Lotus have been strong all year, they’ve scored many podiums already but despite coming close hadn’t managed to secure a victory. In fact I thought their time had gone, the bigger teams had out developed them and they’d slipped away during the latter part of the season.
But they still thought it was possible. What was it they needed? Qualify on the first two rows, get a good start so they can exploit their race pace, and with a little bit of luck they should get the win they’ve deserved this year.
Kimi Raikkonen did all that and more to take control of a dramatic race in Abu Dhabi and win for the first time since the Belgium Grand Prix in 2009. It was a stunning performance, almost effortless as he did just enough to get the black and gold car to the chequered flag.
Starting from fourth on the grid after Sebastian Vettel had been sent to the back of the grid, he leapt into second behind pole sitter Lewis Hamilton. He didn’t quite have the pace of the McLaren at first, in truth no one did, Lewis was untouchable this weekend.
However, Kimi wasn’t exactly falling away, his race pace in Friday practice suggested there was more to come; he got into his rhythm and he was there running untroubled in second waiting for anything that might come his way.
After a safety car on lap 9 for a spectacular crash involving Nico Rosberg vaulting over the back of Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT, the race kicked back into life on lap 15 with Lewis streaking away again, but the Lotus was lurking not far behind. Five laps later the little bit of luck came for Kimi, Hamilton’s McLaren let him down again with a fuel pump failure. As he slowed, Kimi shot past into a lead he wasn’t to lose.
He does what he does best when he’s out in front and he controlled the pace, nothing could trouble him, even telling his engineer on the radio to ‘leave me alone, I know what I’m doing’. As Kimi exited the pits after his one and only stop, he was just ahead of Vettel who was travelling quickly but still to stop one more time.
This didn’t trouble him, not even after another safety car caused by Perez being overly optimistic did he get flustered. He bolted away from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso to get clear by a couple of seconds. And when Alonso began to eat into his lead as the laps counted down, getting to within a second at one point, Kimi kept his car pointing the right way, no little slides, in fact it was Alonso who got out of shape which perhaps cost him a chance of a last lap DRS grab.
A fantastic drive for Kimi, he’s deserved nothing less from an impressive comeback season. Despite the win though, he’s now out of the championship reckoning, but the Lotus team, once Renault, once Benetton seem to have a cycle.
1994/95 two drivers titles with Michael Schumacher, 2005/06another two with Alonso, I’ve a feeling this team are beginning to find their winning curve again, watch out for them next year. But that won't bother Kimi right now, he's probably more worried about where to party!
Vettel avoids calamity to charge through the field
This championship fight isn’t over yet though, and Red Bull have made sure of that as Sebastian Vettel, who had qualified four places in front of his main title rival Alonso was sent to the back of the grid for not being able to produce the required litre fuel sample.
Other factors with his Renault engine meant Vettel had tostop on the track after his final qualifying run, but once the car was returnedto the pits, like Hamilton in Spain, the stewards stripped his times away andthat was that.
The team chose to start him from the pit lane, lengthened 7th gear giving him more top speed, and told him to attack. Attack Vettel did, but almost to calamity. He hit Bruno Senna in the early laps, slightly damaging his right front wing end plate, but he could live with it, the charge continued.
During the first safety car period though he got caught out by Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso slowing down suddenly while trying to warm his brakes, Vettel swerved to avoid him and took out a polystyrene sign damaging the other side of his front wing.
The team had no choice but to pit him switching him onto a 2 stop strategy but now he was down to the back of the pack again. It looked like it was going to be a long day for Vettel, he seemed impetuous and rattled.
That all changed though, he belted through the field, slicing his way ahead so quickly that by the time everyone had made their single stops and then he stopped for a second time he was still lying fourth. Then came the second safety car closing the leaders up, Vettel was right behind the podium places and had fresher tyres with 12 laps to go as the race restarted.Could he win this?
Well, no, but I think he could have. A late dive around the outside of Button was a brave move with three laps left, it got him on the podium, but despite reeling off a few fastest laps time would run out on him.It was a fantastic drive from the back though, and it would have been fantastic to see him catch Alonso and have the title challengers wheel to wheel.
As damage limitation missions go, it was pretty much as successful as you can get. To lose only three points to Alonso after the Saturday dramas has got to be considered a job well done.
Alonso always fighting
After qualifying Alonso must have been feeling a bit glum, he was four places behind Vettel, with a car which is just not as quick. But as Alonso said to the BBC, statistically something was going to go wrong with Red Bull at some point, and go wrong it did, not quite as much as he might have liked, but any closing of the points is a good thing at this point.
Alonso put in another terrific drive, his commitment to the cause can never be doubted. Starting from 6th he was into 5th past Jenson Button after the first corner as the McLaren slid wide. Later round the lap onto the second DRS zone although it was not yet activated, he slipstreamed Mark Webber, moved to right squeezing into Ferrari sized gap between the Red Bull and the edge of the track, left his braking very late and was through and after Pastor Maldonado.
He got him too as the Williams’ tyres faded and Lewis Hamilton was retiring, leaving him second. He kept Button at bay, and then went Kimi hunting for the win, utterly focused as he slid his car after the Lotus.
He looked delighted with his second on the podium, Ferrari needed to get one over on Red Bull after four races of trailing behind. But they need more, despite producing one of the outstanding seasons of driving, Alonso cannot compete with Vettel with this car any more.
That has been plain to see for a while now, they need updates that translate to the track, which they’re not getting at the moment.It’s still all to play for and you should never doubt that Alonso can still perform one more miracle to take the title.
Lewis a class apart in Abu Dhabi
A word must be said about Lewis Hamilton. He has driven brilliantly this year, but has been let down by his team. I believe he should be up there challenging for this championship, but this is motor racing where it’s hardly ever fair.
He dominated this weekend from the start taking a fantastic pole position and looked untouchable, but for the second time in five races a car failure robbed him of another win.
A team like McLaren shouldn’t be having these issues as regularly as they have this year, they’ve stopped this year being a contest between the best three drivers on the grid.
Jenson Button salvaged a 4th place from the day and if it hadn’t of been for the second safety car might have had third, but he wasn’t anywhere near the pace of Lewis this weekend.
There were some incidents
Well there a few crashes in this race. The Force India’s came together, knocking the Williams of Senna out the way as well. Nico Hulkenberg’s day was done after that.
Rosberg and Karthikeyan’s shunt was probably the most spectacular incident of the day. While the second
safety car was caused by Sergio Perez’s Sauber forgetting Romain Grosjean was on the inside while fighting Paul di Resta, which concertinaed everyone together causing Mark Webber to smack the side of the Lotus and that was that; wreckage strewn everywhere.
Webber had already had a number of incidents, he got spun round by Maldonado as he closed the door on him and then banged wheels with Felipe Massa, a fun day for Mark.
Rest of the top 10
Despite the incident with Webber, Maldonado scored his best result since his win. Generally he kept out of trouble and should be satisfied with 5th.
Kamui Kobayashi rose nine places avoiding the carnage to grab 6th, while Felipe Massa recovered to 7th holding off Senna who also made a decent recovery drive after being spun round at the first corner.
Paul di Resta was running strongly before the Perez incident but still grabbed a couple of points while the final point went to Ricciardo,who managed to keep a last lap charge from Schumacher behind who had dropped out of 7th after suffering a puncture. Another sad day for the retiring champion.
Right then, two races to go and ten points in it, it’s all getting a bit tense, can’t wait for America.
all photo's taken from autosport.com
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