By Nirek Dandanayek

There was plenty of action in the finale of the 2022 Formula 1 season as the battle for second in the championship went Leclerc’s way when he held off Sergio Perez by 1.3 seconds. Strategy played a significant role in the final positions of the drivers. Perez and Red Bull decided to go for a two-stop race while Leclerc and Ferrari decided to manage tires and made a one-stop strategy work.

In lap one, we saw Verstappen pull away from the pack with ease and from then on drive a perfect race, reflecting the season that him and Red Bull have had. Going into turn six, Sainz dived down the inside of Hamilton who then had to go off the track, over the kerb. Hamilton kept his place momentarily, but the stewards intervened and asked him to give the position back to Sainz for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. However, one lap later, Hamilton, with DRS, passed Sainz with ease implying good race pace from Mercedes. This quickly diminished when Hamilton started to drop more and more as the race went on.

Moving onto the midfield, Alpine held onto fourth place in the Constructor’s Championship with Esteban Ocon driving very well to finish seventh. However, Alonso’s reliability issues continued in his last race with Alpine as he had yet another mechanical DNF with a water leakage issue. Although Lando Norris finished sixth and Daniel Ricciardo finished ninth, McLaren were not able to outscore Alpine by enough points to overtake them in the championship.

Another battle included Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo for sixth in the Constructor’s Championship. Alfa Romeo were ahead going into the race but failed to score any points as their pace was lacking throughout the weekend. However, Aston Martin found some pace with Lance Stroll finishing eighth but unfortunately Vettel could only achieve tenth place in his last race in Formula 1. Vettel was failed by strategy but fought back and came close to overtaking Ricciardo but ended the race six tenths behind the McLaren driver. This meant that Alfa Romeo just about held on to sixth place in the Championship.

Towards the end of the race Hamilton had Mercedes’ first mechanical failure in the whole season as he had to retire his car with a gearbox issue. However, before his DNF Hamilton provided Leclerc with some help. Perez was on a mission to catch Leclerc to take second in the Championship. Perez had significantly newer and faster tires than Leclerc and was catching him at a fast rate due to this. However, when Perez approached Hamilton, he experienced some difficulty. To those who watched the dramatic race in Abu Dhabi last year, this will trigger some memories as Perez held up Hamilton, slowing him down by ten seconds, allowing Verstappen to catch up and go on to win his first World Championship. However, this time it was the other way around. Hamilton held up Perez, making him lose time to Leclerc for two laps. While this was not as significant as Perez’s defensive efforts last year, it was enough to keep Perez from catching Leclerc. This race has summed up the season well as Verstappen had a dominating win as he has done for the majority of the races with Leclerc being the best of the rest.