ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Stooped beside his silver and black Mercedes W15 car on the main straight of the Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton paused to soak up the moment.

It was the final time after 12 seasons, 246 grands prix, 84 race wins and six drivers’ world championships, making it the longest and most successful driver and team partnership in the history of F1, that he would be alone with his Mercedes car. In February, he’ll be racing in red for Ferrari.

Balancing on his toes and with his forearms resting on the sidepod, helmet still on, Hamilton bowed his head and took some time to think about the journey he and Mercedes had been on together. The good, the bad. The highs, the lows.

“I just wanted to embrace the moment because it’s the last time I’m going to step into a Mercedes and represent them,” Hamilton said in the media pen after the race, eyes glistening. “It’s been the greatest honor of my life.”

The overriding emotion in that moment beside the car was gratitude. “I was just giving thanks,” Hamilton said. “Firstly, thanking my own spirit for not giving up, for continuing to push, and thanking everyone that powers and builds that car. I’m proud of everyone.”

Twenty-four hours earlier, it felt like Hamilton’s last blast in the silver car might be a difficult one. Mercedes made a mistake by mistiming his last qualifying run in Q1, leaving him a lowly 16th on the grid. Toto Wolff, the team principal, apologized to Hamilton for an “idiotic” mistake that would make his race much, much tougher.

In the post-qualifying debrief, even as the engineers and strategists rued the error, Hamilton reminded them of all the good moments they’d enjoyed together. He was still hopeful of finishing on a high, providing a swansong tribute to the team that has given him so much professionally and personally.

And Hamilton did exactly that, delivering a memorable fightback to sign off at Mercedes in Abu Dhabi.

From 16th, he made up a handful of positions on the opening lap thanks to incidents ahead before sitting on the fringes of the points. By running the alternate tire strategy, the plan was always to run deep on the hard tire before pitting, setting Hamilton up for a final charge to the line. After biding his time and letting the cars ahead pit, he started moving into position for a decent points haul. Hamilton’s engineer, Pete Bonnington, came onto the radio toward the end of the first stint to say there was a possible third-place finish on the cards, according to Mercedes’ data.

Hamilton emerged from the pits in seventh place with fresh medium tires, ready to bear down on the cars ahead on older, slower hards. For one final time, Bonnington delivered the catchphrase that it was time for Hamilton to push, one that has encouraged the Briton to claim wins and poles throughout their time together.

“OK, Lewis, it’s hammer time!”

Lewis Hamilton started P16 at the Abu Dhabi GP and finished P5. (Photo by Luca Martini / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

“When he told me, I was like, I can’t remember the last time he told me ‘hammer time,’” Hamilton said post-race. “I remember I told Bono to say hammer time back in the first year together. I was like, ‘Don’t tell me just, ‘go faster,’ just tell me, ‘It’s hammer time,’ and I’ll know what it is!’”

As always, Hamilton got the memo. He quickly picked off Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly before being told there was a 14-second gap to his teammate, George Russell, ahead in fourth place. The pair went into Abu Dhabi tied on points from their three seasons together. This last stint would settle the intra-team battle. Hamilton said it “took perfection” to catch Russell in the final stages.

It went all the way to the last lap. On the radio, Wolff told Russell to bear in mind the situation, which was a gentle reminder to keep things clean. Russell was powerless to keep his teammate behind anyway when at Turn 9, the same corner where Hamilton saw Max Verstappen pull away to the championship three years ago and deny him a historic eighth title, Hamilton swept around Russell outside and moved ahead. A brave, brilliant overtake.

“I only caught him right at that last lap, and I was like, it’s now or never,” Hamilton said. Russell thought it was “quite a fitting way to finish with Lewis, just one second apart after these three years” and was pleased to see his teammate end in style. “He deserved it,” Russell said. “The team deserved to give him that send-off.”

As he turned through the final few corners, the sky already lit up with fireworks to honor Lando Norris’s win, Hamilton soaked in the last moments as a Mercedes grand prix driver before crossing the line. The radio messages with Bonnington and Wolff on the cool-down lap were filled with emotion, Bonnington seemingly in tears. The end had arrived.

Hamilton was positive and reflective after his final Mercedes race. (Joe Portlock/Getty Images)

Post-race, the analytical side of Wolff pondered that, without the bollard getting stuck under Hamilton’s car in qualifying, he might’ve been able to fight for victory. Hamilton told Wolff to instead think about the 84 wins they’d already achieved together.

“These last few races, they don’t change how we feel about it,” Wolff said. “He drove like a world champion today from P16. We played the long game and finished fourth, driving away from the Red Bull. That was a statement of a world champion.”

Hamilton was also glad to finish a challenging year on a high. Despite wins at Silverstone and Spa, his first victories since 2021, seventh place still marks his lowest championship finish in F1, having struggled to gel with the tricky Mercedes car throughout the year. The subtext of his pending move to Ferrari, announced at the start of February, underpinning everything this year also presented its own challenge.

“It’s been a really turbulent year, probably the longest year of my life, I would say,” Hamilton said. “We’ve known from the beginning that I’m leaving, and it’s like a relationship — when you’ve told whoever the counterpart is that you’re leaving, but you’re living together for a whole year. Lots of ups and downs, emotionally. But we finished off with a high today.”

The only emotions Hamilton felt post-race were positive. He’d completed his celebratory donuts on the start-finish line, permission given to him as part of the FIA’s post-race procedures, and then gone back to the Mercedes garage to celebrate with his team, so many of whom were eager to get one final picture together. A lasting memory for all their success. All the history they have written.

Hamilton performs a burnout after the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix. (GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images)

The whole weekend had been about that. On Thursday, Hamilton took a number of his engineers and mechanics, including Bonnington, for a hot lap about the Yas Marina Circuit. Mercedes then held a team event on Thursday night that looked back on Hamilton’s time at Brackley and paid tribute to all their success. Hamilton had no idea it was happening and was genuinely touched by the surprise.

“That was super emotional,” he said. “I ain’t got no more tears, really. Everything came out there.”

That didn’t stop Sunday from being soaked in emotion. Despite the challenges of this year and the long, awkward goodbye before he moves to Ferrari, a fierce rival Hamilton and Mercedes have worked tirelessly to defeat, there has always been an underlying respect and affection for all they’ve accomplished together. The message from Wolff and the Mercedes board members in Abu Dhabi to Hamilton was that he would always be a part of their story and, more importantly, their family.

When Hamilton made the decision to quit McLaren for Mercedes back in 2012, many thought it was the wrong move. Few could have predicted their success. Even fewer that the relationship would’ve lasted so long and run so deep.

As Hamilton put it on the cool-down lap, “What started out as a leap of faith turned into a journey into the history books.” What a journey it has been.

Top photo: Sipa USA