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Lewis Hamilton became the third F1 racer to win five world driver titles and the first man to surpass 400 points in one season. Neil Hamilton, Wheels24 player, looks back on the last race of the season.
Lewis Hamilton won the Bahrain Grand Prix last Sunday, capturing his 11th win of the season.
Records will show that the British equaled his previous best season in terms of race wins (2014), became the third man behind the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher to win five world driver titles, and became the first man to exceed 400 points in season.
Mercedes also extended his winning streak at Yas Marina to five in a row.
The race started with the Mercedes team in first and second places, followed by Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull.
Max Verstappen, starting with the softer tire, had a horrible start when his power unit went into "safe mode" after getting a good start when the lights went green. The Dutchman had fallen into the peloton in the 10th row as he approached the hairpin on the long straight line.
Charles Le Clerc in the Sauber Ferrari engine gave a preview of what we can expect from him for next year, while he was crushed by the Red Bull Ricciardo and he held a strong 5th place in the end of the first round.
However, the safety car was called early for an accident at the bend of Turn 8-9. Nico Hulkenberg aboard the Renault was fighting for the post of Romain Grosjean, of Haas, and when both braked for chicane, the Renault deviated, as the Haas of Grosjean. Thinking of having the lineup for the second part of the chicane, Hulkenberg turned to the apex, but his right-back passed over the Haas' left front. This forced the Renault to roll twice before landing upside down against the sidewall of the tire. Flames were licking the back of the car, fortunately the marshals on the spot turned it off pretty quickly, Nico Hulkenberg having found himself stuck in his car.
"I could not go out.I had the wall on one side and on the other side, the halo, and the ditch was too small," he said at the time. ; interviews.
The race was taking place under the safety car because the Renault was straightened and the Hulk ended up unscathed, but the accident raised some questions about the safety of the pilots in such a situation.
With the car safety inside, the race resumed for the basics, and Verstappen undertook some daring maneuvers to start recovering the lost positions. Everyone looked at him as he passed aggressively in front of Ocon at the pin (turn 7), to then have the Force India engine breeze Mercedes back by the straight line. However, he eventually took the lead and started catching up with the leading runners.
A few laps later, the last race of Raikkonen (his 151st for Ferrari) in red ended ignominiously as he stopped his car as he came out of the last corner. The Ferrari stuck in the straight line, there was no choice but to deploy the safety car again.
Hamilton took the opportunity to head back at the end of the race. He resumed the race in 5th place after a few others, including Le Clerc in the Sauber, who had taken the 4th place behind Vettel with the disappearance of the Ferrari No. 7. We can wonder what the Ferrari driver had to think of see his new teammate for 2019 stuck to his gearbox in a car "B-team" … The Sauber fell back into the peloton after the stop but ended up finishing 7th.
After the safety car, the order was given to Bottas, Vettel, Ricciardo, Versappen, and Hamilton was now in a state of repair. The World Champion managed to overtake Verstappen after the restart, but the Dutchman passed the Mercedes 2 nd DRS straight into the second chicane. Hamilton then waited for his turn, as the leading riders and Verstappen all clashed between rounds 15 to 17, giving Ricciardo the lead in his last race for Red Bull.
Ricciardo, Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, Verstappen were in the top 5 at the end of round 5, all covered by 20. Ricciardo seemed to be going for a longer first stint, possibly to attack on fresh rubber towards the end. The race has become a little static at this stage, the gaps between Bottas, Vettel and Verstappen being reduced slightly.
Suddenly, rain fell on some parts of the circuit, and the cameras around the circuit showed that it was raining towards the main straight … would we have one last lap in the season … midway through the final race ?
Ricciardo stopped on lap 33, giving Hamilton the advantage, before taking 5th place. He started his fight back and at one point he achieved the fastest time of the race in 1: 40s, more than 2s faster per lap than what the others were doing, and only 6 seconds behind. his teammate in front of who, with Vettel, had caught up with Valterri Bottas in the 2nd Mercedes.
Bottas' miserable season continued as he made a mistake at Turn 6, letting Vettel slip on his gearbox at the hairpin on the long straight. The Ferrari, using the DRS and a top top speed, tried to go into the 1st chicane, then did the job easily by passing the Mercedes for second place at the second chicane.
The Finn was then pressured by Max Verstappen. After missing the first chicane of the first chicane in the long straight before joining the circuit, he was intimidated at the second chicane while the Red Bull took a back line. and Max put his car exactly as he wanted, passing near the Mercedes at the exit to take the 13th place after hitting wheels with Bottas and forcing him to move away. With the Mercedes in trouble, he could not hold a Ricciardo charge on rubber A lap later, Bottas had lost another spot in 5th place, which had pushed Mercedes to take him to the guard post after having noticed what we later identified as a slow puncture on the back right.
The order to follow was now that of Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen, Ricciardo and Bottas, 5th.
On the field, we also had some interesting notes, with Sainz for Renault in 6th, Le Clerc in 7th for Sauber, Perez charging in Force India in 8th and 2 cars Haas in 8th and 9th.
Alonso unfortunately could not get into the points for his last race, but he gave us another classic message from Abu Dhabi through radio messages.
"There is a point for the 10th in front, go get it!" was the call of the McLaren Wall; Alonso replied coldly, "Mate, I already have 1800 points …"
"Well, let's do it in 1801 … for me" would be the answer of his engineer. And he tried to do it, but his efforts led him to break the quarrels too often and in his last F1 race, Fernando Alonso got a 5-second penalty, finishing in 11th place.
The two leaders traded their time as Vettel closed, then Hamilton increased his lead slightly, and behind them the Red Bull challenge was also blurred. Verstappen had a time when he was beating Pierre Gasly, while the Torro Rosso Honda had engine problems and was spraying oil. Gasly finally retired, but the Red Bull was covered in oil. Verstappen later said that it was like driving in the fog, because there was nothing left for him to do.
The promised rain has never come.
The race ended with the protagonists of 2018 on the podium, Hamilton winner of Vettel, followed by Max Verstappen.
Alonso slowed his formation lap with Hamilton and Vettel and we were treated to a series of donuts on the Ferrari, Mercedes and Mclaren, followed by emotional interviews of multiple champions.
With 3rd place Drivers still in play at the start of the race and the retirement of Raikkonen, it seems he would lose this place. However, Raikkonen kept 2 points behind Verstappen and Bottas fell to 5th place. This is the first time since Michael Schumacher that a Mercedes driver has not won in one season. This is the worst result for a Mercedes driver since 2013.
According to all reports, the records show that it was a crossing. Hamilton won 11 victories against 6 on Vettel, with a gap of 88 points in the standings (against only 46 in 2017).
It would be a false impression. It was a disputed championship, but from Monza he switched to Mercedes. Hamilton was compelling this year. His former teammate, Nico Rosberg, said it was Hamilton in his most devastating form, and even his compatriot, Sebastian Vettel, admitted that he should improve his game next year to match the fivefold champion.
If Red Bull Honda does well and if Ferrari can deliver a car similar to this year's, 2019 should be a classic, with rule changes made just to make it a little more interesting.
Mercedes Benz remains for the moment the team to beat in this turbo-hybrid era, and Hamilton is in the shape of his life. Roll on 2019 – more than 110 days …
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