Max Verstappen won this weekend’s grand prix in Abu Dhabi to finish off the 2022 season and officially claim his second world championship title.
He led every lap from start to finish, apart from when the lead went to rival Leclerc whilst they were going through the pit stop cycle.
However, the real battle in the race was for second place, between Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc, as the two battled it out for second position in the driver’s world championship.
Both drivers were tied on 290 points before the race began and were searching for their most successful finish ever in F1.
The race became even closer when Red Bull and Ferrari took two vastly different strategies.
Perez pitted for the second time for a new set of hard tyres, whereas Leclerc stayed out and decided, alongside his team, to make the race a one-stop.
The Mexican with fresher and faster tyres was closing in rapidly on Ferrari’s number one driver, but unfortunately for Red Bull there was not enough laps in the race, as Leclerc held on to second, crossing the line one point three seconds ahead of Sergio.
Even with all the excitement and fantastic racing between Leclerc and Perez, the standout driver, who according to David Croft demonstrated: “a Michael Schumacher esque performance.”
In a post-race interview, Max expressed his enjoyment of the race and paid tribute to Red Bull after yet another successful season.
“It was a good race- it was all about tyre management. I think we looked after the mediums quite well and then on the hard tyres, I was literally managing from lap 1 to the end. Incredible to win again here and the 15th win of the season is unbelievable.” – Max Verstappen.
He also added: “It’s been really enjoyable to work with the whole team and to be able to achieve something like this, this year. I know it’s going to be hard to replicate something like this, but it is also motivation to try and do well again next year.”