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Key events
Lap 18/58: Perez comes out of the pits and while he tries to warm his tyres up is seen off by the cheeky Vettel. The Red Bull man eventually reclaims P5 but the outgoing driver will have enjoyed that.
Lap 16/58: “We need a Plan B, we are so slow,” Alonso tell his team from P7. And the drivers are heading to the pits en masse now, Perez and Russell next in.
Lap 15/58: Sainz is told over the radio that his tyres are looking good but the Spaniard isn’t so sure. “I don’t agree,” he mumbles. Albon and Stroll both pit and swap to hards.
Lap 12/58: Vettel’s having fun in his last race, locked in a great tussle with Ocon for P8. The German attacks his rival again, around the outside this time, but is just about kept at arm’s length by the Alpine man: No dice. To be continued.
Lap 10/58: Hamilton hasn’t convinced so far, unable to hold off Sainz and left for dead by Russell. Has his collision with the kerb damaged his car? The team don’t seem to think so.
Lap 8/58: Hamilton is 2.4secs behind Leclerc while Verstappen has opened up a similar lead. The real battle for now is between Sainz and Hamilton, the Ferrari man steaming past the Mercedes man who is then passed by his teammate! So it’s as you were: the Red Bulls followed by the Ferraris followed by the Mercedes (who’ve swapped places) Ocon loses P8 to Vettel before snatching it straight back.
Lap 6/58: Hamilton gives up his place to Sainz before immediately attacking him in the chicane, roaring past with DRS. And no sooner has he done so than his teammate goes for Norris, Russell reclaiming P6.
Lap 4/58: The stewards have told Hamilton to give the place back. As we stand it’s Verstappen up top, then Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Norris, Russell, Ocon Vettel and Alonso.
Lap 2/58: Hamilton had scooted ahead of Sainz in the opening moments. Race control are not investigating the incident between he and Sainz, who wants the place back but probably won’t be getting it. Bad start for Russell who has lost a place to Norris. Vertappen’s clean getaway has taken him into a tidy half-second lead.
Lap 1/58: And we’re off! Verstappen gets away well with his teammate just behind. Leclerc attacks Perez on the hairpin but the Red Bull man isn’t having any of it – before Sainz edges past Hamilton who goes off track defending his place!
The formation lap gets going, with every driver on medium compounds apart from Magnussen, Gasly and Bottas.
Five minutes until lights out. Another subplot is McLaren’s aim to overtake Alpine for fourth in the constructors’ standings. Fernando Alonso would surely like to ensure his team finish top midfield runners before leaving for Aston Martin next season. As with Mercedes and Ferrari, the gap between the teams is 19 points. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo is also on the way out, joining Red Bull as a third driver. “I think we’ve been a top-10 car all week,” he says. “My job is to get in the top 10 and get myself in the battle.”
Now for the ritual excruciation of Martin Brundle’s pre-race grid walk. First he interviews Bollywar star Ranveer Singh without knowing who he is. Then Ben Stokes and Jimmy Anderson offer some polite platitudes about the recent success of English cricket, before Pep Guardiola is collared and promptly flees the scene. Thank god that’s over.
Some pre-race reading on Russell after his maiden GP win last week:
Vettel’s curtain-call:
How they start today
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
5 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
6 George Russell (Mercedes)
7 Lando Norris (McLaren)
8 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
9 Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
10 Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
11 Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
12 Mick Schumacher (Haas)
13 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
14 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
15 Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
16 Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
17 Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
18 Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
19 Alexander Albon (Williams)
20 Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
Long-shot of the day: if George Russell was to win this race and get fastest lap, he’d creep up to 291 points, one ahead of Perez and Leclerc’s current total. So a top-three spot in the drivers’ championship isn’t exactly out of the picture for him – but he’d need to repeat last week’s heroics and for one or both of those two to finish empty-handed. Surely not?
Tributes to the outgoing Vettel
Damon Hill: “He is very human and people respond to that, sometimes the cantankerousness was there for all to see. He is clearly a huge character and what a send-off! I hate long goodbyes but it is a good way to go. He has become the drivers’ therapist, been on the phone to everyone when they have had problems. He is a very kind-hearted person.”
Max Verstappen: For me, one thing I will always remember for the rest of my life was last year at Silverstone. I came back from the hospital to get to my motorhome and get all my stuff. He was there waiting for me when I got out of the car. He said, ‘How are you doing Max, are you okay?’, and that just shows how he is: a super nice, caring person who is not only there for performance, but also means well.”
Daniel Ricciardo: “As a person, I can speak so highly of him, also on a personal level. Some things that he’s done for me; I’m just very appreciative of. I think he’s a very caring individual, cares about the sport overall, but cares about us drivers.”
And here’s Seb’s dad, Norbert, drinking it all in this afternoon:
Preamble
Here we are again. No one needs reminding what happened in Abu Dhabi last time round, but suffice to say you’d forgive Lewis Hamilton if some repressed and enraging memories happened to bubble to the surface over the next few hours.
There’s less on the line this time, but that’s not to say there’s nothing at stake for the drivers today. Max Verstappen may have wrapped up his title a few weeks back and his Red Bull team similarly assured of the constructors’ crown, but there’s still the small matter of second place to be thrashed out between Checo Perez and Charles Leclerc, who are level on points going into the season finale.
The odds favour Perez, who starts from second on the grid, sandwiched between his teammate on pole and his rival on third. And Red Bull would quite like the one-two – an ambition that went wholly unaided last week by their star driver, who refused to let his teammate past in defiance of team orders. It’s a fallout that may or may not have its origins in May’s Monaco GP.
Friends again? They are for the cameras, at least. “I am very happy both cars are on the front row,” said Verstappen after qualifying. “We want to win the race but we also want Sergio to finish second in the championship.” The dictionary definition of a party line. Whether it was delivered through gritted teeth I can neither confirm nor deny.
Second place is also up for grabs in the constructors’ championship, where Mercedes are 19 points behind Ferrari. It’s a big old gap to make up, but not insurmountable for a team whose drivers took the podium’s top two spots last week in Brazil. Lewis Hamilton – in his last chance to avoid a fist ever season without a win – and George Russell will have a task on their hand, though, starting from the third row.
Elsewhere, today will mark the curtain call for Sebastian Vettel, who after 16 years and 298 starts will call time on his F1 career at the circuit where he clinched his first title. More on him shortly.
