Abu Dhabi is one of the most impressive race tracks on the Formula 1 calendar at the moment. The dusk to night time setting makes for some beautiful shots of the cars as the light reflects off them in to the blackening sky. And as night came calling Lewis Hamilton shone through the gloom to take a dominant victory in the Middle East and put the smile back on his face.
He knows he’s one of the top drivers and before it’s been a source of much frustration that as he’s struggled with underperforming cars for the last few years Sebastian Vettel has racked up the wins and pole positions.
But this was a chance to finally start afresh, to banish the mistakes and worries of the year to the dark. This win could see the launch of a redeemed Lewis Hamilton, one who has come out the other side and is ready to establish himself as the best out there again. He’d talked a lot to the media over the weekend, being very open about his feelings this season; it was like he’d managed to exorcise his demons.
His performance over the whole weekend certainly gave you the impression of a man refocused, he was quick from the off, unlucky not to get pole position and didn’t make a mistake all weekend.
On race day he was in the lead after turn 2 when Sebastian Vettel suffered a rare bit of bad luck in the shape of a puncture and then remained calm under consistent pressure from Fernando Alonso.
He looked after the tyres which were anyhow not degrading fast, but he put in good laps when he changed to the harder medium compound at the second stops to keep a last ditch bid for victory by Alonso at bay, from then on he looked fairly serene to record his third victory of the year.
He was absolutely elated, there was no controversy, Felipe Massa was a long way behind, just intense fast driving that delivered the top result for his team; ‘so glad I could do this for you’, he said on the radio, words which show how much of a relief it is for him to get back to winning ways.
Even if Vettel hadn’t retired Lewis looked like he had the pace to win today, a great performance and one which looks like could put him back on track, let’s hope it’s not a one off, as an on form Lewis Hamilton will certainly give Vettel something to think about for next year.
Alonso drags his Ferrari to another fine result
Alonso has delivered great performances all year, dragging his Ferrari to positions it really shouldn’t be in. If you compare his results to his team mate it really says it all; Fernando has one win and nine other podiums, while Massa’s top result has been five fifths.
Throughout practice and qualifying Ferrari didn’t look like contenders but on race day, yet again Alonso was there battling as hard as you like. His start was good, out dragging Mark Webber, and he slip streamed past Jenson Button on that opening lap too. He expected to be defending for the rest of the race but instead he was attacking. He even came close to snatching a win as they approached the second and final round of pit stops.
With Hamilton having pitted on lap 41 to the slower medium compound, Alonso stayed out on his worn soft tyres, but had done a great job in conserving them. He’d already brought the gap down to under 3 seconds and could now sense a victory.
He knew his car wouldn’t be as good as the McLaren on the harder tyre so needed track position, a gap of 22 seconds would do it and it almost came off. 21 seconds ahead he pitted on lap 44 just as an HRT did too, it blocked him and cost him time. His pit stop was slow at 5.5 seconds and he exited behind the McLaren. But it was an impressive fight in a battle that he shouldn’t have been in.
After saying he’d given up in Korea, it’s clear to see he hasn’t. His response has been what you’d expect from a double world champion. Just give him the car to compete and he’ll be up there fighting for all he’s worth.
The rest of the top 10
Apart from the top two, there was no real stand out performances down the field nor anything remarkable about the race, there was some good racing in the two DRS zones but they were too close together.
Admittedly in taking third place Jenson Button did a fine job to deal with his KERS being off for half the race, but in truth I’m not sure he had the pace to fight for the win; still, it was another good result and it confirms him as Hamilton’s first team mate to beat him over a season.
Mark Webber probably had a little smile on his face as Red Bull lost its lead driver on the first lap. Perhaps he thought he could be in with a shot at the win. But again he lost positions at the start, and despite an entertaining scrap with Button, lost position to him at the end as he went for a three stop strategy, pitting on the last lap; after that fourth is all he could have hoped for.
Felipe Massa lost his regular play mate this race, so had to settle for spinning on his own. He had a good fight with Webber and Button but his spin relegated him to his equal best result of the year in fifth. He once had the speed to be a threat, it’s such a shame he can’t use it anymore; he’ll be hoping for more in Brazil.
Sixth and seventh was the Mercedes-Benz duo. Michael Schumacher got ahead of Nico Rosberg at the start but Nico was in determined mood after being soundly beaten by his older team mate in India. Despite being squeezed by Schumacher, Rosberg managed to push through on that opening lap and wasn’t troubled thereafter. Ran a long last stint to be in third at one point, but had to pit and still ended up 20 seconds ahead of Schuey.
For once Michael didn’t have the pace of his team mate today, in truth he wasn’t even close. A nice battle with Sutil ended in his favour after the second pit stops, and from then on it was fairly lonely for him. Schumacher goes well in Brazil, he’ll not want to let Rosberg ahead of him again.
The Force India’s were next up. Adrian Sutil managed to stay in contention with the Mercedes cars using the regular two stop strategy to end up eighth. His team mate did well to still secure ninth after being hampered by a one stop route which required him to run on the medium tyre for over half the race. This compound is around a second slower than the soft. Probably could have beaten Sutil otherwise.
Finally Kamui Kobayashi for Sauber charged back from another disappointing qualifying position of 16th (five places behind his rookie team mate Sergio Perez) to grab the final point. It probably would have gone to Perez if he hadn’t had to change his nose cone. Kobayashi needed a good result after seven races with no points.
Vettel in bad luck shocker!
So finally something major went wrong for Sebastian Vettel. He had taken a brilliant pole position on Saturday, his 14th of the year to equal Nigel Mansell’s record of most poles taken in one season, it was a great lap given the pace the McLaren’s looked to have.
Vettel knew it would be tough on Sunday, McLaren’s long practice runs indicated a very competitive race pace, so he was aware he’d have to push hard on the opening laps to get a one second lead to avoid being in the DRS detection zone.
He made a good start, and stormed through turn one, running over the outside kerb as he’d been doing all weekend. Into turn 2 his right rear tyre suddenly lost all pressure and collapsed sending him spinning out of control. Four hours after the race Pirelli still don’t know what caused it.
He got back to the pits but it was game over, his wheel rim destroyed, there was to be no comeback charge. It was a shame for the race really, because it would have been nice to have a proper head to head battle with an on form Lewis Hamilton, but it wasn’t to be.
He looked very annoyed immediately after realising he couldn’t continue, showing his continued passion for wins, it’ll make him even more determined for Brazil to round off his season in style.
And so on to the final race . . .
As we head to Sao Paulo, there is certainly going to be a party atmosphere for the last race of the season, Brazil loves its Formula 1 and it generally provides one of the most entertaining races of the year.
There’s still much to resolve too, second place in the driver’s championship is still open, while intra team battles need to be resolved, as well as constructor’s championship positions. The battle for sixth between Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso is very close.
Each driver will want to go into 2012 with a positive last result, even with the championship over; no one wants to lose, so it’ll be gloves off to take the last blood of the season. I’ve got a feeling Lewis Hamilton will be the most determined to lay a marker for next year, he’ll want to prove he’s back to his best.
all photos by autosport.com
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