The 2022 F1 season, a season which felt like it was never-ending, has finally come to an end with the final race of the season. So that means our 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Results, Lap by Lap Review & Summary will be the last of the season.
Our review covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to with our laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend.
The 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Results, Lap by Lap Review & Summary gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a small serving of cynicism. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
And why not check out our latest Grand Prix Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far and the last race.
2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Results – Race
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. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – The last race is here and Max Verstappen took pole position ahead of his team mate, which was the big story leading into this race – Red Bull team orders where Max Vertstappen refused to hand over his place to Sergio Perez so the Mexican can finish second in the World Championship. As for this race, we have no idea what that intro with the falcon was about, but it was buckets of wank. The biggest battles ahead are Perez v Leclerc for second place in the drivers championship, and Alpine v McLaren for fourth in the teams race. And we’re definitely seeing the last of Sebastian Vettel and likely Daniel Riccardo and Mick Schumacher. Oh, and Nicholas Latifi won’t be around next season either. Wonder who we’ll punish next season.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER PER LEC SAI HAM RUS NOR OCO VET ALO
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets away well from Perez and the Red Bulls behave themselves. Lewis Hamilton splits the Ferraris, although Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton nearly touch and the Mercedes jumps a bit over the kerbs as Carlos Sainz runs him a little wide. Stewards will probably look at that and stuff it up soon – for the record it was no further action. Further back George Russell lost out to Lando Norris and there’s looks like hardly any changes further down the grid. Not ones worth noticing anyways.
One worries about the lack of first lap action, just how dull this bloody race could be.
ORDER – VER PER LEC HAM SAI NOR RUS OCO VET ALO
Lap 4 – Team Radio for Lewis Hamilton advise he has to give back fourth place to Carlos Sainz for their first lap incident. Which he does. They then race on for another lap and Hamilton retakes fourth halfway around the lap after an earlier failed attempt down the back straight. Although, if the stewards said no further action, then why did the drivers swap positions?
Lap 6 – George Russell is now all over the back of Carlos Sainz. Hopefully Russell’s efforts are better than his pretty ordinary prang with Sainz at the first corner of the US Grand Prix not long ago.
Lap 8 – Carlos Sainz passes Lewis Hamilton for fourth again.
Lap 9 – George Russell asks his team via the radio what the status is with Lewis Hamilton just in front, and team tell him to race. Which he does and overtakes Hamilton on lap 9 and puts a small gap on his team mate.
Lap 11 – A nice midfield battle developing with Esteban Ocon leading a growing train of cars including a few Aston Martin, his team mate and Yuki Tsunoda. They’ll probably still be a train in half an hour’s time, so no need to overdo the commentary here.
ORDER – VER PER LEC SAI RUS HAM NOR OCO VET ALO
Lap 15 – Esteban Ocon becomes the first driver to pit for new tyres. He comes out behind Latifi, which is a good indication of how far back he ended up.
Lap 16 – Sergio Perez pits for new tyres, as does George Russell and Lando Norris. They rejoin in 6th, 9th and 12th positions respectively. Perez doesn’t waste time by taking Sebastian Vettel that lap. George Russell gets a five second penalty for an unsafe release, which is fair enough given how close he came to an accident in pitlane.
Lap 20 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead with the Red Bull dropping behind Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari pits two laps later.
ORDER – VER PER LEC SAI RUS VET HAM NOR OCO STR
Lap 25 – Lando Norris overtakes Sebastian Vettel for 7th, with Vettel questioning the one stop strategy when other cars are flying past. The Aston Martin pits a lap later.
Lap 28 – At the front Max Verstappen leads Sergio Perez by just over two seconds, and Perez is just over a second and a half ahead of Charles Leclerc, with the Ferrari edging closer to the Red Bull, setting up a nice battle for the second spot in the Drivers Championship. Further back Fernanado Alonso’s third stint with Renault/Alpine ends in a mechanical retirement, which will make him happy.
Lap 34 – Sergio Perez pits from second, leaving Charles Leclerc out on track to try and build a lead to steal second on track and in the Championship. Question is whether Ferrari will pit again or not now. Probably not. Sergio Perez sets fastest lap if that makes any difference on lap 36. But he’s about a second per lap behind Leclerc….
ORDER – VER LEC SAI RUS HAM PER NOR OCO STR TSU
Lap 39 – A flash of excitement as the TV coverage switches to Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi recovering after a clash. Unlike both of their F1 careers, where at least one will probably never race again in F1. Replays show it was Mick Schumacher’s fault with the Haas clipping the rear of the Williams. Stewards agrees and give Schumacher a five second penalty.
Lap 40 – Sainz and Russell pit, with Russell taking his five second penalty medicine.
Lap 44 – A bunch of midfield racing on offer. Sebastian Vettel is up to 10th, Ricciardo is 9th.
Lap 45 – Perez overtakes Hamilton for 3rd, followed by Hamilton overtaking Perez for 3rd. This is delaying Perez for the time being and good for Leclerc. Perez is past by lap 47, so has ten and a bit laps to catch and pass Leclerc. Although don’t rule out a Ferrari strategy stuff up to sign off 2022.
ORDER – VER LEC PER HAM SAI RUS NOR OCO RIC VET
Lap 48 – Leclerc leads Perez by 8.6 seconds with ten laps to go.
Lap 50 – Lance Stroll steals 10th and a final Championship point off his retiring World Champion team mate. Stroll is past Ricciardo for 9th not long after.
Lap 51 – Perez is within seven seconds of Leclerc with seven laps to go. It’s almost exciting. As is Carlos Sainz catching a moaning Lewis Hamilton, who is unhappy about not pitting for new tyres a second time.
Lap 53 – The Leclerc-Perez gap is just over five seconds with five laps to go. You do the math, it could be a cracking last lap.
Lap 55 – Leclerc-Perez is within four seconds. Carlos Sainz overtakes Lewis Hamilton who appears to be stuck in gear and is done for the race.
Lap 57 – Perez is catching Leclerc but isn’t close enough it appears.
Last lap – Charles Leclerc stays far enough in front to stay out of DRS range for Sergio Perez. Further ahead Max Verstappen cruises to victory, a performance that sums up the 2022 season. Norris finishes 6th, Esteban Ocon 7th, and Daniel Ricciardo 9th which gives Alpine 4th place in the Teams Championship. Sebastian Vettel ends his F1 career by earning a point and trying desperately to take another from Daniel Ricciardo.
FINAL ORDER – VER LEC PER SAI RUS NOR OCO STR RIC VET
2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Results
GREAT & GRAPE OF THE RACE
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Making F1 look boring with his consistent speed. Took pole, converted it to a lap one lead and then was never headed for the rest of the race. Signed off 2022 in style.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CHARLES LECLERC – A decent drive to hang on for second place with the one stop strategy, holding off Sergio Perez well in the end.
LANDO NORRIS – Best of the rest today, and takes fastest lap as a bonus.
SEBASTIAN VETTEL- Ran as best of the rest for the first half of the race, then battled back well after his only stop put him towards the back of the field. Got as high as 10th in the end and signed off from F1 with some tyre burning doughnuts.
THE GRAPE-EST – FERNANDO ALONSO
The race’s only retirement, which sees his Alpine career end on a miserable note, having already blasted the team a few races ago for lost points this season through reliability issues.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – 2022 becomes the first season ever where Lewis Hamilton failed to win a race. The second half of his race was spent complaining about not making a second pitstop, and his car gave up with three laps to go.
SERGIO PEREZ – Not quite good enough for second on the day and ultimately over the season. One could point to the points he could have earned with a more compliant team mate in Brazil…..Not much chat in the post race room confirms Perez is probably still pissed about it.
NICHOLAS LATIFI – Dead last and 33 seconds behind at the end of the race. Not a great way to end your F1 career.
2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Results
RACE RATING
Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest.
We rate the big race itself 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 – 5 / 10
All the key battles done with the last race of the season, but ultimately it was for second in the drivers and fourth in the team Championships, so who really cares.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6 / 10
Better than usual? A few good midfield and lower grid scraps for positions, and the battle for second in the Championship made the race a little bit tense, but overall Abu Dhabi is still a shit track for racing.
ENDING 4 / 10
Perez chasing Leclerc was sort-of exciting. As was Sainz v Hamilton and Ricciardo v Vettel.
OVERALL RATING 15 / 30
That was a real box ticker – the final race of the season is done, and just in time, because that Football World Cup is just about to start.
2022 SEASON RATINGS SO FAR
Want to know what we thought of previous races? Or which ones to to back and watch?
R1 Bahrain Grand Prix 26/30
R2 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix 21/30
R3 Australian Grand Prix 16/30
R4 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix 17/30
R5 Miami Grand Prix 19/30
R6 Spanish Grand Prix 17/30
R7 Monaco Grand Prix 24/30
R8 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 22/30
R9 Canadian Grand Prix 21/30
R10 British Grand Prix 26.5/30
R11 Austrian Grand Prix 24/30
R12 French Grand Prix 17/30
R13 Hungarian Grand Prix 23/30
R14 Belgian Grand Prix 17/30
R15 Dutch Grand Prix 21/30
R16 Italian Grand Prix 11/30
R17 Singapore Grand Prix 15/30
R18 Japanese Grand Prix 22/50
R19 US Grand Prix 23/30
R20 Mexican Grand Prix 9/30
R21 Brazilian Grand Prix 22/30
2022 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated.
