For Once This Season, Vettel Did Not Win And Did Not Finish

Lewis Hamilton won his third Grand Prix of the season at the Yas Marina Ciruit in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this past weekend. Pole position sitter Sebastian Vettel, retired at the second corner due to a puncture. If not for the retirement, Vettel may just have won another Grand Prix this season! iSporter Sahil Bhalla reports

Ferrari still seemed to be one step behind of McLaren with Fernando Alsono, after driving a great race, finished second ahead of Jenson Button (who had a KERS problem) and Mark Webber, who finished on a three-stop strategy. Felipe Massa survived late pressure from Nico Rosberg after a late spin almost cost him fifth position. Michael Schumacher was sventh and then came the double scoring Force India’s in right and ninth position (Sutil coming out on top once again), with Kobayashi rounding of the top 10 positions.

Vettel started superbly as is usual this season but around turn two, his rear tyre was coming off and that hurled his Red Bull into a spin. Vettel attributed it to the tyre losing pressure between turns one and two. His tyre caused some irreparable damage to the suspension of the car and therefore was forced to retire. It wasn’t at all Vettel’s driving that let him down. It was his car, which unfortunately on the day, was the culprit. Other teams and drivers though were smiling the moment they heard the news.

Hamilton, who started in second place, took over the lead and quickly set about opening a lead over Alonso who had got past Webber in the first corner and overtook Button before the end of the first lap. Alonso tried to put pressure on Hamilton by doing a few more laps on his second set of soft tyres but a slow tyre change at the final stop and some pit late traffic, caused Alonso to have to settle for second place on the day. Still, a great position considering where he started the day.

Button finished well behind the front two racers in third position and had major problems with his KERS throughout most of the race. It initially gave the advantage to Webber and Massa but he somehow found a way to reset the boost system and eventually finished well ahead of them. Webber’s three-stop strategy cost him dearly and put him out of a podium contention early on. Webber drove brilliantly thought to try and pass Button and Rosberg and his reward was a fourth place after Massa spun towards the end of the race.

Rosberg and Massa were fighting it out till the end and they were way clear of Schumacher. They were 23.6s ahead of Schumacher. Sutil was another driver who drove brilliantly on the day but just couldn’t get passed Schumacher on the day. He finished only 1.1s behind Schumacher. Di Resta joined Sutil in the top 10 and made it a strong performance for the Force India team. Di Resta finished the race as the highest one-stop car! He finished 23.9s behind Sutil but nonetheless drove well to hold off Kobayashi and finish in ninth. This ensures that barring two non-finishes in the next race, that Force India will be finishing in sixth place in the constructors’ table, which is a commendable achievement and they can only improve from here.

Hamilton now has 227 points this season but it still leaves him fifth behind Vettel on 374 (Champion), Button on 255, Alonso on 245 and Webber on 233. Hamilton can only hope to finish third in the table and cannot overtake his teammate, Jenson Button.

With one race to go, and both the Championships already decided, we can only hope for a great and exciting race in Brazil. Maybe another retirement is in store for Vettel? A Force India on the podium? Wet weather mayhem? Who knows? Only time will tell!