2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Qualifying Report - Vettel on Pole for 14th time tying record

Thanks for doing the qualifying report. I was busy having fun with installing and playing with my JB4 on the car I'll make sure the race report is perfect.

Originally Posted by Scourge82

Thanks for doing the qualifying report. I was busy having fun with installing and playing with my JB4 on the car I'll make sure the race report is perfect.

No worries, mine are never as good as yours.

Vettel wins again, man that guy is good... i'll have to download the broadcast

Originally Posted by Yukohama

Vettel wins again, man that guy is good... i'll have to download the broadcast

Race is over? He won?

Originally Posted by Sticky

Race is over? He won?

slight sarcasm in there, seeing as Vettel has won nearly all the races this season.

Originally Posted by Yukohama

slight sarcasm in there, seeing as Vettel has won nearly all the races this season.

You had me scared I was missing an update.

Vettel punctured his tire on the first corner and is in the very back!

Vettel's race is over, Hamilton leading, with Alonso, and Button in the top 3. Rosberg 6th and Schumi is 7th.

Vettel is not gonna win this one
Hefty fight between MS and Rosberg at the start

Poor Vettel, at least he's got Bernie to get him through it. It looks like MS is staying back, saving his tires now. He might try to pass him through the pits like the last race.

Ecclestone was allmost sucking Vettels ear...

Bernie reminds me of the troll priests from 300.

awesome fight between Jensen with no KERS and Webber with DRS.

And Hammilton wins, with the puncture of Vettel his main rival of the race was gone.
Alonso had a very strong race, never giving up and pushing Hamilton until the finishline.
Button thirs, hampered by a malfunctioning KERS.
Webber 4th, Massa 5th, Rosberg 6th, Schumacher 7th

Great win for Hamilton, he needed it. It sucks Jensen was taken out of the fight because of his KERS failure.

Pretty funny almost everyone just ignored the blue flags this race

Race

	1	Hamilton		McLaren	54	2
	2	Alonso		Ferrari	54	2
	3	Webber		Red Bull	54	3
	4	Button		McLaren	54	2
	5	Massa		Ferrari	54	2
	6	Rosberg		Mercedes-Benz	54	2
	7	Schumacher		Mercedes-Benz	54	2
	8	Sutil		Force India	54	2
	9	di Resta		Force India	54	1
	10	Kobayashi		Sauber	54	2
	11	Perez		Sauber	53	2
	12	Barrichello		Williams	53	2
	13	Petrov		Renault	53	2
	14	Maldonado		Williams	53	2
	15	Alguersuari		Toro Rosso	53	2
	16	Senna		Renault	53	3
	17	Kovalainen		Lotus	53	2
	18	Trulli		Lotus	52	2
	19	Glock		Virgin	52	2
	20	Liuzzi		HRT	52	1
		Ricciardo		HRT	48	2
		Buemi		Toro Rosso	19	1
		d'Ambrosio		Virgin	18	1
		Vettel		Red Bull	1	1

The Mercedes GP team started the race with aggressive battle on their first lap. On the exit of the first corner, Nico ran wide which allowed Michael to pass him, but Nico never gave up and passed him after a brief wheel to wheel battle. After that Nico never looked back and finished the race 23 seconds ahead of his older team mate in sixth place. After being passed by Rosberg, Schumacher also fell to Force India's Sutil, but managed to pass him in the pits, to finish behind his teamate.

The big story of the race was Vettel's retirement. At the start of the race, Vettel was firmly in control going into the first corner, but on the exit and going into turn two, Vettel's rear tire blew sending him into the run off area. He managed to nurse his car into the pits, but the damage to the car was too much and had to retire.

Hamilton, took advantage right away and immediately put a decent gap between him and a hard charging Alonso, who overtook Webber on the first corner and then Button on the straight. Alonso tried to give it everything but Hamilton always answered back. In the end it was Hamilton seeing the checker flag first, claiming his third win of the season.

Button managed to finished in third place after a KERS failure for most of the race. Webber and Massa tried to take advantage of Button's woes. Webber kept the pressure on Button, but the Mclaren's high top speed, helped Button stay on top. By the time Massa joined the battle, Button's KERS came back online and immediately began increasing the gap.

Webber finished forth with ease, after Massa spun out toward the end of the race, finishing in fifth place. Di Resta in his Force India finished in ninth place with his one stop strategy. Sauber's Kobayashi finished in tenth place a full lap behind.



For Michael, it was

“a reasonable race today and some reasonable points I would say. Considering that we did not manage to find the perfect balance yesterday, we managed to get the maximum out of our situation today. But then, I did lose some small parts of the car which cost us some balance, and towards the end I had a slow puncture, which is why I had to park my car at turn two.


The tyres gave up rather early in the first stint but that was due to our tyre strategy yesterday when we wanted to save a fresh set for the race. I therefore had quite used tyres for the start. We now have to look into the data and make sure we are well prepared for the last race of the season which we want to finish as well as possible.”

Nico felt

“the race was quite interesting today. The start didn’t work out very well as I tried to overtake Felipe but suddenly there was no space left. Michael was able to overtake me, and we had a fun battle before I took the place back. From then, I was able to handle my tyre situation very well. I stayed out a bit longer before the second stop as there was some grip left, and it was better to stay out with the softer tyres. With the prime tyres, I had some understeer which made it impossible to overtake Felipe towards the end.


Thanks to my engineering team who did a brilliant job here and I was quite happy with my car all weekend. Our pit stop guys were also great again, and that’s why we achieved a good result today. It makes me look forward to Brazil and hopefully we can achieve another good result there.”

Ross said after the race

“A very lively first lap between our drivers today which was highly entertaining. We’ve often said that they are free to race as long as they keep it sensible, and it was good to see today. Nico had the stronger pace this evening, and his lap times during the race were quite encouraging. Our performance today reminds us of the little bit that we have to close down to become truly competitive, but it is within reach. Both Nico and Michael drove extremely well, and with good pit stops and a sound strategy, we achieved possibly the best results that we can at the moment.”

For Norbert,

“sixth and seventh places for Nico and Michael are the best possible results with our current technical package, and our team has now finished in the top six rankings for the fifth time in the last seven races. These positions are certainly not our ultimate target but during the building-up time of our team, it is nevertheless positive to get the best possible results.


A big thank you to the organisers of the spectacular race here in Abu Dhabi which creates a great atmosphere and fantastic television images. In this ‘home’ race for our team, we have achieved the results that we are currently capable of, and we want to come back next year with a quicker car and a better performance for our partner and co-owner Aabar. Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes for their victory today, which is the 71st Grand Prix win for McLaren Mercedes."

Full Race Results
Pos Driver Team Grid Time Points

1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	2	97:11.886	25.0
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	5	+8.40	18.0
3	Jenson Button	McLaren	3	+25.80	15.0
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull	4	+35.70	12.0
5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6	+50.50	10.0
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	7	+52.30	8.0
7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	8	+75.90	6.0
8	Adrian Sutil	Force India	9	+77.10	4.0
9	Paul Di Resta	Force India	10	+1 lap	2.0
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	16	+1 lap	1.0
11	Sergio Perez	Sauber	11	+1 lap	0.0
12	Rubens Barrichello	Williams	23	+1 lap	0.0
13	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	12	+1 lap	0.0
14	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	24	+1 lap	0.0
15	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso	15	+1 lap	0.0
16	Bruno Senna	Renault	14	+1 lap	0.0
17	Heikki Kovalainen	Team Lotus	17	+1 lap	0.0
18	Jarno Trulli	Team Lotus	18	+2 lap	0.0
19	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing	19	+2 lap	0.0
20	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Hispania Racing	22	+2 lap	0.0
Ret	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	suspension failure.
Ret	Jerome DAmbrosio	Virgin Racing	mechanical failure.
Ret	Daniel Ricciardo	Hispania Racing	a technical problem.
Ret	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	a puncture.

wow what a turn of events!! now i really must download this race haha

It was surprisingly a great race. the last 2 races here where kinda boring, but DRS and KERS helped alot this time. A lot of good fighting for 3rd place between Button, Webber, and to an extent Massa.

@Scourge82 great report as always.