Kimi Raikkonen becomes the eighth different winner of the season to round off a fantastic return to Formula One. But his first victory in two years doesn't even begin to summarise what happened in an incident filled Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton had been in a class of his own all weekend but he'll be further counting the days until he leaves McLaren after his car lost all power on lap-20. The McLaren was comfortably leading and a shoe-in for victory until that moment which signified his fifth retirement of the season.
The amount of incidents, which included two Safety Cars, meant Sebastian Vettel could pull off a real heist. His result from qualifying was excluded after he was unable to supply a fuel sample. This meant he had to start the race at the back from the pit lane. But he managed to finish the race in third and he too wasn't invincible from the drama.
Fernando Alonso managed second but it still gives Vettel a ten point advantage going into the final two races of the season. Red Bull could have sealed the Constructors Championship this weekend but with Alonso finishing ahead of Vettel and Mark Webber crashing out, the inevitable has been delayed.
The race was dramatic before it had even started. After Vettel had been hit with that exclusion, the formation lap saw Pedro De La Rosa unable to get off the grid because a tyre blanket chord was stuck in the rear wheel. This meant the HRT had to join Vettel to start from the pit lane.
Mark Webber's race began poorly as he was caught sleeping on the start. He had fallen to fourth with Alonso managing to overtake Button to take fifth before soon moving past Webber to gain a further place. The usual incident from the start of the race saw Bruno Senna and Nico Hulkenberg contact after Hulkenberg had tried to overtake Paul Di Resta. From that, Romain Grosjean and Di Resta received punctures with Nico Rosberg requiring a new nose. Hulkenberg was the only casualty and couldn't continue.
Vettel's initial attempt at climbing through the grid looked to have been hampered when an over zealous overtake saw him suffer front wing damage from Bruno Senna. He decided not to pit and by lap six, the Red Bull had already got up to 14th.
The first Safety Car had to be deployed on lap nine. Narain Karthikeyan looked to be suffering as smoke was coming out of the back of the HRT. This caused him to slow down and an unaware Rosberg ended up going into the back of him before launching over the top and crashing into the barrier. Fortunately neither driver was hurt in the incident but obviously neither car could continue.
During the Safety Car period, Vettel was once again in the wars. In an attempt to warm the tyres, Daniel Ricciardo had slowed right down. This caused Vettel to swerve out of the way to avoid hitting the Toro Rosso and the Red Bull smashed through a polystyrene DRS block. This caused further front wing damage and had to pit a lap later to get it changed. Lap-14 was also the same lap the Safety Car came back in and Vettel came out in 21st.
It was only six laps where the comfortable Hamilton suffered his power loss which forced him to retire. This handed Raikkonen the lead and Alonso had immediately passed Pastor Maldonado to go second. By this stage Vettel had already climbed to 11th.
Mark Webber lived a relatively charmed life in his over zealous attempts at over taking. On lap-23 Maldonado was struggling and Webber looked the easy favourite to overtake the Williams. But during the overtake, Webber didn't leave Maldonado enough room on the corner and the Venezuelan had no option but to hit the Red Bull, wheel to wheel, and Webber span to fall to seventh.
A lap later and Button was able to successfully overtake Maldonado to gain that third place with Sergio Perez taking Felipe Massa to secure fifth. Unbelievably, Vettel wasn't too far away from this piece of action as he was only sitting in eighth place.
Webber hadn't learnt from his previous exploits and on lap-26 he had a similar incident with Massa. Massa again had no option but to contact the Rub Bull. This time Webber didn't spin but was forced off track which ended up allowing him to overtake the Ferrari. Webber was about to give the place back but the panicked Massa ended up spinning and having to go into the pits before continuing.
By Lap-38, Vettel had managed to put himself ahead of Alonso due to the fact he had pitted during the Safety Car. But his soft tyres were unlikely to last the remainder of the race and Red Bull decided he needed to pit which he came back out in fourth place.
A lap later and there was carnage; Perez and Di Resta were battling for position. This caused Di Resta to go onto the grass before Perez also went off track. As Perez rejoined the track, he had left no room for Grosjean and the Lotus crashed into the side of the Sauber. Perez span but was able to continue, but Grosjean suffered too much damage and it didn't help when an unfortunate Webber crashed into the back of him, causing them both to retire and the Safety Car to redeploy. Perez and Daniel Ricciardo subsequently pitted before continuing.
By lap-42 Marussia had decided that Charles Pic could no longer continue and was forced to retire. The Safety Car came in a lap later and Perez was handed a stop/go penalty for forcing another driver, Di Resta, off the track.
Alonso tried his hardest to hunt down Raikkonen but he wasn't to be denied his victory. It was a better hunt for Vettel who managed to overtake Button on lap-52 to secure a remarkable podium position to keep his lead somewhat in tact over Alonso. Race result:
1.Raikkonen (Lotus), 2.Alonso (Ferrari), 3.Vettel (Red Bull), 4.Button (McLaren), 5.Maldonado (Williams), 6.Kobayashi (Sauber), 7.Massa (Ferrari), 8.Senna (Williams), 9.Di Resta (Force India), 10.Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 11.Schumacher (Mercedes), 12.Vergne (Toro Rosso), 13.Kovalainen (Caterham), 14.Glock (Marussia), 15.Perez (Sauber), 16.Petrov (Caterham), 17.De La Rosa (HRT) DNF: Hulkenberg (Force India), Hamilton (McLaren), Rosberg (Mercedes), Karthikeyan (HRT), Webber (Red Bull), Grosjean (Lotus), Pic (Marussia)
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