Verstappen finishes dominant season in record style

ABU DHABI :Red Bull's triple world champion Max Verstappen wrapped up Formula One's most dominant season with a record-extending 19th win in 22 races at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.

The pole-to-flag victory, for the fourth year in a row under the Yas Marina floodlights, left the 26-year-old alone in third place in Formula One's all-time list of winners with a career 54.

Only seven times champions Lewis Hamilton (103) and Michael Schumacher (91) have won more.

Sergio Perez finished second on the road for Red Bull but a five second post-race penalty dropped the Mexican off the podium, behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Mercedes' George Russell.

Leclerc had let Perez through on the penultimate lap in a strategic calculation to help his team's bid for second place that ultimately came to nothing when the Mexican was unable to pull out a big enough gap.

Russell's podium finish meant Mercedes ended their first winless season since 2011 as best of the rest behind Red Bull, who scored a whopping 860 points to Mercedes' 409 and Ferrari's 406.

"It was an incredible season," said Verstappen, who also became the first driver to lead 1,000 racing laps in a single championship, scored a record 575 points and ended the year with a record win rate of 86.4 per cent.

Along the way he racked up a record 10 wins in a row and 21 podium finishes, with Red Bull winning all but one of the races.

"It was a bit emotional on the in-lap, it was the last time I was sitting in the car which has of course given me a lot," he said after taking the chequered flag 17.9 seconds ahead of Leclerc.

"It will be hard to do something similar again but we definitely enjoyed this year."

MCLAREN FOURTH

McLaren secured fourth overall, 22 points clear