Our great and grape preview of the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result is here, and it was a rare Mercedes non-win as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen take out the final race of the season.
Our 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result goes through a lsit of the most important laps, race the race itself, assigns the best and worst of the race with the Great and Grape, has the Driver of the Year points, plus some of the better data points from the 2020 F1 season.
And plenty, or something in between.
So sit back and enjoy the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result Review
2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football. But not as good. But hey, if you missed the race how can you complain.
Lap 1 – Verstappen outdrags the Mercedes into turn One and beyond. A bit of jinking but no major overtaking as all 20 cars make it through the first lap for a change.
ORDER – VER BOT HAM NOR ALB SAI KVY STR OCO GAS
Lap 2 – Gasly takes Ocon for 9th, but the rest of the cars appear to be spreading out already and gives this race the sniff or boredom early. Call us cynical, but this track can suck complete arse for racing occasionally. Save us DRS.
Lap 4 – Albon (5th) pressuring Norris (4th) in what is a very important race for the Red Bull driver. After underwhelming for most of the season, and after Perez’s first win last weekend in Sakhir, Albon has never been under so much pressure. With Perez starting from the back of the grid after penalty, surely he can finish ahead of the Mexican this race. Otherwise Perez will overtake him for the 2021 drive one would think. Albon gets past Norris for 4th on lap six, but he’s 11 seconds behind his team mate who is leading.
Lap 7 – Ricciardo is let in front of team mate Ocon possibly so the team can f–k the Australian over with one last sh-t pitstop strategy later in the race before he moves to McLaren. It was for 10th position by the way, so no world beating today.
Lap 8 – Ferraris running in close formation for 12th/13th, and one wonder if they can run into each other one more time before Vettel leaves the team. Stroll gets past Kvyat for 7th, and Perez is double his position after starting from the back. Gasly gets past Kvyat two laps later as well.
ORDER – VER BOT HAM ALB NOR SAI STR KVY GAS RIC
Lap 10 – The battle for third best car heats up as Sergio Perez retires and “brings out” the Virtual Safety Car. Appears mechanical. Happy days for McLaren in 5th/6th while the remaining Racing Point is 7th. Top three cars pit. Mercedes appear to remember whose tyres are whose this race. Unconfirmed reports of William driver George Russell giving the Mercedes team the finger on his way past. Ricciardo and Ferraris did not stop or tyres. For some reason the full Safety Car is brought out. Well there is a reason, a car on track and they needed a tractor, so fair enough. It is at this stage you wonder if they coudl bypass a lot of the last corners to remove the boring bits and make the lap shorter.
ORDER – VER BOT HAM ALB RIC NOR VET LEC SAI STR
Lap 14 – Safety Car pits.
Lap 18 – Sainz takes Leclerc for 8th, and then a lap or two later is under investigation by the stewards. Stroll and Leclerc then battle for a place. You then realise that the little on screen photo of Stroll from the F coverage makes him look like a Thunderbird. Sainz gets past Vettel not much later, perhaps in a hurry before the penalty comes.
Lap 23 – Leclerc is overtaken by Stroll, Gasly and Ocon before he pits on lap 23. A one stop strategy could produce some mild interest later on. For now he is dead last of the 19 cars.
ORDER VER BOT HAM ALB RIC NOR SAI VET STR GAS
Lap 28 – Images on TV show Mika Salo pointing and talking in Stewards office as the ex-driver for the race discussing the Carlos Sainz-Lance Stroll pitlane issues. One thinks back to Mika Salo’s career and how he helped Eddie Irvine nearly win a Championship for Ferrari and how he ran without a fuel stop back in the days with refueling for Tyrrell at Monaco in 1997. Decent driver. Way better than his Tyrrell team mate Ukyo Katayama.
Lap 30 – Gasly gets past Lance Stroll for 9th, and that is the extent of the action towards the front, well until Gasly gets Vettell two laps later. In case you are wondering how the top few are going, this is what is looks like VER <7.4 sec> BOT <2.4 sec> HAM <6.3 sec> ALB <18 sec> RIC.
Lap 33 – The lack of cars running into each other (at a suitably safe speed) is a little disappointing, Lance Stroll is catching Sebastian Vettel, so silly accident is not ruled out, yet.
Lap 36 – We refer to our previous line about Renault stuffing Dan Ricciardo. He has yet to pit and is still 5th ahead of the McLarens. Vettel has just pit so the Aussie can’t be too far away. So we’ll shut up about now. He pits on lap 40 and drops from 5th to 7th behind the McLarens. Which a cynic could say in highly convenient given Ricciardo’s move to the orange cars in 2021.
Lap 38 – Further back and it is George Russell in 14th the meat in a Ferrari sandwich. One wonders if the Ferrari is only as good as George Russell, or George Russell is as good as the Ferrari. Just 17 laps to go for that not to be answered. If you think that Ferrari is only as good as George Russell then email us at gurgler.chat@gmail.com and simply have the subject line of Yes. IF you think otherwise that George Russell is as good as the Ferrari then simply comment below in the available section.
Lap 43 – A slow motion of Valtteri Bottas going over a kerb on TV. Is that all there is.
Lap 51 – TV showing a scrap for 15th. That is the extent of the action.
Lap 55 – Max Verstappen win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Bottas takes advantage of Covid-19 by finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Ocon overtakes Stroll for 9th on the last lap. Daniel Ricciardo sets fastest lap. Almost something for everyone.
FINAL ORDER – VER BOT HAM ALB NOR SAI RIC GAS OCO STR
2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – RACE RATING
We rate the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 3 /10
Third place in the Constructor’s Championship was up for grabs. But that’s a long bow for season importance. A few last races in certain cars, and careers ending too.
ON TRACK ACTION – 3 /10
Some midfield passing, mainly around a Ferrari being slightly higher than usual. A pitstop or two and a handful of different strategies.
ENDING 1 / 10
Meh. They really need to not end a season here. Only a title race makes this final race interesting, and as long as Bottas occupies the second Mercedes that is not gonna happen.
OVERALL RATING 7 / 30
Average race on a crap track to sign off the season that was lucky to start or run at all. Should be thankful for the season of 17 races, just not this one.
RACE RATINGS SO FAR
Austrian Grand Prix – 28/30
Styrian Grand Prix – 23/30
Hungarian Grand Prix – 15/30
70th Anniversary Grand Prix – 15/30
Eifel Grand Prix 11 / 30
Portuguese Grand Prix – 20 / 30
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – 22 / 30
2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season. 3-2-1 for the Great and minus one point for the Grapest races.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT – 1. MAX VERSTAPPEN
Took pole away from MErcedes, and had the race well in control throughout. Not quite enough for the second place in the Championship his 2020 efforts demanded, but a race win will sign off the season nicely.
THE GREAT – 2. DANIEL RICCIARDO
Ran 40 odds laps on the hardest of tyres, and hauled himself well into the points after an underwhelming qualifying.
THE GREAT – 3 LANDO NORRIS
Big effort from McLaren to steal third off Racing Point, and Norris was the better driver of the two in race and qualifying.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Alex Albon – decent result of 4th, and within 20 seconds or so of the leading car, his team mate Verstappen.
Carlos Sainz – Very good consistency from Carlos Sainz with points scores a plenty in late races. 6th here at Abu Dhabi is a good result.
Kimi Raikkonen – Spent the final laps ahead of the Ferraris. Nothing really to celebrate there, but shows a level of dedication on track right until the end.
Mercedes – For the doughnuts at the end of the race.
THE GRAPE – YAS MARINA CIRCUIT
A few mentions on this already, but this track shouldn’t host the last race.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
Ferrari – How bad can the Ferrari get next year.
Sergio Perez – Not his fault, but the race’s only retirement could go against him for a drive in 2021.
2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result – 2020 Driver of the Year – The Martini Trophy
A feature on this website is determining the driver of the year.
This recognises not just the driver with the most amount of points at the end of the year, but factoring performance against their team mate, possibly outperforming the car, and a nod to our Great and Grape above. A full explanation is below the results.
The Martini Trophy is named after one of our favourite F1 drivers of all time, the underrated Pierluigi Martini.
2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Results – Martini Trophy
Top qualifiers are awarded 3-2-1
Top finishes are awarded 5-4-3-2-1
Out-Race team mate only applies if they both cars finish or unless the other driver was a complete dick.
Best of Rest is the top driver not from Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari in race and qualifying.
First Lap is 0.2 / -0.2 for every position gained / lost on the first lap.
Good and Grape points are award 3-2-1 and -1 for drivers.
2020 Driver of the Year Points
2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result – Stats and Stuff
Here is a selection of our favourite stats from the season so far.
