The 2024 season comes to an end at Abu Dhabi to mark the end of an era!

Lights out saw drama already as Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen had made contact at turn 1. Verstappen later was then handed a ten second time penalty for causing the collision with Piastri.

Lap 1:

Moments later ended with Sergio Perez clipping wheels with one of the Haas drivers as he took a small spin before he found himself stuck on track to end his race early and bring out the Virtual Safety Car.

Lap 3:

The drama continued on as Piastri went into the back of Williams driver, Franco Colapinto which later resulted in Piastri getting a ten second time penalty for causing the collision.

Lap 10:

Charles Leclerc was quick to make places to try and tighten that Constructors gap as he breezed past Fernando Alonso to move up into P6.

Lap 12:

Leclerc continued his climb up the leader board as he zoomed past Hulkenberg to jump up into P5.

Lap 15:

The Stewards didn’t hold back on the penalties as they handed Zhou Guanyu a five second time penalty for a false start.

Lap 24:

Liam Lawson headed to the pits for a tyre change but it took a wrong turn as he was released earlier than intended which left his front left tyre not being on properly. Soon Lawson returned to the pits to get the tyre tightened but was soon handed a ren second stop and go penalty for the unsafe release.

Lap 28:

Ferrari was desperate to close the Constructors gap between them and McLaren as the got over Leclerc’s radio quickly to change the strategy:

“So, it’s now Plan C.”

“That’s a bit optimistic in my opinion.” – Leclerc

Lap 32:

Valterri Bottas tried to make an overtake on Kevin Magnussen at Turn 5 which ended with Bottas’ car locked up as he clip wheels with Magnussen which caused Bottas to lose his front right wheel which forced him to retire out of the race.

Magnussen showed his frustrations over the touch of wheels over the radio with:

“ah, well isn’t that ******* great..”

Lap 46:

Verstappen continued his own climb up the leaderboard as he sweeped past Pierre Gasly to claim P6.

On the same lap Piastri attempted a dive on Hulkenberg which ended with Piastri being faced with oversteer as he snapped off track luckily not making contact with the barrier as he continued on.

Lap 47:

Ferrari continued their desperation to close the gap of the constructors once more as they tried to encourage Leclerc to push over the radio:

“ok, let’s get back into the rhythm.”

” I don’t know what you think the rhythm is but this is the rhythm.” – Leclerc

Lap 58:

The final lap saw Hamilton making a last minute overtake on teammate George Russell before the chequered flag to claim P4.

Soon enough Lando Norris crossed the finish line to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and to win McLaren the constructors for the first time since 1998! Norris was followed closely behind by Carlos Sainz in P2 and Leclerc in P3!

The final moments:

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was the finishing point for the end of an era as Hamilton finished off his 11 year drive with Mercedes as he makes the move to Ferrari, Hamilton gave a warm goodbye to the Mercedes family and crowed with donuts out on track after the race.

The race was an emotional end for other drivers such has Magnussen who is making the leap from Formula One into BMW Motorsports as a Works driver.

It was an emotional closing for Bottas and Zhou who are both leaving Stake with Zhou possibly leaving to be a Ferrari reserve driver with Bottas future still not made clear.

Finally it was the end of the era of Logan Sargeant, Daniel Ricciardo and Franco Colapinto with the three not having their futures made clear either. Even with not knowing where these drivers may go they left a positive impact on their teams and the F1 fanbase.

Onto the next season..