Sunday’s Formula 1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi had the perfect recipe for drama, with championship contenders Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso just 13 points apart. Qualifying saw Vettel starting third, and Alonso seventh – until Vettel was relegated to the back of the grid after failing to provide the required one-litre fuel sample.
After seeing Vettel win the last four races in a row, Alonso’s oppourtunity to regain the championship lead seemed better than ever.
With McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton dominating qualifying and starting from pole, Kimi Raikkonen jumped off the start past Pastor Maldonado and Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber to move into second place.
A spectacular crash on lap nine saw Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes fly overtop of Narain Karthikeyan after his Force India car came to an abrupt stall with a hydraulic failure. After five laps with the safety car, Hamilton was able to speed away to a comfortable lead, until on lap 20, his car suffered a fuel pump malfunction. It was a fate the race leader was all-to-familiar with this season.
As Raikkonen took the lead on lap 20, Vettel had already moved up to 12th position after starting from 24th.
A lap 38 incident involving Sauber’s Sergio Perez, Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber saw the safety car deployed for the second time, with Grosjean and Webber forced to retire, and Perez given a stop-and-go penalty. When the race went green, two-time defending champion Vettel was within only 5 seconds of Raikkonen.
With tire wear the major concern, Raikkonen was able to hold off a late surge from Fernando Alonso to come home with his first victory since 2009 and Lotus’s first victory as the Enstone-based team. While Alonso was able to capture second-place and a much needed 18 points, Vettel’s heroic drive through the field saw him place third, for 15 points.
This leaves the championship race wide-open with only two races remaining, as Vettel leads Alonso 255 to 245.
The next race is the inaugural United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas, November 16-18. The season closes out in Sao Paolo, for the Brazilian Grand Prix, November 23-25.
Photo: Ramesh Bayney
