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21 Nov 2022

The best pictures from Sebastian Vettel's final Formula One race

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The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has become home to the Formula One season finale in recent years, but this year it also saw the sun set on the career of Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team driver Sebastian Vettel – one of the sport's all-time greats.

We've curated our favourite images from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, highlighting the best on-track moments throughout a weekend where Sebastian's remarkable career was celebrated by everybody in the paddock.

Lance and Sebastian arrived at the track ready for the final race of the 2022 season.

The AMR22, as well as the garage floor and walls, featured 'Danke Seb' branding that included the names of 400 I / AM members.

The team welcomed Felipe Drugovich to the AMR22 for his first Free Practice session on Friday.

Sebastian got his final F1 weekend underway with plenty of laps in FP1.

Felipe did a great job in his maiden FP1 outing, putting 23 laps on the board and keeping to the team's run plan.

For the weekend, Sebastian's old race suit and helmet from 1995 were on display in the garage.

Lance returned to the car in FP2 and got lots of laps in on the Soft tyre as the sun started to set.

Sebastian showed good speed in FP1, was consistent in FP2 and looked to qualify well on Saturday.

Lance completed his day with 27 laps on the board, ready for qualifying day.

The Halo on the AMR22 also featured the 'Danke Seb' branding throughout the weekend.

A poster was left outside the garage throughout the weekend for people to sign for Sebastian.

On Saturday, the team completed a modest number of laps in FP3 as the sun started to set.

In qualifying, both cars made it safely through a very tight first segment.

Sebastian was held up by traffic in both Q1 and Q2, but still made it through into Q3.

Lance, despite being happy with his lap, could only make it to 14th on the grid.

After putting in a starring performance in qualifying, Sebastian would line up ninth on the grid for Sunday's race.

Sebastian invited the entire paddock to #RunWithSeb on Saturday night, with a huge turnout.

Ahead of Sunday's race, Sebastian was given a guard of honour by the other 19 drivers, including friend Mick Schumacher.

As has often been the case this season, Lance started brilliantly and passed Mick Schumacher and Daniel Ricciardo early on.

Sebastian held position at the start, and he found himself battling with the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.

Sebastian had a long opening stint on the Medium tyres, which put him on course for a one-stop strategy.

Lance made his first stop fairly early on, but his pace on the Hards was good enough to put him in contention for points.

Sebastian caught Ricciardo, but ultimately ran out of laps to pull off an overtake and crossed the line 0.630s behind the Aussie. He scored one point, just as he did in his first Grand Prix.

Lance finished his season with a strong eighth-place result to add four more points to his championship tally.

Sebastian was invited onto the grid post-race to celebrate his career in style, performing doughnuts for the crowd.

As Formula One said 'Danke Seb', Sebastian showed his appreciation with a wave and speech to adoring fans at the track and around the world.

Abu Dhabi GP

Driver debrief by Aramco

Sebastian Vettel

Memorable moments