2023-11-23 05:15:00
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last of the season, still has surprises to be resolved, especially knowing the final owner of the fourth place in the drivers’ World Championship, a fight between the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), tied at 200 points, although with the British Lando Norris (McLaren) -with 195- and the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) -188- on the lookout. Although the championship has already been decided for weeks, with the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) proclaimed champion for five rounds – he secured the title, his third in a row, at the Qatar Grand Prix -, the last races are leaving nice fights to see how the classification turns out, in which the Mexican “Checo” Pérez (Red Bull) has already won second place and the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) third.
The Asturian stood up to the British for that third position that he had taken over at the beginning of the championship thanks to the regularity of the Aston Martin, but the consistency of the Mercedes in all the circuits and the two consecutive retirements of Alonso in the grand prix of the United States and Mexico relegated “Magic” to fighting for fourth place. But that position has many suitors, since Sainz’s good work throughout the championship has allowed him to climb positions until he is tied on points with the Asturian, in a fight that will be decided in the United Arab Emirates. He will now have to fight with the Madrid native, who, in fact, has been the only driver capable of overcoming the Red Bulls and winning a race, with his victory in Singapore ahead of Norris and Hamilton, in a race that was the exception to a season marked by the incessant dominance of the Austrian team and, above all, “Mad Max”. However, one of the big surprises of this second half of the season has been the performance of Norris, who, despite retiring at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, has seven podiums in the last twelve races, six of which have been been second, which contrasts with the first part of the championship, when he only managed to score points in three of the eight events. Leclerc has been more consistent: he has only been on the podium three times, two of them as second, but he has been fourth on four occasions and has scored points in fifteen of the sixteen grands prix that he has finished.
Thus, on Sunday the teams will have calculators in hand to find out who finally occupies fourth position in the drivers’ championship, although they will need a second calculator to know the position they occupy in the constructors’ championship. Although Red Bull is in another league and has been awarded first place in that championship for many grand prizes, Mercedes, with 392 points, and Ferrari, with 388, are relentlessly fighting to be second in a World Cup that will also have confrontations for fourth place, since the McLaren team, with 284 points, has not yet managed to confirm fourth position, from which it can be overtaken by Aston Martin, which has 273 points. Alonso will also have a lot to say in this section.
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