Perez misses out on second spot as Verstappen rounds out season with win

Sergio Perez failed to secure second spot in the F1 world championship standings after finishing third in the season finale in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

While team-mate Max Verstappen claimed his 15th victory of the season - his third win in a row at the Yas Marina Circuit - Perez, who needed to finish ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to claim the runners-up spot, crossed the line behind the Monegasque driver.

The duo headed into the final race level on points after the controversial circumstances in the Brazilian Grand Prix, where Verstappen refused to allow Perez to finish ahead of him, but after looking on course to finish second behind his team-mate, Perez made an extra stop for tyres which put him behind Leclerc.

The Ferrari man made his tyres last though, coming home second behind Verstappen to claim second spot in the championship.

“I am pleased because I gave it my all today,” Perez said afterwards. “In the end we just didn’t have enough, this is how the sport works, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

“It hurts to lose second place in the championship by one second, there are things we could have done better but at the end of the day what matters is that you never give up in this sport and that is what I have done this season, on and off track, so I can go home happy.”

Verstappen meanwhile cruised to his 15th win of the season, untroubled from pole position.

He said: ““It was incredible to win here again and to get 15 wins in total this season is unbelievable. It was a good race, the one stop really worked for me and it was all about tyre management today.

“As a team, we did everything we could to get Checo up there ahead of Charles, we had split strategies, but it didn’t work out today.

“Overall, we’ve achieved a lot this year as a team and we can all be proud of that, its great motivation heading into next year.”