From celebrating a legend to the sport’s final race to watching the current season come to a close with the World Champion in pole position, today's race is nothing short of exciting. 

The Yas Marina saw 2022’s top three teams, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, respectively, dominating to start the final race in formation.

Verstappen secured pole position in Saturday’s qualifying round while Red Bull scored a 1-2 with Sergio Pérez two tenths behind him, seeing Red Bull finishing in P1 and P2 with Le Clerc following suit in P3 half a tenth further behind. 

Carlo Sainz followed his team mate in P4 with Mercedes’ drivers Hamilton and Russel respectively taking P5 and P6.

Le Clerc and Perez head into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tied at 290 points in the driver standings so a tough and exciting competition can be expected where these two drivers are involved. If Perez takes P2 it sets up Red Bull for domination of the Championship podium.

Charles Le Clerc admitted that missing out on starting in the front row was disappointing but he still has his eye on taking the first opportunity he can get to overtake Checo.

With Aston Martin driver, Sebastian Vettel’s Formula 1 career coming to a close this afternoon in his 300th and last race, he is set to start the race at P9 after a successful qualifying round, despite nearing Q1 elimination. A stellar performance is expected from Seb as he brings his fantastic career to a close.

He has had a major impact on and off the track and this was made evident as tributes poured in ahead of his retirement and especially now ahead of his final race. 

Fernando Alonso, who will be starting alongside Vettel in his final race stated; “It’s going to be strange to not have him next year, in the first race. We shared so many things over the last 15 years. Sometimes we fought for championships, sometimes for seventh places, even in Japan this year until the finish line.”

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final Grand Prix of the season, is set to begin this afternoon, the 20th of November, at 15:00 on the Yas Marina Circuit.

Kayla Barker/OFM Sport