Abu Dhabi Grand Prix LIVE updates: Bottas leads Hamilton, Ricciardo OUT of race

ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX LIVE UPDATES

Lap 47: Vettel, in third, is now 20 seconds behind race leader Bottas. That is scale of the gap Ferrari must make up over the winter in order to challenge Mercedes for the 2018 title.

The parade continues…

Lap 42: This has turned into a procession at the top. Bottas and Hamilton are way ahead, with the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen third and fourth respectively. Verstappen (fifth) is all on his own.

Lap 34: Oh blimey. Sainz is out. He pits and the tyres go on. But there’s a loose wheel nut in his front left. He realises as he comes out of the pit, tries to make it round the track but the nut flies off. What a farce.

Lap 33: Hamilton goes wide trying to catch Bottas and he’ll have to start his challenge from scratch now.

Verstappen, in fifth, can see Raikkonen in the distance but this may be too much of an ask for the Red Bull.

We’ve two Mercedes, two Ferraris and then Verstappen (without his team-mate Ricciardo) in the top five. It’s all quite routine really.

Meanwhile, Massa sits in 13th in his last race in F1, while Alonso is 11th. For all of Grosjean’s work today he’s still stuck in 10th.

Lap 26: Hamilton pits. He’s given it as much as he can to open the gap between him and Bottas. Can the Brit come out ahead of his team-mate?

No. Bottas cruises back into the lead as Hamilton guns out of the pits to no avail. The lead is 1.8 seconds, with Vettel almost 10 seconds off the front man.

Mercedes can just dance around for the rest of the afternoon.

Lap 23: Oh dear, Ricciardo is out! He had grazed the wall earlier in the race and pitted to change his tyres.

But it looks as though that wasn’t the problem. Ricciardo’s impressive season is over. He gets out of the car on a grass verge and walks to a moped which drives him off. What a shame.

Meanwhile, Hamilton is now ahead of Bottas after the Finn went into the pits. And Vettel is a long way away from the two Mercedes.

Lap 20: Bottas is now over two-and-a-half minutes ahead of Hamilton.

Ricciardo comes in to pit and is straight out again, nice and smooth.

The top three – Bottas, Hamilton and Vettel – are yet to change their tyres.

Lap 17: Verstappen pits and comes out seeing to regain some ground. He’s the first of the leading group to do so. Instantly he’s out in eighth and makes it up to seventh.

Grosjean, meanwhile, is maybe enjoying the best of the race action so far.

He’s pushing his car and his team have already warned him: “Obey the turn 11 dotted line. Do not go on the other side of the dotted line.”

grosjean replies: ”I can crash if you want. I am fed up with the rules.”

Lap 11: Grosjean attacks Stroll with the DRS between his legs but the Williams drivers holds his line to deflect the threat.

Meanwhile, sixth-place Verstappen is having no joy catching Raikkonen here.

Bottas is two seconds clear of Hamilton and has clear air in front of him.

Oh hello! Grosjean attacks Stroll yet again. They touch but Grosjean gets through. Stroll comes back with the DRS but cannot find a gap. That’s the most entertaining moment so far.

Lap 6: No change at the top as Bottas starts to move away even from Hamilton. He’s having a dream weekend so far.

There’s plenty of battles down the pile though. Sparks fly as Grosjean and Stroll fight it out for 13th.

Alonso and Saiz are also nibbling at each other.

LIGHTS OUT!

And we’re underway! Bottas and Hamilton get through Turn 1 smoothly. Vettel locks up but keeps third. And Ricciardo sneaks up to fourth!

Magnussen runs off a couple of turns later but thankfully not much contact. No yellow flags… yet.

Raikkonen tries to get back his spot over Ricciardo but the Red Bull is having none of it.

So, one lap in and we look like this:

1. Bottas 2. Hamilton 3. Vettel 4. Ricciardo 5. Raikkonen 6. Verstappen

Formation Lap

They’re meandering around here. About to go.

Fernando Alonso

12:37: McLaren’s disastrous season is almost over the Fernando Alonso for one is delighted.

“In any season when you arrive at the end and you haven’t reached your expectations there is a sort of good feeling, because you can turn the page and go for the next target,” he said.

“For next season we have high expectations and different goals.

“We are optimistic, so it’s nice that the season is finishing now so we can concentrate fully on 2018.”

Sebastian Vettel

12:26: Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel ends 2017 without the world title following a disappointing second half to the season.

But he was in high spirits on Saturday after qualifying third and reckons his car is improving.

“Tomorrow with the race pace I think we can be a bit closer but they (Mercedes) have been very strong,” said Vettel.

“It should be a fun race, overtaking is not always straightforward but not impossible here so let’s see.”

Lewis Hamilton

12:15: Mercedes’ world champion Lewis Hamilton had to take his hat off to Valtteri Bottas after the Finn’s qualifying time on Saturday.

He said: ”What a lap – Valtteri just had an incredible qualifying – so congratulations to him. I gave it everything, but he did an exceptional job.

“For me, practice was great. Then I made some changes in anticipation of the track cooling which I think were not the right ones in hindsight. But it was good to experiment a little which I hadn’t really done all year long.

“In the end I was up by about a tenth and a half out of turn one, but then I lost it somewhere else through the rest of the lap.

“Nonetheless, it was fun to be out there, challenging in the last qualifying of the year. Now we can get on with the race tomorrow. It’s a very hard track to overtake, but I will give it everything for sure.”

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix starting grid

1. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Mercedes 2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes

3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 4. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull – TAG Heuer

5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 6. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull – TAG Heuer

7. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany) Renault 8. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India – Mercedes

9. Esteban Ocon (France) Force India – Mercedes 10. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes

11. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 12. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Renault

13. Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium) McLaren 14. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) Haas – Ferrari

15. Lance Stroll (Canada) Williams-Mercedes 16. Romain Grosjean (France) Haas – Ferrari

17. Pierre Gasly (France) Toro Rosso – Renault 18. Pascal Wehrlein (Germany) Sauber – Ferrari

19. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber – Ferrari 20. Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) Toro Rosso – Renault

Welcome

12:00: Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton has been in superb form all weekend but it was Valtteri Bottas’ fay yesterday.

The Finn qualified on pole with a track record time, with the Ferraris and Red Bulls behind his and Hamilton’s Silver Arrows.

The race starts at 1pm and it’s a short sprint down to Turn 1, so Sebastian Vettel will hope to sneak in there.

But in reality this is a track that suits Mercedes and they are heavy favourites to claim victory here.