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Darry Worthington previews the final Grand Prix of the year, the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which is being held on Sunday the 13th of December.
Image copyright – Steve Haag Sports
The curtain will come down on what has been a rather extraordinary season, at the Yas Marina Circuit this coming Saturday. While the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships have long since been secured by Mercedes, There’s still a battle going on for second place with Max Verstappen only 16 points off Valterri Bottas. Should the Red Bull man get a win here and Bottas fails to finish in the top five, then Verstappen will take second.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Sunday 13 December
Yas Marina Circuit
To Win Race Outright
Valterri Bottas 7/4
Max Verstappen 37/20
George Russel 2/1
Sergio Perez 25/1
Daniel Ricciardo 66/1
Alexander Albon 66/1
Lance Stroll 66/1
Esteban Ocon 66/1
Charles LeClerc 100/1
Previous Race
Well, we certainly got a few thrills and spills in the penultimate race of the year with Sergio Perez claiming his first-ever F1 win and Esteban Ocon landing on the podium – he claimed second – for the first time in his career. The duo was joined on the podium by Lance Stroll who ensured an extremely profitable points return for his and Perez’ Racing Point team.
Danie Ricciardo enjoyed another solid late-season showing with the Australian finishing in fifth behind the McLaren of Carlos Sainz, who finished fifth. The two men were joined in the ‘Top 6’ by Red Bull’s Alexander Albion.
The remainder of the ‘Top 10’ consisted of Danil Kyvat (seventh), the twin Mercedes of Bottas (eigth) and Russel (Ninth) and Ladon Norris.
Track
The final port of call for the field is the Yas Marina Circuit which is situated in the desert Metropolis that is Abu Dhabi. Like most things in the UAE, no expense was spared when it came to designing this circuit.
Designed as a permanent racing facility, the Yas Marina complex can hold a 41,093 strong crowd. The actual track distance measures 5.554 kilometres and contains 21 turns. Drivers will do battle over 55 of these laps and will cover a total race distance of 305.355 kilometres.
The most challenging aspects of this track are the tight chicane through turns five and six – which offers next to no traction – and the sequence between turns 11, 12, and 13 which are exceedingly slow.
Like is always the case in Abu Dhabi, we’ve got some extremely dry conditions headed our way this weekend with temperatures in the mid-twenties and zero amount of rain being forecast.
This Grand Prix has been dominated by Mercedes in the recent past with the Silver Arrows winning the last six Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Value Bet and To Win Race Outright
Max Vertsappen @ 37/20
The news breaking today is that it looks like Lewis Hamilton is unlikely to take to the grid this weekend. Should the ‘Brit recover and test negative for COVID-19 then my money would be on him. However, should Hamilton not recover in time then I’d be backing Max Verstappen for the win.
The Red Bull man has improved year in and year out on this track finishing fifth here in 2017, third in 2018 and second last year. I reckon he’s on to finally claim that elusive first place this weekend.
