Vettel takes 11th win of the year in Abu Dhabi

One week after securing his fourth consecutive World Drivers’ Championship, Sebastian Vettel has won his eleventh race of the 2013 season and seventh consecutive win of the year, taking the chequered flag first at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Leading from the turn one after starting second on the grid, Vettel quickly built up a uncatchable lead and disappeared into the idyllic Abu Dhabi sunset leaving the rest of the pack to battle over the remaining places. An easy two stop strategy only helped further his control of the race whilst those behind struggled to keep pace with the Red Bull leader.

Teammate Mark Webber took the chequered flag in second place with Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg finishing third after an impressive run from the young German. Behind them was Lotus’ Romain Grosjean in fourth and Fernando Alonso in fifth.

Paul di Resta held off a last minute charge by Lewis Hamilton to finish sixth for Force India and scoring himself and the team some much needed points whilst Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez and Adrian Sutil closed out the top ten.

Pastor Maldonado finished just outside of the points in eleventh for Williams F1 Team whilst McLaren’s Jenson Button failed to score any Championship points yet again, finished 12th. Sauber teammates Gutierrez and Hulkenberg, who both challenged for points early in the race, finished alongside each other in P13 and P14.

Mark Webber’s pole position start lasted but seconds as the race got underway as teammate Sebastian Vettel and both Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton got off to a strong start. By the time the pack had reached turn one, Sebastian Vettel was in the lead and starting to pull away with Nico Rosberg in second, pushing Webber down to third.

Towards the back of the grid, Kimi Raikkonen, who was excluded from qualifying yesterday after the FIA found his car to be in reach of technical regulations, starting from last position on the grid came into contact with the Caterham car of Charles Pic. This broke the Finn’s right front suspension and forced his retirement. It is Raikkonen’s first lap one retirement since the United States Grand Prix of 2006.

There was a little more first lap action when Jenson Button fell to fifteenth after an average start and then reported to the team he had front wing damage. McLaren called their driver to the pit for a new front wing dropping him back out in last place.

Laps 7 and 8 saw the first pit stops of the race with various drivers adopting shorter stints to start the race on the soft compound. Getting a few faster laps in, most drivers in the top ten were running on the soft tyre compound before Lewis Hamilton was the first of the front runners to stop for mediums on lap 8. This caused a chain reaction of the top ten, seeing Webber and Grosjean pit from third and fourth for medium tyres and re-joining the race behind Lewis Hamilton who was running twelfth.

Fighting at the front of the pack, first placed Sebastian Vettel and second placed Nico Rosberg continued to fight for the lead until Mercedes made the call on lap eleven to box Rosberg who was unable to continue any further on the depleted soft tyres. Again, the stop was for a change to the medium compound. Rosberg then came back out in sixth place behind the Red Bull of Mark Webber, whose plans for an undercut had failed for materialise as he got caught on track behind the Force India of Adrian Sutil.

Continuing on track without a stop, Sebastian Vettel had gained a one pit stop advantage, as well as a 25 second lead, by just the eleventh lap of the race. Red Bull finally made the call for Vettel to pit on lap 15. Stopping for the medium compound, the stop was immaculate and having a 25 second lead on the pack, Vettel re-joined the race in the lead with ease.

Behind the lead pack of the group, there was an excellent on track battle for eighth position between the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton whilst the second Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg caught up with both in tenth place to add to the excitement. The battle was finally surrendered when Gutierrez was called to pit on lap 20, releasing Hamilton into eighth. Gutierrez came back onto the track in 16th position, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa also made it 19 laps on his first stint and re-joining the circuit from his first stop into seventh place opened up another battle on track with eighth placed Lewis Hamilton. Massa’s teammate Fernando Alonso spent much of the first half of the race going nowhere fast. Starting from P10 after a poor qualifying session yesterday, Alonso found himself caught up amongst the likes of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez and unable to pass with the relative ease he is accustomed to. By lap 23, Alonso had only gained two places and was running ninth.

At the back of the grid, an interesting radio conversation at Caterham saw the team ask Charles Pic to move aside for Giedo can der Garde who was complaining that Pic was holding him up. Pic questioned the teams’ orders, to which he was informed that van der Garde was faster. Pic was then promised that van der Garde would hand the place back if he didn’t pull away. Regardless, can der Garde made his way through and into 18th on lap 25.

Meanwhile ahead of the back markers, Felipe Massa was demonstrating the racing ability that originally scored him a seat with Ferrari. Making a stunning move on Lewis Hamilton, Massa was able to get by the Mercedes’ for sixth place, before pouncing on the Force India of Adrian Sutil for fifth. Teammate Fernando Alonso was also making his move just behind, having caught up to the pack and placed eighth. Hamilton, who complained to the team of a lack of grip on the car, finally made a move stick a lap later, passing Adrian Sutil for sixth.

Meanwhile at the front, Sebastian Vettel lead the pack by nearly 40 full seconds before making his second stop of the race on lap 38. Again, with such a lead over second place, there was no threat of his lead and Vettel re-joined the race once more in first place. Second placed Romain Grosjean answered by taking his second stop immediately, and coming back out close, but in front of fifth placed Felipe Massa who was in a battle of his own with Fernando Alonso for position. Massa then stopped for new rubber on lap 39, releasing Fernando Alonso.

As the race came into the final laps, Vettel still lead by an impressive 33 seconds over teammate Mark Webber who was sitting in second, whilst numerous battles for position took place behind including that of Lewis Hamilton chasing down the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne for seventh place, where Lewis would eventually get through with 10 laps to go. Jean-Eric Vergne, who was struggling for grip on degrading tyres, would then get passed by Felipe Massa as the Toro Rosso continued to fall further back.

Lewis Hamilton would lose his sixth place to Fernando Alonso with just four laps remaining as Alonso’s new tyres helped Alonso’s blistering pace. Alonso, having started tenth on the grid, then moved into fifth place after passing Force India’s Paul di Resta.

Jean-Eric Vergne’s hopes of a top ten finish were over on lap 53 of 55 when he was forced to pit with no way he could make it to the end of the race on his destroyed tyres.

At the back of the grid, Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde finished the race P18 ahead of teammate Charles Pic. Both Caterham cars finished ahead of the Marussia cars of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton.

The win today adds to Sebastian Vettel’s points tally in the already won 2013 Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship, confirming a total dominance of the season for the four time World Champion. Kimi Raikkonen, who retired from the race, failed to score any points and falls further behind second placed Fernando Alonso with two races left in the season.

The Formula 1 calendar resumes two weeks from now on the weekend of November 15 – 17 for the 2013 Formula United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.