Kimi Raikkonen’s retirement was well-timed for race leader Lewis Hamilton.
The Virtual Safety Car period prompted by the Ferrari driver’s electrical failure gave Hamilton enough time to make his sole pit stop early and come out ahead of the midfield pack. But the rest of his pursuers weren’t far enough ahead to take the same advantage.Hamilton actually overtook Max Verstappen after rejoining the track behind the Red Bull. Wisely, the Mercedes driver immediately surrendered the place to avoid getting a penalty for passing under the VSC.
Daniel Ricciardo led the middle part of the race after extending his first stint, Red Bull expecting Hamilton would have to pit again. It didn’t turn out that way, and their hopes he’d be quick enough to pass the cars ahead of him were also dashed. His first lap out of the pits was two-and-a-half seconds faster than Hamilton was lapping at the times, but he couldn’t sustain anything like that kind of pace afterwards.
That stood as Ricciardo’s best lap of the race, but Sebastian Vettel beat it two laps from home, his Ferrari quite happy on its 38-lap-old super-soft tyres.
Here’s all the key data from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
| Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 2 | 0 | -3 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 4 | 0 | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 5 | -1 | 1 |
| Max Verstappen | 6 | -3 | 3 |
| Sergio Perez | 14 | 4 | 6 |
| Esteban Ocon | 9 | 1 | |
| Lance Stroll | 20 | 5 | 7 |
| Sergey Sirotkin | 19 | 1 | 4 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 10 | ||
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 11 | 0 | 5 |
| Pierre Gasly | 17 | 4 | |
| Brendon Hartley | 16 | -3 | 4 |
| Romain Grosjean | 7 | 0 | -2 |
| Kevin Magnussen | 13 | -3 | 3 |
| Fernando Alonso | 15 | 1 | 4 |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | 18 | 1 | 4 |
| Marcus Ericsson | 12 | 0 | |
| Charles Leclerc | 8 | 3 | 1 |
2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’40.867 | 54 | |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’40.953 | 0.086 | 42 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’41.249 | 0.382 | 35 |
| 4 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’41.351 | 0.484 | 54 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’41.357 | 0.490 | 53 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’41.909 | 1.042 | 51 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’42.393 | 1.526 | 53 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’42.816 | 1.949 | 53 |
| 9 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’42.822 | 1.955 | 53 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’42.876 | 2.009 | 54 |
| 11 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’43.195 | 2.328 | 54 |
| 12 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’43.249 | 2.382 | 53 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’43.591 | 2.724 | 41 |
| 14 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’43.831 | 2.964 | 54 |
| 15 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’43.988 | 3.121 | 42 |
| 16 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’44.033 | 3.166 | 53 |
| 17 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’44.174 | 3.307 | 53 |
| 18 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’45.198 | 4.331 | 5 |
| 19 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’46.077 | 5.210 | 22 |
| 20 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault |
2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Ultra soft (7) | Super soft (48) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Ultra soft (15) | Super soft (40) | |
| Max Verstappen | Hyper soft (17) | Super soft (38) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Ultra soft (33) | Super soft (22) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Ultra soft (16) | Super soft (24) | Ultra soft (15) |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ultra soft (37) | Super soft (18) | |
| Charles Leclerc | Hyper soft (7) | Super soft (48) | |
| Sergio Perez | Ultra soft (26) | Super soft (29) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Hyper soft (7) | Super soft (47) | |
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (41) | Ultra soft (13) | |
| Fernando Alonso | Ultra soft (27) | Super soft (27) | |
| Brendon Hartley | Ultra soft (1) | Super soft (53) | |
| Lance Stroll | Super soft (40) | Ultra soft (14) | |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | Super soft (35) | Ultra soft (19) | |
| Sergey Sirotkin | Super soft (35) | Ultra soft (19) | |
| Pierre Gasly | Super soft (29) | Ultra soft (17) | |
| Esteban Ocon | Hyper soft (18) | Super soft (26) | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Super soft (24) | ||
| Kimi Raikkonen | Ultra soft (6) | ||
| Nico Hulkenberg | Hyper soft (0) |
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2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 21.057 | 17 | |
| 2 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 21.061 | 0.004 | 33 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.283 | 0.226 | 7 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 21.289 | 0.232 | 40 |
| 5 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 21.587 | 0.530 | 41 |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 21.600 | 0.543 | 16 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 21.726 | 0.669 | 27 |
| 8 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 21.828 | 0.771 | 7 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 21.964 | 0.907 | 37 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 21.979 | 0.922 | 18 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 22.112 | 1.055 | 26 |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 22.189 | 1.132 | 40 |
| 13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 22.317 | 1.260 | 35 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 22.354 | 1.297 | 7 |
| 15 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 22.493 | 1.436 | 29 |
| 16 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.630 | 1.573 | 15 |
| 17 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 22.755 | 1.698 | 35 |
| 18 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 41.012 | 19.955 | 1 |
Jere (@jerejj)
26th November 2018, 12:16
A couple of tenths slower than the fastest lap of the previous season’s race, and six tenths slower than the official lap record, so the inaugural 2009 race still gets to keep that, as well as, the record for the lowest race winner’s overall time (1:34:03.414) although the combination of a single SC and VSC-periods made it impossible even to come close to that. Only one race out of the ten so far has lasted longer than the most recent, and that was the 2012 race (1:45:58.667).
Witan
26th November 2018, 16:13
This seems to prove the old, old adage that the best drivers try to win at the slowest possible speed.
hyoko
26th November 2018, 20:14
A lesson they didn’t teach in Valencia 2010