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Valtteri Bottas resists Lewis Hamilton to win Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas held off Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton to win the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina

Bottas retained the lead from pole at the start and though he lost it briefly when he pitted first, he absorbed pressure from Hamilton to secure his third win of the season.

World champion Hamilton crossed the line 3.8 seconds adrift, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel completing the podium in third.

Once Bottas got through Turn 1 in the lead, he quickly opened up a one-second lead over Hamilton before gradually building it up to two seconds before the stops.

He was the first of the Mercedes drivers to pit, swapping the ultra-softs for super-softs and rejoining in second place.

Hamilton stayed out for three further laps, clocking the fastest lap in the process, but couldn't make up enough ground and rejoined behind Bottas.

The world champion attacked his team-mate, briefly getting within DRS range, but locked up at Turn 17, running off track before rejoining.

Hamilton kept up the pressure and even got within 0.5s after Bottas had a lock-up of his own, but his team-mate responded by putting the hammer down and pulling away.

The result was Mercedes' third one-two of the season.

Vettel had a quiet race in a lonely third place ahead of Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was on course to finish fourth, but pulled off track and retired the car with a hydraulic problem shortly before the halfway point.

His team-mate Max Verstappen finished fifth, just 0.8s behind Raikkonen with Nico Hulkenberg sixth to secure sixth place in the constructors' championship for Renault.

Hulkenberg escaped with a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when battling Sergio Perez on the first lap.

By the time Hulkenberg took the penalty at his pitstop, he had comfortably built enough of an advantage to negate it.

His team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr retired for the fourth time in six races after the team did not attach the front-left tyre properly at his pitstop.

But for the incident, Sainz had been on course to leapfrog Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa into ninth place by running long before pitting.

Perez finished seventh, 6.8s clear of Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon.

Alonso signed off the McLaren-Honda partnership with ninth place, securing the team's third consecutive points finish.

Massa completed his 269th and final grand prix in the points in 10th and celebrated with a few doughnuts after the chequered flag.

He had been ahead of Alonso in the first stint but the McLaren passed the later-stopping Williams on its out-lap.

Romain Grosjean was involved in the race's most entertaining battle, squabbling with Lance Stroll over 13th in the first stint and eventually coming out on top after multiple passes and repasses.

The Haas driver finished 11th, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, with Kevin Magnussen recovering from a first lap spin that dropped him to the back of the field to finish 13th.

Stroll ended up making three pitstops on a day everyone else stopped once and fell to last.

Race result

Pos Driver Car Laps Gap
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 55 1h34m14.062s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 55 3.899s
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 55 19.330s
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 55 45.386s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 55 46.269s
6 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 55 1m25.713s
7 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 55 1m32.062s
8 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 55 1m38.911s
9 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 54 1 Lap
10 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 54 1 Lap
11 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 54 1 Lap
12 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Honda 54 1 Lap
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 54 1 Lap
14 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber/Ferrari 54 1 Lap
15 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Renault 54 1 Lap
16 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Renault 54 1 Lap
17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 54 1 Lap
18 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 54 1 Lap
- Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 31 Wheel
- Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 20 Hydraulics

Drivers' standings

Pos Driver Points
1 Lewis Hamilton 363
2 Sebastian Vettel 317
3 Valtteri Bottas 305
4 Kimi Raikkonen 205
5 Daniel Ricciardo 200
6 Max Verstappen 168
7 Sergio Perez 100
8 Esteban Ocon 87
9 Carlos Sainz Jr. 54
10 Nico Hulkenberg 43
11 Felipe Massa 43
12 Lance Stroll 40
13 Romain Grosjean 28
14 Kevin Magnussen 19
15 Fernando Alonso 17
16 Stoffel Vandoorne 13
17 Jolyon Palmer 8
18 Pascal Wehrlein 5
19 Daniil Kvyat 5
20 Marcus Ericsson 0
21 Pierre Gasly 0
22 Antonio Giovinazzi 0
23 Brendon Hartley 0

Constructors' standings

Pos Constructor Points
1 Mercedes 668
2 Ferrari 522
3 Red Bull/Renault 368
4 Force India/Mercedes 187
5 Williams/Mercedes 83
6 Renault 57
7 Toro Rosso/Renault 53
8 Haas/Ferrari 47
9 McLaren/Honda 30
10 Sauber/Ferrari 5


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