Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi GP as Vettel spins out on lap 1

Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi GP as Vettel spins out on lap 1

Lewis Hamilton won yesterday’s Abu Dhabi GP, leading from lap 1 to the chequered flag. This happened after pole sitter and world champion Sebastian Vettel spun on the first lap due to a puncture on his right rear tyre, which sent him spinning off the track. He had built up quite a good distance over Hamilton in just a few corners before that happened, and this is his first DNF of the year.

This is Lewis’ third win of the season, his last being the German GP in July. It also comes at a rough patch for the McLaren man, which has saw him collide with Massa more than once and break up with his stunner of a girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger. Fernando Alonso finished second for Ferrari while Jenson Button made it a 1-3 finish for McLaren.

Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi GP as Vettel spins out on lap 1

The results didn’t do much to alter the standings. Vettel and Red Bull are already the champions, while Jenson Button is looking good to finish the season second in the drivers’ standings. He now has 255 points, which is 10 more than Alonso and 22 more than Mark Webber, who finished fourth yesterday. Lewis is a further six points behind.

Massa finished fifth, ahead of the two Silver Arrows of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. The Mercedes powered Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta were eighth and ninth, respectively, while Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi made a one-stop strategy work to get the final point. Team Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen was running as high as 13th in the early stages, but finished 17th, ahead only of his teammate and the other new teams.

Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi GP as Vettel spins out on lap 1

It wasn’t a very exciting race at the Yas Marina Circuit, with much of the action supplied by Red Bull’s Webber. The Aussie frustratingly lost time with a sticky wheel at his first stop, so he used a three-stop strategy that saw him change to the harder (and slower) tyres only on the last lap. He still didn’t manage to jump Button, the man he was fighting for much of the race, though.

The Mercedes GP Petronas team bosses must have been slightly worried at the sight of their two drivers battling it out in the early stages. Rosberg, who just signed a contract extension, won the duel with the old timer and kept his place till the end.

The next race is the final one of the 2011 season. It’s Brazil two weeks from now.

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Danny Tan

Danny Tan loves driving as much as he loves a certain herbal meat soup, and sweet engine music as much as drum beats. He has been in the auto industry since 2006, previously filling the pages of two motoring magazines before joining this website. Enjoys detailing the experience more than the technical details.

 

Comments

  • fasten on Nov 14, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    If Hamilton loose that earrings he would go even faster

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  • Ridzwan Mahdi on Nov 14, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    rear right, not rear left =)

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  • Lancermania on Nov 14, 2011 at 5:33 pm

    it was much exciting to watch without Vettel in the race!!!

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  • scanzew on Nov 14, 2011 at 6:08 pm

    Go Go Mclaren..

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  • GT Fan on Nov 14, 2011 at 10:06 pm

    I was hoping this race wont be a borefest like India GP – and it came true!

    With that strange incident involving his rear tyre, Vettel is out and we have a real race in hand with Lewis, Alonso, Button and Webber fighting at the top. Alonso was awesome in his driving, really pushing the Ferrari at the edge of disaster while Lewis was unnaturally cool in his driving.

    I think the race organizers put two DRS areas close to each other so that fans get more excitement than India and it seemed to work with Button and Webber providing most of the excitement.

    Congrats to Lewis and I hope he will avoid flashy girlfriends until he retires from F1 racing.

    It was not a good day if you are a champion and called Sebastian because we have Sebastian Loeb crashing out in Britain with a strange incident involving a non-racing car.

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