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By: Geoff Creighton

Summary

Status: Stopped
Here's our report on the final race of the season. Be sure to check Autosport.com and Motorsport.com for all of the post-race coverage, and we'll have plenty to keep you informed and entertained through the winter until testing begins at the end of February:
Valtteri Bottas resists Lewis Hamilton to win Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
 
As the podium ceremony takes place, the important news is that the two Mercedes have been placed in their correct positions back in parc ferme, after the drivers left them on the track.
 
Red Bull jokes to Verstappen that the team will "expect a good drawing of the rear wing of that Ferrari tonight" after he spent the whole race stuck behind Raikkonen.
"It's impossible to pass here, man!" Hamilton says in the room behind the podium. "I was like, where are all the friggin backmarkers - they've got to change this track."
 
 
Renault apologises for some errors, but thanks Hulkenberg for "your part" in the team grabbing sixth in the constructors' championship. "That's what I'm here for," he declares, and he thanks the team for a good first season.
Massa, Hamilton and Bottas now have to make their way over the pitwall as their crews head onto the track with some jacks to take the cars back to the pits.
Hugs for Massa from the day's top two, as a cameraman sprints onto the track to capture the unexpected moment.
 
 
Hamilton causes some confusion by staying out instead of pitting - he and Bottas engage in some start/finish donuts, and Massa has joined them. Everyone else has headed for the pits as normal.
"Such a good car today, thank for you the season - nice way to end it," says Bottas.
 
Retirements: Sainz, Ricciardo
Out of the points: 11 Grosjean; 12 Vandoorne; 13 Magnussen; 14 Wehrlein; 15 Hartley; 16 Gasly; 17 Ericsson; 18 Stroll
Vettel joins in with a bit of Mercedes formation flying on the slowdown lap as the top three wave to the crowd with fireworks going off in the background.
Result: 1 Bottas; 2 Hamilton; 3 Vettel; 4 Raikkonen; 5 Verstappen; 6 Hulkenberg; 7 Perez; 8 Ocon; 9 Alonso; 10 Massa
"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant, so well managed, Valtteri."
Hulkenberg comes in sixth and Renault passes Toro Rosso to take sixth in the championship.
Massa is through to clinch 10th in his last F1 race.
Raikkonen holds off Verstappen by 0.8s to take fourth place.
No fastest race lap for Alonso, but he does a personal best and says goodbye Honda with ninth place.
Vettel finishes the season with his personal best lap of the race, while both Mercedes drivers entertain the fans with some celebratory donuts.
Hamilton takes second, and Vettel is a lonely best of the rest in third.
Valtteri Bottas wins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix!
Alonso does his best first sector yet as the final lap begins.
Hamilton has called off the fight, he's nearly five seconds down on Bottas. We'll look out for a white flag waving from car #44.
"What is the fastest lap?" Alonso asks McLaren. He's planning a flourish, isn't he?
Since his third pitstop, Stroll has worked out how to keep the tyres alive and closed from half a minute behind the rest of the field to 11s off Ericsson now.
 
Alonso has a quick debate with McLaren over how many laps he actually has left now he's been lapped.
Well, we say Hamilton has let the gap grow - but Bottas has also smashed in a 1m40.6s new fastest lap.
That oooh-it-almost-got-close midfield battle has stretched out again now, with Wehrlein chasing Magnussen for 13th the closest element.
It seems to be game over at the front. Hamilton has let the gap drift to three seconds.
 
Alonso tells McLaren he will "go G1" for his last lap. One last super-quick Honda-powered lap time...?
 

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