2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

McLaren announced they would be using a special one-off livery to celebrate the last race of Fernando Alonso, who had announced he would not be racing in Formula One in 2019 (he eventually returned in 2021). This was the first time McLaren had run a special livery since the 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix.[2] McLaren also invited the family of seven time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson to the race. Johnson and his family watched the race from the McLaren garage.

Prior to the race, Lewis Hamilton had already secured the 2018 World Drivers' Championship title, while his team, Mercedes, had secured the 2018 World Constructors' Championship title. Lewis Hamilton claimed his fifth World Drivers' title at the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix; following the Brazilian Grand Prix he led Sebastian Vettel by 81 points with Kimi Räikkönen being third, a further 51 points behind. In the World Constructors' Championship, Mercedes led Ferrari by 67 points with only one race remaining in the season, with Red Bull Racing being third in the standings.

Max Verstappen was fastest in first practice, Valtteri Bottas was fastest in second practice and Lewis Hamilton was fastest in third practice.[3]

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in qualifying followed by Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.[4]

Hamilton won the race from pole position with Vettel and Max Verstappen completing the podium.[5] On the first lap at turn 9 Nico Hülkenberg overtook Romain Grosjean at turn 8 at the end of the back straight. Grosjean was pushed off the track by the move but tried to still make turn 9 alongside Hülkenberg. Not realizing that Grosjean was still on his inside, Hülkenberg attempted to take the normal line through turn 9 and his rear right tire ran over Grosjean's front left. This caused the Renault R.S.18 to flip and barrel roll into the barriers to the left of turn 9, thus sending the race into a safety car situation, the first such instance in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2012.[6][7][8]

After the race had been completed Alonso celebrated the end of his career by performing doughnuts on the pit straight alongside Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, the other two World Champions who completed the race (Kimi Räikkönen had retired from the race.)[9] Jimmie Johnson congratulated Alonso on his career. The two would later exchange their respective cars in a car swap at Bahrain International Circuit. Three years later however, Alonso returned in F1 with Alpine.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	55	1:39:40.382	1	25
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	55	+2.581	3	18
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	55	+12.706	6	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	55	+15.379	5	12
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	55	+47.957	2	10
6	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	55	+1:12.548	11	8
7	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber-Ferrari	55	+1:30.789	8	6
8	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	55	+1:31.275	14	4
9	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	54	+1 lap	7	2
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	54	+1 lap	13	1
11	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault	54	+1 lap1	15
12	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	54	+1 lap	16
13	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	54	+1 lap	20
14	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault	54	+1 lap	18
15	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams-Mercedes	54	+1 lap	19
Ret	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	46	Engine	17
Ret	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	44	Engine1	9
Ret	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	24	Power loss	12
Ret	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	6	Power loss	4
Ret	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	0	Collision	10
Source:[10]

Notes

• ^1  – Fernando Alonso received three five-second penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Esteban Ocon received one five-second penalty for the same offence.