'Red Bull swerved the hazard of Perez beating Verstappen': Abu Dhabi GP analysis

As Perez in his second stint caught up to Verstappen, who was still driving a one-stop pace, so he was becoming vulnerable to a Leclerc undercut all over again. Ideally for Perez, Verstappen would have moved aside, allowed Perez on his way in order to build up the necessary gap over the slower Ferrari. The hazard of that for Red Bull was that it may have allowed Perez to have also beaten Verstappen – by way of strategy. Because there was no calling whether this was ideally a one-stop race or a two. Particularly after the events of Brazil, that was perhaps a prospect no-one really relished.

So no-one asked Verstappen to even consider allowing Perez past. Instead, discussions were had with Perez about converting to a one-stop, but having gone through his first set of tyres so quickly, Perez mistakenly believed it was degradation – and not simply graining – which had been the problem and so he didn’t fancy it.

“Yes, we were discussing it at some point,” he said, “but I think we thought that the deg was going to be higher than it really was. And we just didn’t push as much as we should have pushed on that second stint, and probably left two seconds on the table there.”

He would instead remain with the two-stop plan, pit just before Leclerc got within reach and then try to use his fresher tyres to hunt down and pass the Ferrari if it one-stopped. That second stop came on lap 33 – putting him 20sec behind the Ferrari with 25 laps left.

Perez chased, but Leclerc kept up a good pace. On tyres 12 laps newer, Perez was around 0.7sec a lap faster. But that wasn’t quite enough, especially after he was again delayed – this time lapping the dicing Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly.

So Verstappen won, not all that far clear of Leclerc, who thus prevailed over Perez in the battle for second in the championship. The Mercs were not on the pace of either Red Bull or Ferrari around a circuit which punishes their greater drag more than recent tracks and it was all a two-stopping George Russell could do to stay within 5sec of the two-stopping fourth place Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. Before retiring with no hydraulic pressure, Lewis Hamilton had been attempting a one-stop strategy and was running fourth, but being caught hand-over-fist by Sainz on tyres 21 laps newer and looked certain to be passed. His retirement promoted Lando Norris’s McLaren to a lonely sixth, his second stop late enough that he was able to set the race’s fastest lap.

Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren and Vettel’s Aston Martin completed the points scorers, and that result completed Vettel’s career (and perhaps Ricciardo’s too?).

Afterwards Perez seemed sanguine about how things had panned out in a way which saw him beaten by a slower car, partly as a result of the team prioritising the smooth running of Verstappen’s race. But he wasn’t shy of pointing it out.  “Ferrari and Charles did a fantastic race. They have great tyre management. And they were stronger than us, especially on that first stint where [my tyre] died towards the end. That made it a little bit tricky, our strategy. It was that second stint, while I was behind Max, Max was on a one-stop, I was on a two-stop, and then I ended-up not being able to, to maximise this stint, and I couldn’t push as much as we should have pushed on that second stint.”