First day

The difficult season of Formula 1 has come to an end.

The management managed to keep one of the traditions of the past and finish the championship in Abu Dhabi, albeit two weeks later than the due date.

Previously, it was here that the fate of the title was decided and the winner of the Constructors' Cup was determined, but this time the intrigues of the Grand Prix were different - who will take second place in the overall standings, which team will become the third in its competition and whether Lewis Hamilton, who has had a coronavirus, will start.

The last one was resolved before anyone else.

The newly minted world champion has returned to the paddock, despite the fact that the UAE has some of the toughest restrictions in comparison with other countries that have hosted the races.

He got back behind the wheel of the car that George Russell had successfully driven at the Sakhir Grand Prix.

The Williams pilot, in turn, completed his temporary assignment at Mercedes.

At the same time, Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi again replaced Romain Grosjean at Haas.

The French driver was still not in good shape after an accident two weeks earlier and ended the season ahead of schedule.

Hamilton's return didn't go smoothly.

In the first Friday session, he had overheating of the brakes, which is why the world champion spent half of the time allotted for the races in the pits.

His best result on the hardest tires was only enough for fifth place.

Leading the way were Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon of Red Bull, team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Ocon of Renault, who took their first podium finish last week.

After training, Hamilton complained about Russell's knocked down settings, which had to be returned back.

However, the first session in Abu Dhabi never had much significance for the race itself - it takes place in the light of the sun in completely different conditions.

In the evening, Hamilton already competed only with Bottas.

After the mandatory testing of the tires that will be used next season, the Briton was two tenths of a second behind his team-mate.

Red Bull no longer competed Mercedes, which was in the hands of Bottas - he was required to bypass Verstappen in the race in order to remain second in the overall standings.

Daniil Kvyat was also in the mood for a good result in the last race of the season.

The pilot AlphaTauri showed first the eighth time, and then ended up in one line from the top ten.

Second day

The training before qualifying on Saturday didn't really matter.

It took place during the day, when the track was too hot and was not at all in the same condition as it should have been in the official races.

The pilots did not actively leave the pits, but Verstappen still tried to declare himself and headed the protocol, winning half a second from Albon.

Mercedes did not pay attention to this and tuned in to work in qualifications.

In the end, it was Verstappen who celebrated the success.

Hamilton won the first two sessions and began to fight for pole position with Bottas, who managed to get ahead of his team-mate and in the end to be above him.

But at the last moment, the Red Bull pilot passed the Finn by 0.025 seconds and brought his team the first victory in qualifying for the season.

For a Mercedes driver, this was the first defeat in Abu Dhabi since 2014.

Fourth and sixth places were taken by McLaren pilots Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, between whom Albon was located.

For the British team, such a performance in qualifying meant a lot - on Sunday they had to fight for the third line of the Constructors' Cup with Racing Point, in which Lance Stroll was only eighth, and the winner of the Sakhir Grand Prix Sergio Perez was forced to start from the penultimate place due to engine replacement.

Kvyat successfully performed in qualifying for the third time in a row.

He not only went to the third segment, but also finished seventh, ahead of team-mate Pierre Gasly.

Unfortunately, the Russians began to perform well on Saturdays after he practically lost all chances to continue his career in Formula 1.

Race

Shortly before the race, it became known that Verstappen's chances of staying in first place and winning a second victory of the season had increased.

Mercedes said it would weaken the power of all its engines, not only for the factory team, but also for its customers.

Bottas and Hamilton lost their trump cards, due to which they repeatedly occupied the first two places.

The start of the race went quite calmly, there were no changes among the leaders, except that in the fight for ninth place, Okon was briefly bypassed by Gasly.

The troublemaker in the first laps was Perez, who fell from the penultimate place of the starting grid.

The Racing Point pilot overtook the outsiders in the pilot's tail both before the DRS zone was turned on, and after, climbing to 12th place.

Kvyat initially held on to his seventh place, but he began to lose ground early due to worn tires.

It was quickly passed by Lance Stroll at Racing Point, and after a protracted attack, the Russian surrendered and Gasley.

When it became obvious that it was time for Kvyat to enter the pit stop, Perez had problems.

His engine could not stand the chase and forced the Mexican to stop.

In the virtual safety car mode in AlphaTauri, Gasli's tires were first changed, and only then Kvyatu.

As a result, the Russian lost even more positions and settled in 14th place.

The last race in Formula 1 was hopelessly ruined for him.

VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED (LAP 10/55)



Perez is OUT with a mechanical issue 😭 # AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 # F1pic.twitter.com / uz927R7ZMK

- Formula 1 (@ F1) December 13, 2020

After the restart, the position of the leaders remained the same.

Verstappen again held on to the first place and began to rapidly increase the advantage in the style of Mercedes pursuing him.

At the same time, the pace of Bottas and Hamilton was also quite decent.

At least Albon never had a chance to approach them in the race.

LAP 13/55



Back to racing, and Verstappen aces the restart 💪 # AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 # F1pic.twitter.com / DhscJFKrTu

- Formula 1 (@ F1) December 13, 2020

At the end of the race, Daniel Riccardo in Renault could create problems for competitors.

He changed tires late and got a definite advantage, but never took advantage of it to return to fifth place in the fight against McLaren.

The Australian set the best lap, making it impossible for Verstappen to complete the Grand Slam (win, pole position, best lap and lead throughout the race).

The Red Bull driver won the race but remained third overall.

He needed Bottas to finish at least sixth, but he stayed in second position.

Hamilton climbed to the podium in his first race after being infected with the coronavirus.

Norris and Sainz, with a fifth and sixth place finish, brought McLaren a third in the constructors' championship, the team's best since 2012.

Kvyat took 11th place, finally overtaking Ferrari in its entirety.

The moment @ Max33Verstappen made it 🔟 wins in F1!

💪 # AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 # F1pic.twitter.com / B7F0tdBlCU

- Formula 1 (@ F1) December 13, 2020