Does Leclerc’s strategy show Hamilton should have finished higher than fourth?

Lewis Hamilton’s recovery from 16th on the grid to finish fourth allowed him to leave Mercedes on a greater high than seemed likely after his Saturday setback.

But he took the chequered flag one place behind a driver he started three places ahead of. Does Charles Leclerc’s strategy show Hamilton, like the Ferrari driver, should have started the race on the medium tyre compound instead of the hards?

Both drivers made gains at the start, aided by Max Verstappen punting Oscar Piastri into a spin at the first corner and Sergio Perez being rotated by Valtteri Bottas. It put both on course to finish ahead of cars they might otherwise have had a hard time passing.

Hamilton was the only driver to start on the hard rubber, yet he picked up four places and started the second lap in 12th. But Leclerc’s softer rubber allowed him to make a quicker getaway and he completed the first lap in eighth place, a gain of 11 positions, by far the best start any driver has made all year.

From there Leclerc continued to gain places on his medium rubber. By lap 12 he had picked off Fernando Alonso and the Haas pair. Hamilton was only just starting to get stuck into the midfielders ahead of him as their tyres began to fade. As others pitted, however, within two more laps only Verstappen separated him from Leclerc on the track, and he was doomed to serve a 10-second time penalty which would drop him behind the Mercedes.

Ferrari brought Leclerc in early for his first pit stop, spreading the strategy options between their drivers as they sought to apply pressure to race leaders and championship rivals McLaren. At this stage of the race a Safety Car intervention would have forced Hamilton into an earlier switch to medium rubber than he wanted, leaving him vulnerable at the end, but none came.

Instead he hung on until lap 34, the latest of any driver, before pitting. By this time Verstappen had finally come in and Mercedes waited as late as they dared before changing Hamilton’s tyres while he could still come out ahead of the world champion.

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Hamilton revelled in his medium rubber over the final stint, repeatedly setting fastest lap as he homed in on George Russell, eventually passing his team mate on the final lap. At one stage his team suggested a podium finish might be possible, but although Leclerc’s old hard tyres faded towards the end, he had sufficient time in hand to out-run his rival.

Could Hamilton have done even better on Leclerc’s strategy? The Ferrari driver’s incredible start was the key to his race, and although his softer rubber undoubtedly gave him a useful traction advantage at that point, Leclerc also deserves credit for how he exploited the opportunities which opened up to him. Race starts are unpredictable moments: Leclerc wasn’t just on the right tyres at the right time, he also put himself in the right places.

Hamilton’s pace at the end of the race should have delivered him the fastest lap, but Haas decided to brighten up Kevin Magnussen’s final race by letting him have a go for it. He had been taken out of contention when he became Bottas’s second victim earlier in proceedings.

A set of soft tyres allowed Magnussen to produce a 1’25.637 which was over a second and a half quicker than anyone else managed. As he finished 16th, he was not eligible to score the bonus point which went with it. This was the final race before the bonus point is dropped, so F1’s least necessary rule went out in a blaze of irrelevance.

2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

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2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

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