The World Cup returns to the track where Verstappen won his first title in the last lap of last season
MADRID, 17 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last on the calendar and to be held at the Yas Marina Circuit, will draw the curtain on the 2022 season with the fight for runner-up in the Drivers’ World Championship as a great incentive, after the controversy that has surrounded to Red Bull.
With the Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles decided in favor of Max Verstappen and Red Bull, ‘Checo’ Pérez and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) arrive at the last race of the year as protagonists of the battle for second place in the World Championship. The scenario for both, tied at 290 points, promises excitement and suspense until the end.
The Monegasque -with a third place as the best result in Abu Dhabi-, with more victories (3) than the Mexican (2), currently occupies second place, although he was unable to get on the podium in Brazil, with a hard-fought fourth place – he classified tenth-, but that he knew little by not being able to take advantage of the inertia and the schism that Red Bull experienced in Interlagos.
And it is that the Austrian team lived a turbulent Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, with harsh statements on the radio during the race. From the sidelines, they asked the new champion to give up sixth place to his teammate, who was just behind him, in the last corner so that Pérez would continue with the advantage in the fight for second place in the Drivers’ Championship. But ‘Mad Max’ refused on the radio. “This shows how he really is,” the Mexican said immediately from his car.
The Dutchman defended himself after the race, alluding to a previous incident in the World Cup and this Thursday Red Bull acknowledged in a statement that they had been wrong to ask Verstappen for this maneuver when he did not have “all the necessary information”, putting him in a “situation engaged”.
However, the two-time world champion already assured that this Sunday, if necessary, he would help a ‘Czech’ who has a fifth place as the best result in Yas Marina. Also, the last memory of him in Abu Dhabi is not encouraging, since in 2021 he finished fifteenth. The layout of the country from the Arabian peninsula will witness a confrontation in which you will have to control the pressure and know how to play your cards, in a race in which the driver who passes the other by passing the checkered flag will celebrate the runner-up position.
In Yas Marina it will also be known who is the second best team of the season, with Mercedes putting pressure on Ferrari, now only 19 points ahead of the Germans. The double in Brazil with George Russell at the helm boosted the star’s team, which arrives plugged into the last race. If they repeated that 1-2 in Abu Dhabi, Mercedes would only need the Italians to stay out of the podium.
An important role will be played in this particular fight by Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) who achieved his ninth podium of the season in Brazil, and whose best result at Yas Marina was a third last year. The other national representative, Fernando Alonso (Alpine), will seek to overtake his partner, the rebel Esteban Ocon, in the World Cup. The Asturian completed a remarkable comeback in Interlagos, climbing 12 positions and achieving fifth place, which meant his best result of the course.
Yas Marina will also experience the farewell to the four-time world champion (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013) Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), the first winner at the Abu Dhabi track in 2009, who will say goodbye to the world championship in his 299 career, with 53 Grands Awards and 122 podiums in his backpack. He will want to end his Formula 1 career with a smile, after finishing in the top eight in three of the last five Grands Prix.
However, the favorite is once again a Max Verstappen who already won in 2020 and 2021, thanks to a heart-stopping finish last year, winning the title on the last lap after overtaking Hamilton. A lap that will go down in history, with the controversy over the laps that sentenced Michael Masi as race director, and which established the Dutchman, now two-time world champion.
–SCHEDULE ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX.
-Friday.
11.00-12.00 Free 1.
14.00-15.00 Free 2.
-Saturday.
11.30-12.30 Free 3.
15.00-16.00 Qualification.
-Domingo.
14.00 Carrera.