By Robert Haile

The final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix once again provided plenty of drama as the battle for second between Ferrari and Mercedes went right to the final corner.

Max Verstappen took his nineteenth win of the season to set a record that may never be broken but all the action happened behind him.

Verstappen said: “It was an incredible season and it was a bit emotional on the last lap. The last time sitting in the car, which has given me a lot. Of course, very proud to win the final race, I have to say thanks to everyone at Red Bull it’s been an incredible year. It will be hard to do something similar, but we definitely enjoyed this year.”

With a four point gap between Mercedes and Ferrari in the constructors championship, Charles Leclerc had struck a blow in qualifying taking second while George Russell was fourth for Mercedes.

This all led to a 5 second penalty laden Sergio Perez being allowed through to take second while Leclerc had to hold off Russell in fourth but finish close enough that he would regain the place.

Unfortunately for Leclerc, both he and Russell finished within 5 seconds on Perez, who dropped to fourth.

McLaren secured fourth in the constructors as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished fifth and sixth with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in seventh.

AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda took eighth but this was not enough for the Italian team to overhaul Williams in the constructors table.

Lewis Hamilton added more points to Mercedes total with a ninth place as Lance Stroll made it a double points finish for Aston Martin in tenth.

Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri missed out in eleventh as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly took twelfth and thirteenth.

Williams’ Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant were split by Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg as Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu came home in seventeenth.

A late pit stop brought Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari eighteenth with Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas the last two.

In the drivers championship the battle for fourth went to Fernando Alonso after he finished on the same points as Charles Leclerc with Lando Norris in sixth.

The battle for second in the Constructors Championship went the way of Mercedes by three points over Ferrari in third while McLaren took fourth over Aston Martin.