Abu Dhabi GP. Race Review. Sebastian Vettel surged to his fourth win of the season as the 2009 season ended in Abu Dhabi's day/night race. The German took the fight to pole man Lewis Hamilton early on, and eased away when the Brit dropped out of the running. The result was a perfect one for the Red Bull team, with Mark Webber holding off a concerted challenge from the new champion Jenson Button over the final few laps to wrap up a Red Bull 1-2 and end the team's most successful season in the sport on a high.
From the start, Lewis Hamilton was expected to dominate, having been right at the front throughout practice. The 2008 champion led away from the start, with Vettel, Webber and Rubens Barrichello following behind, but was surprisingly unable to pull away from the Red Bull pair, as his car was beset by braking problems.
Into the first stops, Hamilton stopped first and though he was able to stay ahead of Webber, who suffered a tardy stop, Vettel emerged from his own stop clear in the lead, despite a weird moment when Jamie Alguersuari accidentally drove into the Red Bull pit box moments before Vettel entered the pit lane.
After that, any risk of Hamilton mounting a fightback were removed, as the McLaren toured into the pit lane and was wheeled into the garage. Brake problems meaning that a promising second half of the year for the Woking team ended on something of a low.
That left Vettel serenely in the lead, where he lapped on his own until taking the flag nearly 20 seconds down the road from everyone else. Webber was second, but after looking comfortable for most of the race, his pace collapsed in his final stint on the softer option tyre, and Button reeled him in.
The pair spent the last lap fighting tooth and nail for the second place, with Button twice getting alongside down the long straights of the Yas Marina track, but both times Webber managed to force him to the outside line and managed to somehow stay later on the brakes and keep the Brawn car behind him. They crossed the line still nose-to-tail.
Behind the fighting pair, Rubens Barrichello finished what is likely to be his last GP for Brawn in 4th place, compromised by a damaged front wing from an opening corner prang on Webber's Red Bull. Nick Heidfeld gave BMW Sauber a happy-enough result in their final race with 5th place.
Kamui Kobayashi again entertained, finishing 6th with another great drive for Toyota, which was topped off by overtaking Button after the Brit's first pit stop, Kobayashi managing to muscle past the heavy Brawn car and keep his one-stop strategy on target. He finished one spot ahead of his team mate Jarno Trulli, with Sebastien Buemi scoring the final point of the season for Toro Rosso in 8th.
Outside the points, Nico Rosberg ended his Williams career with a frustrating ninth place, after never looking like making the team's heavyish starting fuel strategy work. Robert Kubica completed the top ten for BMW, losing out with a similarly silly super-light first stint.
The Finnish pair of Heikki Kovalainen and Kimi Raikkonen finished a dour 11th and 12th, with Kazuki Nakajima 13th for Williams. Fernando Alonso ended 14th in his final race for Renault, with Tonio Liuzzi, Romain Grosjean, Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil completing the finishers.
So, Vettel took his fourth win of the year to secure second place in the drivers championship, and the Abu Dhabi track got a cautious thumbs up from the drivers and fans, with the setting sun and posh hotels providing something nice to look at when the racing got boring, which was most of it.
And now the drivers and us fans can only sit down in front of the calendar and count down the 133 days between now and the F1 circus returning to the Middle East for 2010's opener in Bahrain next year.
| Race result after 55 laps | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time/Reason | Pts |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull - Renault | 1:34:03.314 | 10 |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | +17.857 | 8 |
| 3 | Jenson Button | Brawn - Mercedes | +18.467 | 6 |
| 4 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn - Mercedes | +22.735 | 5 |
| 5 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | +26.253 | 4 |
| 6 | Kamui Kobayashi | Toyota | +28.343 | 3 |
| 7 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | +34.366 | 2 |
| 8 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | +41.294 | 1 |
| 9 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | +45.941 | |
| 10 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | +48.180 | |
| 11 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren - Mercedes | +52.798 | |
| 12 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | +54.317 | |
| 13 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota | +59.839 | |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | +1:09.687 | |
| 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India - Mercedes | +1:34.450 | |
| 16 | Romain Grosjean | Renault | +1 Lap | |
| 17 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari | +1 Lap | |
| 18 | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Mercedes | +1 Lap | |
| R | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes | Brakes fail | |
| R | Jamie Alguersuari | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | Gearbox fail |
Final Drivers Chamionship Standings -
1 Button 95pts, 2 Vettel 84pts, 3 Barrichello 77pts, 4 Webber 69.5pts, 5 Hamilton 49pts, 6 Raikkonen 48pts, 7 Rosberg 34.5pts, 8 Trulli 32.5pts, 9 Alonso 26pts, 10 Glock 24pts, 11 Kovalainen, Felipe Massa 22pts, 13 Heidfeld 19pts, 14 Kubica 17pts, 15 Fisichella 8pts, 16 Buemi 6pts, 17 Sutil 5pts, 18 Kobayashi 3pts, 19 Sebastien Bourdais 2pts.
Final Constructors Championship Standings -
1 Brawn-Mercedes 172pts, 2 Red Bull-Renault 153.5pts, 3 McLaren-Mercedes 71pts, 4 Ferrari 70pts, 5 Toyota 59.5pts, 6 BMW Sauber 36pts, 7 Williams-Toyota 34.5pts, 8 Renault 26pts, 9 Force India-Mercedes 13pts, 10 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 8pts.
| Next > |
|---|
