Verstappen just held his post advantage on the hurry to Turn 1, most of the field beginning the medium-compound tires, abu dhabi in front of Perez, Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari).
On the race to Turn 6, Sainz jumped inside Hamilton and sent him wide on the leave, the Mercedes momentarily being sent airborne over the kerb.
Hamilton at first kept his situation, after straight-covering the summit of Turn 7, however was approached to permit Sainz back in front, which he did on lap four. A lap later, Hamilton DRS-ed past Sainz into Turn 9, however Sainz remained in DRS range and reimbursed the blessing at similar corner four laps later.
Sainz pitted on lap 18, and furthermore found out the latest behind Vettel, as Verstappen and Leclerc ran long in the main two spots. Verstappen halted on lap 20, permitted Leclerc to lead until he pitted two laps later. A sluggish stop implied he rejoined simply before Sainz yet far behind Perez, who got Verstappen in this stretch and was 2s behind his colleague by half distance.
Leclerc shut everything down Perez, who pitted again for new hards in lap 34 – as groups shuffled the upsides and downsides of focusing on a couple of stop system. Amusingly, Leclerc was told to pit in the event that Perez didn’t – so the situation might have been flipped.
Sainz and Russell pitted briefly time on lap 40, Russell taking his 5s punishment as of now which permitted the one-halting Hamilton to be well ahead.
Perez was deferred in passing and afterward repass Hamilton as their methodologies merged with 12 laps to go, Hamilton utilizing the second DRS zone to great impact. Yet, when clear, Perez needed to pursue down the 10s hole to the one-halting Leclerc in second.
Sainz got and passed Hamilton for fourth, similarly as Hamilton had to slow with a water driven issue and he visited in to resign – the group’s most memorable mechanical retirement of the time.
Regardless of being told by Verstappen that he could go “full send” on the tires, Perez didn’t have adequate speed to draw near to the point of getting into Leclerc’s DRS range on the last lap.
Verstappen won by north of 8s from Leclerc and Perez, with Sainz a far off fourth, in front of Russell, Norris, Ocon, Spear Walk (Aston Martin), Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) and Vettel – who scored a point in his last race thanks to Hamilton’s retirement.
Mick Schumacher (Haas) and Nicholas Latifi (Williams) got together at Turn 5 however both rejoined without causing a security vehicle. Schumacher was punished 5s for causing the conflict.