Abu Dhabi: a sunset finale and a pit lane that dives under the track

The final round of the season starts in daylight and ends under floodlights. And Yas Marina has a few other quirks too.

The first day-to-night race

The first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ran on 1 November 2009 and made history straight away: it was the first Formula 1 race to start in daylight and finish in the dark. Lights out was at 17:00 local time, and the floodlights came on during the race. It has been held every year since, and in recent seasons it has been the championship finale.

A pit exit underground

There's no room by Turn 1, so the pit lane exit drops into a tunnel and runs under the track. On TV it looks odd: a car leaves its pit box, vanishes for a few seconds and pops up on the other side of the tarmac. Another local landmark: part of the lap runs right underneath the hotel building.

The 2021 rebuild

For years Yas Marina was criticised for processional races with few overtakes. Before the 2021 season it was changed in three places. The slow chicane at Turn 5 became a hairpin, the slow sequence at Turn 9 turned into a long, fast sweeping hairpin, and the hotel section was opened up. The corner count dropped from 21 to 16, the lap got 273 metres shorter, and the race grew by three laps to 58.

Sunset changes the car

The race starts with the track still warm from the sun, and by the flag the tarmac has cooled noticeably. Balance and tyre behaviour shift along the way, so teams trust the sessions held at the same time of day as the race more than those run in the afternoon heat.

58 laps to the holidays

A lap of Abu Dhabi is 5.281 km and the race is just over 306 km. For plenty of the grid it's the last chance to score points and climb the constructors' table, which means prize money. The LapRadar 3D map is a handy way to follow the gaps and pit stops of the finale as they happen.