2021 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix highlights

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda finished the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship season on a high with fourth place for Yuki Tsunoda and fifth spot for Pierre Gasly at the 2021 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

With Max Verstappen claiming an incredible maiden title ahead of them for Red Bull Racing Honda, the dynamic duo weaved their way through the field to produce an excellent finish to an encouraging season.

Frenchman Gasly finished the season ninth in the drivers’ standings with 110 points – including his Azerbaijan Grand Prix podium – while Japanese rookie Tsunoda’s career-best fourth-place left him 14th overall with 32 points as he starts out his career in motorsport’s elite event.

The team finished sixth in the constructors’ championship on the back of their highest ever points total of 142, which left them only 13 points behind Alpine in what was a fascinating midfield battle.

Gasly and Tsunoda are both confirmed for 2022 with an exciting off-season ahead for the team after a well-earned rest.

Pierre Gasly

I’m extremely happy to finish in P5 today, it’s the best way to end this year. It’s been an incredible season, the most successful for us as a team in 15 years, we’ve scored a lot of points and there have been many highlights. We’ve focused on ourselves every single race and I think we’ve performed well this season, so I’m really proud of everyone. I’m really pleased for Max, we grew up racing together, we knew he would have been World Champion one day and he did it today. It’s well deserved and I’m also happy for Honda, after all the years of hard work they’ve managed to get this Championship in their final year.

Yuki Tsunoda

I’m so happy, what an incredible result to end the season with. I think overall this weekend the car has been really strong, I didn’t expect the race pace to be quite as good but in the end, it has been a great day. It’s amazing to be finishing the season on such a high, it’s been a long journey getting back to this point, but I’ve really rebuilt my confidence and it’s great heading into the off-season with this incredible result. Huge congratulations to Max, it was such a tough battle throughout the season and I think he really deserved it today. I want to thank him also for giving this great result to Honda, as he’s given them the best way to celebrate their last year in F1.

Franz Tost (Team Principal)

What an unbelievable race for the final round here in Abu Dhabi. Congratulations to Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing and Honda for winning the World Championship title, they did an incredible job during the year and Max really deserved this. This year he was the fastest driver and the team did a fantastic job.

We are also happy from our side, because today we brought home a very good race result, the best of the year, and collected 22 points with Yuki in 4thand Pierre in 5th position, having started the race in 8thand 12th. We mixed up the strategy, with Yuki starting the race on the Mediums whilst Pierre was on a new set of hard tyres. Both of them did a very clever first stint and managed their tyres very well. Pierre got caught up behind Alonso, I think he could’ve been much faster but nevertheless, thanks to the safety car and very good strategy decisions, the team managed to cross the chequered flag with both drivers in the top 5.

We finish the season on 142 points, this is the highest we’ve ever scored in the history of the team and only 13 points behind Alpine. The team made a big step forward in all areas and I’m now really looking forward to next year with hopefully a competitive new car to fight for strong positions.

Scuderia AlphaTauri Team best pictures:

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