F1 News: Kimi Raikkonen Takes Abu Dhabi By Storm

By dhanraj.kotian | November 05 2012 2:12 PM

Kimi Raikkonen drove one of the most sensational races ever to take the chequered flag here at the Yas Marina bay circuit in Abu Dhabi with the lights coming in the second half of the race. He never looked back once he took the race lead after Lewis Hamilton’s retirement. This was his first win since the last one in Belgium 2009. It took as many as 181 races for Lotus to post a win. Kimi had a strong start and got past Webber in the first corner itself. The highlight was when Kimi said to this race engineer on the radio “Leave me alone, I know what I am doing”

His teammate Romain Grosjean however had a bad outing and had to retire after an incident involving four cars on lap 38.

Ferrari did not have the pace to keep up on the front runners. But when has that ever stopped Fernando Alonso to push for victory. He just finished .8 secs behind Kimi. Alonso too had an excellent start and got past Jenson Button on turn one.

Pastor Maldonado was trying everything to keep the Ferrari at bay. But his rear view was flooded with the red of Alonso trying to make a move past him on every corner. Eventually the pace of the Williams gave in to the Ferrari’s persistence combined with a smart use of KERS. Later he jumped into third place after Hamilton’s retirement. He pushed very hard towards the end for victory, but Kimi did well to fend him off. Fernando’s team mate Felipe Massa has finally shown some sign of improvement in the past few races to finish 7th.

Sebastian Vettel just proved why he is considered one of the best racers.

Vettel had insufficient fuel for sampling during qualifying and hence had been relegated to 24th on the grid. The Red Bull engineers decided to start him from the pits as this gave them the freedom for tire, gearbox and engine alterations. They set his car up perfectly for overtakes and Vettel did not disappoint.

He started furiously and damaged his front wing on lap 2. But the Red Bull engineers did not call him in. Then there was an incident involving Nico Rosberg and Narain Karthikeyan. Rosberg rammed into the HRT of Karthikeyan and the safety car was called. Vettel still was not called into the pits as his car was good enough to carry on.

Just a moment later, Vettel is furious on the radio "what is he doing". Replays show the German driver swerved to avoid the Torro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo, crashed into the wall and broke the other flap of his front wing and there he had no choice but to come in. But Vettel continued his assault. Gets out strongly, goes past Charles Pic, gets in a duel with “First Corner Disaster Man” Grosjean. Gets past him too, but it looked as if he had done it wrongly. Immediately the Red Bull team instructs him to allow Grosjean to overtake him, thereby avoiding any drive through penalty.

Before the second time a safety car would come in Vettel was past Schumacher and was within the points and just a car separating he and his teammate Webber who has started second and had a woeful race. He lost four places when he tried getting past Pastor Maldonado after rushing things up when he knew he had the pace to get past the Williams. One lap later Button showed him how it is exactly done. Webber eventually retired after an incident at lap 38 where Sergio Perez tried to sneak past the Force India of Paul Di Resta. The Force India was forced off the track and Perez looked ok. He then ran wide and was knocked by Grosjean who then got in Webber's way. Webber and Grosjean were both out of this race.

Jenson Button scored the only points for Mclaren coming home fourth after teammate Lewis Hamilton had to retire following a power failure in his car. Button was in for a podium finish, but Vettel had other plans and made a delightful move to end the Briton’s resistance. Hamilton has retired five times this season and none of them were his fault. Two more races for him with the team that has been with him since his Karting days and he definitely would want to sign off on a high.

The Williams team had a decent outing with Maldonado finishing 5th and Bruno Senna 8th. With a better car, Maldonado is definitely one of the finer drivers on the grid. The Force India of Paul Di Resta finished 9th. The Force India cars rammed into each other at the first lap. This was a unique way of celebrating Nico Hulkenberg’s move to Sauber. Daniel Ricciardo took the final points of the race.

The drivers championship is a two horse race now with Kimi mathematically out of contention. Vettel leads Alonso by 10 points. The next round at Austin, in the United States would be truly a clash between these two heavy-weights.

Pos

Driver

Team

Laps

Time/Retired

Pts

Kimi Räikkönen

Lotus-Renault

1:45:58

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari

+0.8 secs