to finish runner-up in a championship that Hamilton won in Mexico last month.
The final points tally was Hamilton 363, Vettel 317 and Bottas 305.
Mercedes had already won the constructors’ world championship for the fourth year in a row and ended with 668 points to Ferrari’s 522. The onetwo finish was their fourth of the season.
“After three, four or five laps I couldn’t go any faster and from then it was pretty lonely,” said Vettel, a three-times winner in Abu Dhabi. “In the second part of the race we had a stronger pace but not good enough.
“Lewis deserves to win the championship this year. I hate to say it but he was the better man.”
Hamilton kept Bottas in his sights but was also unable to pass. He said that was not because of a lack of intent or team orders.
“Big congratulations to Valtteri, he did an amazing job to hold me off. It was a great race, I gave it everything. It is hard to overtake here,” he said.