Valtteri Bottas earned his third win of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend, while Lewis Hamilton made it a Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport Team 1-2 for the fourth time in 2017.
It was a faultless display by the Silver Arrows duo around the Yas Marina Circuit; giving the Brackley and Brixworth based team the ultimate finish to their record-breaking championship year; which has seen them clinch both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles.
Despite having both championship titles firmly in the bag; Lewis and Valtteri pushed each other to the final chequered flag, with Lewis finishing almost 20 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who was third.
Valtteri, who scored wins in Austria and Russia earlier this year, was delighted to finish his championship campaign with a victory, after experiencing a difficult second half of the season.
Valtteri said: “It is a really important win for me after having a pretty difficult start to the second half of the season; working hard on all the issues and getting better and better with everything.
“This weekend, with pole position and the win; couldn’t be a better way to end the season. Again, congrats to Lewis for the title and congrats to Sebastian for the second place in the championship. I was third this year, hopefully better next year!”
Lewis was quick to praise to Valtteri’s performance, not only in Abu Dhabi, but also over the course of the entire season.
Lewis explained: “I gave it everything I could. Big, big congratulations to Valtteri, he did an amazing job today to hold me off. But it was a great race. I just gave it everything, every single lap.
“It’s very, very hard to overtake here, so once you get to last sector I struggled, but I gave it everything. Valtteri did a great job this weekend, and also this year. To come into a new team is always difficult. It’s always a challenge to acclimatise, to get used to new people, new ways of working, so I think he’s done an exceptional job and to finish on a high is great.
“But, also for me, it feels like a win for all of us. It’s a 1-2 for Mercedes, it’s a very strong win against Ferrari this weekend and we mean to continue next year. Of course going into next season, it’s back to business, but I’m excited for the challenge ahead.”
Full results from the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix are available, here.
Credit:Monster