Champion Max Verstappen ends F1 season with 15th win

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — A year after one of the most controversial finishes in the history of Formula One, Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was anything but.

Max Verstappen, as usual this season, was far ahead of the rest on his way to a record-extending 15th win of the season.

“Incredible to win again here, 15th win of the season is unbelievable,” Verstappen said. “It’s been really enjoyable to work with the whole team and to be able to achieve something like this this year.”

At the track where he beat Lewis Hamilton last year — after a restart call that is still hotly disputed to this day — Verstappen held off teammate Sergio Perez at the start and didn’t face a serious challenge after that in the season-ending race.

Instead, much of the attention was on retiring four-time champion Sebastian Vettel battling in the midfield pack in his final race, while a hydraulic problem ended Hamilton’s race for Mercedes as the seventime champion finished an F1 season without a win for the first time in his career.

“I am very pleased it is over and done with,” Hamilton said. “I gave it everything, but ultimately the last race was like my whole season. It summed up my year.”

There was potential for a fight for second place on track and in the championship standings, but little real drama.

Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc came into the race equal on points, just like Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton did last year. Leclerc got past Perez by opting for one less pit stop and managed his old tires so that Perez couldn’t get close enough to try an overtake.

That thwarted Red Bull’s bid to have its drivers place first and second, as Leclerc finished three points ahead of Perez in the standings. It meant Verstappen’s refusal to yield sixth place to his teammate at the last race in Brazil — which left Red Bull facing questions over an apparent rift in the team and was followed by a wave of abusive comments on social media aimed at Verstappen and his family — turned out not to be decisive at the end of the season.