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©1999-2022 Crash Media Group
The total or partial reproduction of text, photographs or illustrations is not permitted in any form.
2017 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Live: As it happened.
Read our 2017 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix live coverage.
Welcome to our 2017 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix commentary.
The 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix took place on Monday November 27, 2017. Read our F1 live commentary to see the coverage as it we reported it live.
And that's it for us live in 2017 - we're off to interview people and bring you coverage of everything in the final night of this F1 season.
Valtteri Bottas has taken the final win of the F1 2017 season - his third ever in F1.
In a season where his teammate Lewis Hamilton took the title and Mercedes the constructors championship, Bottas is going on to his second year with Mercedes off the back of a grand slam - fastest lap of the race, pole position and the win.
He said "It was the perfect way to end the season fo me, obviously - Sebastian had a good race too so I didn't get second place in the championship but it is what it is. I've been getting a lot of confidence from these last few races.
"I think honestly, overall, I didn't quite meet my targets for the year in terms of how many wins I was hoping to get and where I could end up in the championship. But there's so many positives from this year and those tricky races, where I was off the pace, I've learnt so much from that they might be the most important."
On where he would be competing with Hamilton next year, the Finn said "This weekend shows I can beat him in qualifying, i can beat him in the race - he's not unbeatable."
Bottas says, about taking the win - "It is really important, I had a difficult start to the second part of the year. This weekend, pole win I couldn't be happier to end the season like this.
Teammate Hamilton said he tried to take the win - congratulated Bottas for holding him off and said "I just gave it everything, ever single lap."
Valterri Bottas takes the win, joined by Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel on the podium. It's the thirteenth podium finish for all three of them this year, the three most successful drivers of the season.
Felipe Massa does donuts at the side of the track, bringing home a tenth place points finish at his final Grand Prix and thanks everyone "not just for this year but the last sixteen years."
Meanwhile the race is won by his former teammate Valtteri Bottas, with the top ten -
BOT
HAM
VET
RAI
VER
HUL
PER
OCO
ALO
MAS
Sainz and Ricciardo both retired from the race, with the other finishers
GRO
VAN
MAG
STR
WEH
HAR
GAS
ERI
Renault have taken P6 in the constructor's championship from Toro Rosso, who were unable to reach the points today, despite two chaotic pit stops where a mechanic struggled to remove Hulkenberg's right rear tyre and then another failed to attach Sainz' front left.
Last lap of the F1 season and Bottas still holds the lead, Hamilton quite a way back now.
Pascal Wehrlein has managed to hold off both Toro Rossos, for a finish in P14 - no mean feat in a high-powered track (drivers are on the throttle about 70% of Abu Dhabi) with last year's engine.
Hamilton is currently 1.218 seconds back from teammate Valtteri Bottas, with Sebastian Vetter a further 20.365 seconds behind Hamilton. There are some gigantic gaps acros the field, with P6 Hulkenberg 36.641 seconds back from Verstappen and Vandoorne 44.175 seconds back from P11 Grosjean.
Pascal Wehrlein has jut overtaken Kevin Magnussen, both he and Brendon Hartley fighting the Haas driver hard.
Hartley's engineer says "come on Brendon" on the radio - he's keeping up the fight, this is incredibly crucial for Toro Rosso's hope of holding onto sixth place in the constructors'.
Relatedly, the lone Renault still running is Nico Hulkenberg's and he's just had some warning messages on his dash.
Lap 40 of 55 and in the points we have -
BOT
HAM
VET
RAI
VER
HUL
PER
OCO
ALO
MAS
The gap from Verstappen to Hulkenberg is 34.651 seconds so the top half of that is pretty safe. Everyone in P6-10 is a little closer, however.
Out of the points are:
GRO
VAN
MAG
WEH
HAR
GAS
ERI
STR
With SAI and RIC retired. Magnussen has been told to push hard, trying to take struggling Vandoorne.
Meanwhile it's a shockingly terrible weekend for Lance Stroll, running 30 seconds behind a Sauber.
Fernando is having a chatty race - he's just asked where teammate Stoffel is, is informed about the balance issues Vandoorne has been reporting and asks what he can do to help him get into the points.
An interruption to his usual complaints about his power unit. Stoffel's in 12th so there's not likely to be much McLaren can do, although Alonso is set to take points if he holds on to P9.
Alonso is feeling philosophical on the radio - "I would love to go quicker, I would love to have more deployment, I would love to have many things. But this is what we have."
Gasly is told to "push now" - just before he pits. It's death or glory for Toro Rosso, their last race with the Renault power units they've got into a bit of a fight with the supplier over since Mexico, with penalties and retirements an obligatory part of their racing recently.
Speaking of Renault, after fluffing Hulkenberg's pit stop earlier they've let Carlos Sainz Jr out of the pits with a tyre not attached - the tyre gun didn't even touch his front left, Carlos stopping the car off the track.
A few big gainers in this race - Sainz and Ericsson are both up 5 places, Grosjean a massive 6 from his starting position and Gasly has managed to make up 4 places.
Sainz and Hulkenberg are running in 7th and 8th - if they finish there, with Toro Rosso running 14th and 19th, Renault will take sixth place in the constructor's championship - a major blow for the Red Bull junior team.
"Yeah it was - I don't know if I touched the wall, I got close. I thought I had a puncture because I felt something go," He said he pitted, assuming new tyres could fix the problem but realised it was more serious imediately, "When I got back out, the steering was getting really heavy so I knew it was a hydraulic problem."
It looked like Hamilton might jump Bottas for the lead in the pits - he was 19 seconds behind and it's about 21 seconds for a pit stop here.
However, he hasn't. And we're a little bit surprised by Lewis being 19 seconds behind Valtteri, given he's allowed to rag this two-race power unit as hard as he likes.
After battling all race, Alonso has finally overtaken Massa for what's now 11th place, behind a non-pitting Grosjean.
Massa isn't giving up, though, with the pair of them staying together.
Yellow flags while they retrieve Ricciardo's stricken car, so it's pit-stop-o-rama as we're on lap 23 of 55 and with the track temperature dropping drivers will be confident this is the time for fresh tyres.
Apologies, it was actually Stoffel Vandoorne saying his McLaren felt like a rally car, not Raikkonen. To our knowledge, the Belgian has no rallying experience.
Daniel Ricciardo has stopped at the side of the track - a hydraulic problem has taken him out of the race, despite hope for a podium at Yas Marina after a fairly torrid series of reliability issues recently.
Speaking of Brendon, he's just passed teammate Pierre Gasly after the frenchman took a spin.
Hulkenberg has had a bad pit stop, taking his 5 second penalty before a mechanic struggled to remove a tyre, extending it further.
Raikkonen has just said his Ferrari feels like "driving a rally car," with the rear end going everywhere. He would know, we suppose.
It's been a bit of a mixed season for Lance Stroll, who managed a good fight with Grosjean - his Baku podium seemed redemptive but he hasn't, ultimately, managed to decisively put in a result to silence criticism that he moved to F1 too early, after only one season of car racing.
Someone who definitely did the waiting but hasn't seen much benefit for it is Brendon Hartley, still fairly resolutely at the back of this race, although he managed to overtake Ericsson earlier.
Romain Grosjean's been warned about track limits by his engineer - he's told not to cross the dotted lines.
Romain isn't impressed, says he's "getting tired of these rules" and then proceeds to fight with Lance Stroll to successfully take P13.