Verstappen takes record 19th victory in a season at Abu Dhabi

Max Verstappen took his 19th victory of the season under the lights at Abu Dhabi.

The Dutchman took a lights to flag victory ahead of Charles Leclerc and George Russell, having pitted on a two-stop strategy. He led 55 laps of the 58-lap race, which means he took his laps led tally up to 1,003 for the season - a stat that sums up his dominant year.

The victory also means that he now moves to third on the all-time win list, with now 54 victories to his name overtaking Sebastian Vettel.

Russell managed to secure second in the Constructors' Championship for Mercedes with a podium, while Lewis Hamilton recovered to ninth to maximise their points haul.

Sergio Perez made a late surge up to third from ninth on the grid, but was handed a five-second time penalty after making brief contact at Turn 6 fighting with Lando Norris.

The penalty prevented him from taking the final podium spot, after he made a move on Russell for third but could not stretch the gap to over five seconds at the chequered flag.

Norris eventually finished in fifth, but it was not enough to secure fourth in Drivers' Championship after Fernando Alonso passed Yuki Tsunoda for P7 in the closing stages.

Tsunoda's eighth place was not enough to secure seventh in the Constructors' Championship for AlphaTauri in their battle with Williams, despite neither Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant scoring points.

McLaren mistake costs Norris

Norris had made some early progress in the race from fifth on the grid, after passing Russell at the start on the run down to Turn 1.

He passed Piastri with the help of DRS a couple of laps later into Turn 6, setting himself up for a run to the podium spots. But during his first pit stop disaster struck for the Briton, as the left rear was slow to come on and cost him crucial time to Russell.

He emerged behind Russell after the stop, while Piastri also filtered out behind the Mercedes having stayed out for an extra lap.

Elsewhere, Hamilton was making up positions after a poor qualifying, attempting a move on Gasly for P9 before the Alpine driver locked up into Turn 6.

The slow apex speed led to Hamilton colliding with the rear, damaging his front wing endplate and the underfloor of Gasly's Alpine.