F1 2023, Max Verstappen wins the Abu Dhabi GP: Stats
Max Verstappen won the 2023 Formula 1 season-ending race in Abu Dhabi to sign off with a bang. The 2023 F1 champion dominated the scenes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday. With this victory, the Dutchman claimed his 54th F1 career race honor, besides a 19th in the ongoing season. He finished ahead of Charles Leclerc and George Russell. Here's more.
54th race win for the Dutchman
Earlier, with his 50th race win at the United States GP, Verstappen became the fifth to do so in F1 history. Lewis Hamilton leads the way with 103 wins ahead of Michael Schumacher (91). Verstappen has now surpassed Sebastian Vettel (53) in terms of race wins to be third. Verstappen also sealed his 19th win this season out of 22 races.
19 race wins in 2023
Verstappen won the season-opening Bahrain GP before finishing second in Saudi Arabia. He won the Australian GP and finished second in Azerbaijan. Verstappen clocked a series of wins thereafter, sealing the races in Miami, Monaco, Spain, Canada, Austria, Britain, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy. Verstappen finished fifth in Singapore before winning races in Japan, Qatar, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, and Abu Dhabi.
21 podium finishes out of 22 races this season
Until the Italian GP, Verstappen clocked 14 successive podium finishes and 10 straight wins after the race in Azerbaijan. By winning the Abu Dhabi GP, he finished with 21 podium finishes out of 22 races in 2023. He has 98 career podium finishes.
A 4th successive race win in Abu Dhabi
Verstappen sealed his fourth successive race win at the Abu Dhabi GP. He has equaled Hamilton for the most race wins here since its inception in 2009. Vettel had won three races here.
Driver and Constructor standings
Verstappen finished the season with 575 points and finished ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez (285). Mercedes ace Hamilton finished 3rd with 234 points. Fernando Alonso and Leclerc collected 206 points each. Meanwhile, Red Bull Racing managed 860 points. Mercedes were well behind in second with 409 points. Ferrari finished third with 402 points and were above McLaren (302).
Perez faces penalty to finish fourth ahead of Norris
Verstappen converted his pole position into victory in the season-ending race. Notably, Perez crossed the line in second position for Red Bull, but a five-second time penalty demoted him to fourth place. He had clashed with McLaren's Lando Norris. It left Ferrari's Leclerc second and Russell of Mercedes in third. Meanwhile, Norris had to settle for fifth after his run-in with Perez.
30th career podium for Leclerc
Second-placed Leclerc sealed his sixth podium in 2023. Overall, the Spaniard owns 30 career podiums. Meanwhile, Russell finished an average campaign with a second podium show.
