Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2018

2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Star Performers

2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly were out final star drivers of 2018 in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – here’s why.

Stars

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton produced a stunning lap in Q2, and although his first Q3 lap was messy it was still quicker than the rest. He underlined a strong performance by taking pole out-qualifying his team mate by a tenth and Vettel by three tenths. In the race, he made a good start and was never under pressure from Bottas during his short first stint.

He was the only front-runner to pit under the Virtual Safety Car with 48 laps to go. He ended up behind the Red Bulls, showing good presence of mind not to stay in front of Verstappen having passed him on the way out of the pits. Mercedes were confident he could make his supersofts last to the end of the race and he did, with enough life in them at the end of the race to match Vettel’s pace as the Ferrari driver tried to make a late charge.

Charles Leclerc

Kimi Raikkonen, Charles Leclerc, Yas Marina, 2018
Leclerc continued his points run
Leclerc left Ericsson behind as he reached Q3, and missed out on bring ‘best of the rest’ by 0.045s. He took advantage of a slow-starting Verstappen and dived down the inside of Grosjean to be sixth after the first corner. On the second straight he managed to get by Ricciardo just before the Safety Car was deployed on lap one.

After the restart Leclerc pressured Raikkonen until his engine failed on the main straight seven laps in. Subsequently the VSC was deployed and Sauber opted to make a Hamilton-style early switch to super-softs. This sacrificed their track position and Leclerc struggled to make his way back through the field after running fourth. He worked his way up to seventh but was unable to challenge Sainz for sixth, the Renault driver having the benefit of starting on fresh rubber.

Pierre Gasly

Gasly was six-tenths up on his personal best in Q1 when his engine failed as he exited the final corner and he was consequently eliminated. Fortunately he avoided taking any penalties and started 17th. He took advantage of chaos ahead and was running thirteenth when the Safety Car was deployed. He did a long first stint on supersofts and stopped on lap 29 for ultras.

He came out of the pits in 16th but had climbed his way into the points when his engine failed on lap 46. He treated Verstappen to a smoke screen but probably wouldn’t have done if his team had been quicker on the radio.

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Strugglers

Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Yas Marina, 2018
Magnussen couldn’t match Grosjean’s pace
Magnussen was over a second slower than his team mate, Grosjean, who proved Haas had the pace to be at the front of the midfield. Taking advantage of free tyre choice, Magnussen started on super-softs and was the last driver to pit, staying out until lap 41. He switched to fresh ultra-softs for the final 13 laps and finished 10th thanks to Gasly’s last retirement, a position which flattered his speed compared to Grosjean, whose car was damaged on the first lap.

Valtteri Bottas

Bottas lost out to his team mate by a tenth in qualifying and was unable to challenge him off the line into turn one. For the rest of his first stint he maintained position and inherited the lead for nine laps when Hamilton pitted. During his second stint he struggled to maintain his tyres and locked up twice which brought him under attack from Vettel and Verstappen. Once he lost out to both of them he made a second stop since he wouldn’t lose any positions. He finished a distant fifth, nowhere near the rest of the front-runners, and ruing a tough end to a season which started so promisingly.

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And the rest

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Yas Marina, 2018
Ricciardo missed out on a podium again
Ferrari lagged behind Mercedes for the majority of the weekend and in qualifying they locked out the second row. Raikkonen was forced out on lap seven with an electrical problem and Vettel was never able to challenge for the lead despite pressuring Bottas into a mistake to take second.

Ricciardo had the edge in qualifying and the first stint after Verstappen;’s engine went into anti-stall and dropped him to tenth. Red Bull chose to split their tyre strategies and Verstappen came in first since he started on the softer hypersofts. Ricciardo stopped sixteen laps later despite being ahead in the first stint and was unable to get close to Verstappen despite much fresher tyres.

Grosjean qualified well but had a poor start and made contact with Hulkenberg on the first lap which sent the Renault driver rolling into the wall and out of the race. For once the Haas driver was blameless.

Hartley was caught in the debris and suffered a slow puncture. He went the rest of the race on one set of super-softs which meant he couldn’t ever push as much as he would have liked to. Grosjean gambled on the VSC and lost out due to track position which ruined his race but he still picked up points in ninth.

Sainz finished best of the rest despite a poor qualifying performance. He went long in his first stint on supersofts which meant he faced as little traffic as possible. Like Sainz, Perez started outside the top ten and was able to capitalize on his ability to choose his starting tyre. He stopped on lap 26 to trade ultrasofts for supersofts and easily finished eighth.

Ericsson and Ocon suffered mechanical failures in their last races for their respective teams. Alonso finished just outside the points in 11th after outqualifying his team mate, Vandoorne, for the 21st time this season.

Williams were once again the slowest car in the field but were fighting with some of the midfield teams at times since both drivers went long in the first stint.

Over to you

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Author information

Josh Holland
USA-based Josh joined the RaceFans team in 2018. Josh helps produce our Formula 1 race weekend coverage, assists with our social media activities and...

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42 comments on “2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Star Performers”

  1. Pierre Gasly is a star of the weekend but Sainz isn’t?

    1. Hamilton / Verstappen / Sainz were the true star performers to my opinion
      Honerable mentions for Leclerc

    2. Tbh, Sainz ‘only’ converted his car’s pace into the position it belonged on (a position that could’ve and probably would’ve been Hülkenberg’s if not for that barrel roll). His qualifying was really poor, so I’d say his weekend as a whole wasn’t outstanding.

      But yeah, Gasly … ?

      I would’ve gone for Hamilton, Leclerc, Verstappen (possibly Alonso as well, again driving like he found a metastable state somewhere beyond the limit).
      Verstappen’s a bit of a tricky one, since his last overtake on Ocon, where he threw his car into the hairpin like Ocon wasn’t even there, letting it drift into the Force India to shove it offline, was one of the most disgustingly arrogant displays of disrespect I remember seeing in this sport. Worth a 5-second time penalty, if you ask me.
      But on the other hand, his sneak attack on Bottas is a perfect example of this kid’s genius at the wheel. The way he reinterpreted the chicane to come flying at Bottas at pretty much the last spot where you’d expect this kind of speed difference to be possible, that was simply supreme.
      Add to that the fact that the fact that he had to overcome significant difficulties and (partially self-inflicted) strategic disadvantages in the race and still managed to get ahead of Ricciardo, who most of us agreeisn’t a mere sunday driver, and I’d say we’ve witnessed another key performance by the most exciting driver of a very promising generation.

      1. These days each move Verstappen makes is worth a discussion…when Hamilton pipped Vettel at Monza resulting in a spin for the Ferrari driver after they touched Hamilton was mentioned a hero.
        I think you are forgetting the race before AD where Ocon received a driver through + 10 sec for elimination Verstappens prospects of a near sure P1 + P3 in the overall standing. AD was hard, but fair…Ocon mentioned after he enjoyed the battle..

        Alonso made a mess of his last race cutting corners… he was lucky not to be black flagged

        1. Yawn.

          These days each move Verstappen makes is worth a discussion…when Hamilton pipped Vettel at Monza resulting in a spin for the Ferrari driver after they touched Hamilton was mentioned a hero.

          Yeah, selective reasoning at its finest. You don’t even know what my stance on Vettel/Hamilton in Monza was, or provide any reason why these two incidents should be mentioned in the same breath at all. Oh wait, is it just because shut up any kind of criticism aimed at Verstappen? Then I get it.

          I think you are forgetting the race before AD where Ocon received a driver through + 10 sec for elimination Verstappens prospects of a near sure P1 + P3 in the overall standing.

          Erm, no? Thank you for worrying about my memory’s capacities, but I remember that incident very well, thank you.
          But now it’s my time to worry about something: What on earth does my assessment of an incident between these two drivers in one race to do with another incident involving the same drivers in a completely different race and wholly different situation? Why even bring it up? Because Ocon was clearly in the wrong in Brazil (and rightfully punished for it), so Verstappen can do whatever he wants to him, is that what you’re insinuating?
          Oh wait, or is it just because shut up any kind of criticism aimed at Verstappen? Then I get it.

          AD was hard, but fair…Ocon mentioned after he enjoyed the battle..

          How do I tackle this? A rhetorical question should do the trick:
          Do I give a damn about Ocon’s opinion? Fun fact: I don’t.
          Are a driver’s emotions relevant for the assessment of an incident? Fun fact: They aren’t.

          Alonso made a mess of his last race cutting corners… he was lucky not to be black flagged

          Pffff.
          Now, I haven’t kept count of Alonso’s off-track activities, or studied his onboard cam. But from what I’ve seen, the world feed caught him cutting the chicane exactly once. The fact that he was later penalised indicates he must’ve done it at least a second time. Can it possibly have been much more than that? I guess the fact that he only received a 5-second penalty speaks volumes about the severity of the ‘mess […] he was happy not to be black flagged’ for.

          1. You seem a little tyred Nase…

            About one incident has nothing to do with another incident the next race…….
            Do you remember Verstappen getting a joker accidentally cutting a corner at Monza when Bottas was on his tail..? Rigth… that was the exact reason why Bottas got the joker in Abu Dhabi when Verstappen was chasing him. There’s clearly a relation weather you like it or not.

            It’s just getting a bit old, fans who think to know better all the time… it was fun racing instead of the usually ‘parade’.

            Alonso cut the corner three times in a row and received 3x 5sec penalty for it, Alonso francly wasn’t racing he was messing things up.

        2. Wouldn’t say that cost verstappen p3 in the standings here, Matn, we’re talking about verstappen vs raikkonen, the situation is quite clear: verstappen was consistently faster, raikkonen had overall a little better and more reliable car, but since verstappen was the luckiest red bull driver and raikkonen the unluckiest ferrari driver the difference wasn’t much if any.

          What makes the difference is the enormous amount of mistakes and points thrown away by verstappen early in the season, THAT cost him 3rd place, what happened with ocon can happen, I didn’t like it either considering verstappen is my favourite current driver.

          1. Well…the difference of 7 points at Brasil would have been enough…. no matter where you want to put the blame….one DNF less would have been enough as well.
            Verstappen may have made mistakes, but so did others… how about a couple of Ferrari and Mercedes drivers jut being to slow and losing points right there.

            I think we all realise it wasn;t an even battle against Ferrari and Mercedes…if that car would be available for Verstappen we’de had a different two-way battle and Vettel nor Raikkonen would have been involved in the title bid….for as far they were now

      2. …snip
        driving like he found a metastable state somewhere beyond the limit
        …snip

        THAT is a fantastic phrase. /OT

    3. Sainz was partly only best of the rest because he started 11th, and could therefore run longer on his tyres, overcutting Leclerc and Grosjean who got stuck in traffic round a track notoriously difficult to overtake on. He had a decent race but is not a star.

    4. I see why Gasly is there, but is seems that there are too many “ifs” on the equation. Yes he could have went into q2, but what if he crashed on that session? Yes he was doing well when he retired but there was still some time left in the race.

      About Sainz, agree that he shouldn’t be there, he was the first to benefit from the tyre rule and of course finished best of the rest. I think the same happened to Hulk in Mexico, and he wasn’t a star either. Plus Sainz’ quali was poor

  2. I thought Dan was doing great till the team reamed him with non pit call ..lead driver first pit? 😵😵😵😵

    1. Not when drivers are on a different tyre strategy.

    2. Especially not when the lead driver has ultrasofts and the following driver has hypers!

      1. If the shoey was on the other footy Max would of pitted first.

  3. I agree with the sturglers and others, but Gasly was no star performer imho.

    Hamilton was flawless and considering what Bottas was able to do in the same car, he was the best. As for Bottas … I mean what is he even doing in that Merc at this point?

    Leclerc I agree on but Gasly should be swapped with Verstappen, who had a bad quali and a bad start but fought his way back from 10th to the podium by passing rather than lucky strategy or others having dnf’s.

    1. As for Bottas … I mean what is he even doing in that Merc at this point?

      An excellent wingman. If you analyze the race carefully you will note that Lewis had a really easy Sunday because Vettel and Verstappen had not overtaken Bottas so easily. He was able to build a gap comfortably and manage it to the end at the same time he was saving tires.

      1. An excelent wingman should come right behind the leader, covering his back. Valteri came in 5th after being passed by Seb, Max and Daniel in a race where the Merc was mighty, he wasn’t dealt a bad strategy, he didn’t have technical issues, no probelms at the start, etc. He was just plain slow, at least in the second part of the race. So the original question – I mean what is he even doing in that Merc at this point? – is pretty valid in my eyes.

        Regarding Lewis, he upped the pace imediately after Vettel passed Bottas, and quickly showed that there was no fight for the win, not when the car is this good (and ofcourse, Lewis Hamilton is behind the wheel).

  4. Stars: Hamilton, Sainz, and Leclerc.
    Strugglers: Bottas, Grosjean, and Alonso.

    1. @jerejj

      Strugglers: […] Alonso.

      O-kay. You might want to check the expiry date of your mouthwash.

    2. Why on earth would you put Grosjean ? Left Magnussen in the dust (again, he is making a trend of it in this second part of the year), was delt a bit of damage (and let’s be honest, it was Hulk’s fault), a bad strategy and still recovered to 9th in front of his team mate who had none of the above mitigating circonstances

      1. Yes, grosjean and alonso strugglers are weird, grosjean was the best haas driver, and alonso was the best mclaren driver (which already says enough considering there’s no vandoorne or magnussen as strugglers in your ranking), I think both fall in the average category, I don’t agree with some voting alonso driver of the day just cause it was his last race, it wasn’t anything phenomenal, perhaps the mclaren just didn’t have the pace to do so, but alonso on a good day would’ve tried to catch up magnussen earlier and perhaps would’ve been able to get past him in the end, wouldn’t wait for the team to tell him to do so or cut chicanes.

  5. This is a fair assessment. I will say, I am curious what Verstappen could have done if his engine hadn’t gone into anti-stall and what that would have meant for all the other tactics.

    1. Maybe could’ve got between hamilton and vettel.

  6. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    29th November 2018, 13:01

    Whatever happened to Magnussen? At the start of the season, he was best of the rest. Now Grosjean is back to beating him soundly.

    It’s really strange how results seem to swing like a seesaw for these 2 teammates. Either Grosjean is doing phenomenally well or Magnussen is, never both.

    In fact we saw the same thing with Grosjean at Renault when he was with Kimi in their last season together – he suddenly was able to perform better than Kimi.

    1. I believe Grosjean can be really fast when things click for him. It’s a shame they don’t always do.

      That, or Haas only has one decent car and they time share…

      1. That’s funny but would almost think realistic!

  7. I feel like Gasly has gone under the radar. He’s been underwhelming in Brazil, but in general, it’s been a solid rookie season for him. I think he’ll fare better than many expect against Verstappen.

  8. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    29th November 2018, 14:32

    I know Bottas isn’t great at the moment, but i still don’t think he’s as bad as some are thinking. The Mercedes often is one of the best in qualifying, but in the race, Ferrari and Red Bull have looked as fast or quicker if I’m honest. And Bottas being slower than Hamilton has been slowing them down. But you notice once they get past Bottas, they slowly start catching Hamilton. So does this mean Hamilton is also slow? No. The Mercedes is o longer the the best car overall I’d say. Bottas hasn’t been very good recently but he has been helping Hamilton’s last 2 wins in a way.

    Hamilton doesn’t seem to have had his usual dip after winning the WDC. Infact, I think he is possibly at his highest ever level in the later part of this season. And even then, he isn’t looking much faster than Red Bull or Ferrari the races. Bottas is only slightly underperforming overall I’d say. Hamilton is just so strong at the moment. Bottas maybe puts too much focus into qualifying. On average this year from the statistics on this site, he’s been 0.172 behind Hamilton. That is not bad at all given how good we say Hamilton is in qualifying. Bottas is usually good in the first part of the race, like the last one, (was actually quicker than Hamilton for the 20 laps after he pitted). But then he lost control and started locking up. I would say he looked strong this weekend until the 2nd half of this race. Bottas did struggle after that yes, but 5th is not that bad really. Hamilton is making the cars pace look far better than it is. And Bottas has been helping him finish ahead of others by bigger margins in many races this year.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      29th November 2018, 15:42

      @thegianthogweed

      On average this year from the statistics on this site, he’s been 0.172 behind Hamilton.

      That’s an impressive stat – in my mind it was higher because of some races where Hamilton was much faster than Bottas.

      I think it’s Bottas’ body language that has been as important as his performance on track. Even Bottas summed up the season in his interview at Abu Dhabi and Toto echoed the sentiments. He’s not a talented driver but I think he’s just having a bad season alongside a teammate who’s had 2 terrific seasons (3 if you include 2016). He has to put it behind him and just focus on next season which will probably be the season that decides whether his entire F1 career.

      A lot of people have said that Toto has turned him into a wingman but I think that Toto actually wants to see Bottas succeed at Mercedes which of course he has to an extent by winning 2 constructor championships.

      Of all his past teammates, I think that Lewis would be least mentally affected if Bottas won some races and he has said so this year. I think that if Bottas challenged Lewis and beat him to the WDC fair and square, I think that Lewis would tip his hat off to him as long as he knew he gave it his best.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        29th November 2018, 15:43

        Oops – I meant “he’s a talented driver” :-)

      2. That’s an impressive stat – in my mind it was higher because of some races where Hamilton was much faster than Bottas.

        Agreed it is impressive, but does that include Germany though? If so then it isn’t entirely representative.

        Bottas is usually good in the first part of the race, like the last one, (was actually quicker than Hamilton for the 20 laps after he pitted). But then he lost control and started locking up.

        The thing with that though is you could clearly argue Bottas wasn’t managing his tyres properly in those first 20 laps (hence the better lap times vs Hamilton and the subsequent performance drop off)

        1. Bottas’ problem isn’t that he inherently lacks pace (as the gap clearly shows), it’s his race management: keeping pace while keeping his tires alive, being decisive in attack & bullish in defense… these are areas where his immediate competition scores remarkably high. It seems that the reality of battling week after week (with at least three drivers who have consistently shown better one lap pace & race craft than he has, no less) has taken it’s toll. I think the pressure got to him a few times & with these tires, one bad lock-up (or pushing too hard, overheating them) is all it takes for your entire weekend to go south. All that coupled with the mental blow of falling out of contention in the championship at the end (which led to him being asked to give up what should have been an easy win) probably sapped a lot of his energy & motivation. The great thing about Bottas is he’s honest with himself & knows exactly what he needs to do. Whether or not he’ll be able to do it remains to be seen: Lewis Hamilton on the other side of the garage is a tough task, & neither Seb nor Max will be easy pickings if their cars are up to it. Come to think of it, neither are Leclerc or Gasly. Valtteri needs to get his head down & elbows out next season for sure. Right from the start, no letting up until this time next year.

    2. @thegianthogweed I think I agree with most of your post, but damn, 5th is not that bad for bottas? Raikkonen had a mechanical problem, how could he have done worse than 5th in abu dhabi?

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        30th November 2018, 7:36

        Qualifying is where Mercedes is strong at the moment. I think it is just Hamilton making them look like the top team in the race when i just don’t think they are. Vettel was slowly catching Hamilton until the end of the race. So was Ricciardo and Verstappen. That was until Verstappen started slowing down. (maybe because of his tyre age) Which also effected Ricciardo. And I bet Ricciardo will have been told not to pass Verstappen.

        Hamilton has just been outstanding at maintaining pace while looking after the tyres. Given how quick the other teams are at the moment, I don’t think 5th and 6th would be that bad for Mercedes. Bottas made it look worse by locking up, but if Hamilton hadn’t had such great pace, tyre management and Bottas slowing the other drivers down, I don’t think Hamilton will have managed a podium this race. That is how good I think Ferrari and Red Bull are now. Hamilton is making Mercedes’s race pace look far better than it is. So, i don’t think Bttas being overtaken by them is that surprising. Mercedes just seem to have something that makes their 1 lap pace really good.

        1. Mercedes just seem to have something that makes their 1 lap pace really good.

          That has been true since 2013. Merc’s always been a better 1 lap car than race car.

        2. Yes, that can be, I also noticed that hamilton wasn’t pulling away any more after they got past, and the reason verstappen slowed is likely due to the oil from gasly, he said it was like driving in the fog.

  9. I hope we get a all year GP star performer we can vote and one just by points over the whole season.

  10. “(..) and locked up twice which brought him under attack from Vettel and Verstappen. Once he lost out to both of them he made a second stop since he wouldn’t lose any positions.” – Well, not before RIC overtook him too, without having to rely on BOT locking up and without having to barge into BOT like VER did, again. So why has this been left out, mr Holland?

    “Ricciardo had the edge in qualifying and the first stint after Verstappen;’s engine went into anti-stall and dropped him to tenth.” – The choice of words seems to have a subtext implying a causal relation between VERs stalling and being behind RIC, or at least being the only reason why. But there isn’t.

    “Red Bull chose to split their tyre strategies and Verstappen came in first since he started on the softer hypersofts. Ricciardo stopped sixteen laps later despite being ahead in the first stint and was unable to get close to Verstappen despite much fresher tyres.” – When weighing events that led to a certain outcome in order to assess relative performances to distinguish between possible ‘stars’, ‘strugglers’, and the rest, you’d expect an observer when he sees a significant splitting of strategies to ask himself the question what kind of consequences it had and why did they do it. And take it all into account. Obviously this hasn’t been done here, so I’ll take the liberty putting those gloves on myself:
    1) The consequence of keeping RIC that long out on those ULTRAs was that he had a near 3sec lead over VER when VER pitted in L17, seen transform in a 10sec deficit to him.
    2) How was RIC, “despite” the blatantly bad strategy RB had him on, not “close” to VER. Less than 1.5s isn’t considered close when it’s RIC behind VER?
    3) Why would anybody expect RIC to be able to pass VER at a track notorious bc of its lack of overtaking opportunities? Fans were already setting themselves up for a procession and being negative towards this GP pre Friday bc of this very fact. “Once you’re behind, it’s really hard to overtake.” is a quote of VER himself post-race and everybody has been knowing this since the very first race. Yet some people (mostly VER-FBoys) choose to disregard facts if it suits them.
    And on top of that, RB made sure RICs tyres would have been sufficiently worn off when he got to VER, so there would not have been the slightest risk. Losing about 13s relative to your teammate, after having dominated him from Q2 onwards, hahahah. It’s a yoke.
    4) Now the ‘why’: Well, that’s again pretty obvious. RB would never allow a departing driver to ‘beat’ their resident driver, and thereby ‘adding value’ to a competitor and at the same time devaluing their own asset(s).

    Not that hard to understand, yet very hard to accept for FBoys.
    And it’s kind of fitting: When they first raced each other in the same car, RB put RIC, the race leader, on a silly strategy and they did it now, in their last race as RB-teammates, once again.

  11. Is it only me who thinks it’s a bit strange that one of the saubers was able to put in pink times in the middle sector while the other was 0.3 behind just in that sector. The second sector is pretty much just a straight.

    1. It’s only strange because none of that happened the way you remember ist.
      1. Leclerc set pink sector times in Sector 1 only. Sector 1 is short, but definitely not just a straight.
      2. Ericsson was ‘only’ 0.161 seconds off Leclerc’s best time there (16.891 vs. 17.052), which might’ve been even less if Leclerc hadn’t had the opportunity two put in another couple of attempts in ideal track conditions in Q3 (while Ericsson was already out of the car after failing to make the cut).
      3. Leclerc’s times in Sector 1 were very impressive, but didn’t stay pink for long, as both Ferraris went quicker than him.

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