Emotional Lewis Hamilton ends his 12-year journey with Mercedes

Abu Dhabi: Another amazing chapter in Formula 1 comes to an end. Lewis Hamilton bids goodbye to his 12-year reign at Mercedes as he raced one last time for his team at the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.

The 39-year-old made his final appearance with Mercedes a memorable one as the seven-time world champion first overtook teammate George Russell on the final lap with a daring pass and then performed a series of donuts to celebrate at the end at the Yas Marina Circuit.

“Lewis, that was the drive of a world champion,” said team chief Toto Wolff as the crowd chanted “Lewis, Lewis”.

“What started out as a leap of faith, we turned it into making history,” said Hamilton to his race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington.

Speaking after the race, Hamilton said: “When he [Bonnington] said it was ‘Hammer time’ I did notice in the moment ‘that’s the last I’m going to hear that. It really clicked for me in that moment.

“Really, really hard race. Naturally from where I was. I didn’t get as great a start as this one here, my new teammate [Leclerc].

“The first stint was really, really difficult. I wasn’t losing hope, but I was just like, ‘ah, it’s not going as well as I thought it would.’ But I just didn’t give up, kept pushing, ‘come on we can get there’. Switched onto the [medium] tyres and the car came alive. But I had a massive gap to close, so I just focused on getting just absolutely everything from the car and not giving up,” he added.

Hamilton won all but one of his seven career driver’s championships with Mercedes, the most successful partnership between a team and driver in F1 history.

“I just wanted to finish on as much as a high, and just give every ounce of me to the team as they’ve given to me all of these years,” noting that he’s going to miss Mercedes given the long relationship they have shared.

“Obviously, I did the whole race, and there’s so much to do in it, but just to be able to hold onto that moment, because it’s history now and all my races have all been powered by Mercedes, and all the success we’ve had — I just sat there to think about all that and just contemplate how great a journey it’s been.

“I’m going to miss them — I can’t tell you how much I’m going to miss them, it’s going to be a huge amount. I’ve worked with them every day for the past 12 years. There’s a lot of love within this team, and that’s not going anywhere.”

Hamilton will now prepare to move to Ferrari to partner Charles Leclerc in 2025, as 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli gets set to fill his shoes at Mercedes.