Lewis Hamilton is world champion!
An outstanding Lewis Hamilton won the season finale in the United Arab Emirates and became world champion for the second time in his career. Nico Rosberg was able to hold off his stablemate in qualifying, but in the race he was unable to compete for victory for long.
by Bruno Fleckenstein
The qualifying
Lewis Hamilton was the first to set the fastest lap in Q1 with 1:41.207 minutes, a tenth faster than his closest rival Nico Rosberg. Valtteri Bottas was already 1.139 seconds behind in third place. Maldonado, Gutierrez and Sutil battled it out on the final lap to see who would make it into Q2, with Adrian Sutil prevailing.
Hamilton also set the fastest lap in Q2 with 1:40.920 min. But second this time was Felipe Massa, 0.224 seconds behind. Rosberg was fourth.
It looked as if things were clear and Lewis would also take pole in Q3, but Nico Rosberg pulled off the surprise, setting a super time of 1:40.480 to take the number one spot after qualifying. Hamilton was second, followed by Bottas, Massa, Ricciardo, Vettel, Kvyat, Button, Raikkonen and Alonso.
The rumor mill and the drivers' moves to other teams
Now it became official: Sebastian Vettel moves to Ferrari and Fernando Alonso leaves the Scuderia for it. Team principal of Ferrari, Marco Mattiacci, commented on the separation of Fernando Alonso and future contract driver Sebastian Vettel as follows: "Motivation is a very important factor. With Sebastian, we get a new boost in terms of enthusiasm. He offers an opportunity for us!" Vettel's comment: "My childhood dream is coming true!" Alonso would not comment on his future plans, and Jenson Button is also not sure where his journey will take him. McLaren plans to comment on this on December 1. Daniil Kvyat, on the other hand, is set to replace Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull.
The race
Due to the high temperatures in Abu Dhabi, the race will start at 5:00 p.m. local time, i.e. at dusk. This affects the grip of the tires, which is why the teams also relied on the super-fast supersoft tires.
With a super start at the start, Lewis Hamilton literally left Nico Rosberg standing and quickly distanced himself. Valtteri Bottas also fell far behind after the first corner. The Ferraris with Alonso and Raikkonen benefited from the fact that Vettel and Ricciardo had to start from the pit lane with a penalty and took 5th and 6th place in the meantime. Alonso was the first to pit early on lap 6, followed a lap later by Button, Raikkonen and Kvyat, then Maldonado and Gutierrez.
By lap 9, Ricciardo had moved up to 8th and Vettel to 10th and had already made up many places. On laps 10 and 11, the Mercedes crew also changed tires on its drivers, but nothing changed in the standings. Lewis Hamilton could become world champion even with second place, Nico Rosberg had to win in any case if he wanted to claim the title.
On lap 16, Daniil Kvyat retired early from the race with a spin. He was pushed out by the marshals. Ricciardo had already moved up to fourth place ahead of Valtteri Bottas at this point.
The unexpected happens halfway through the race
On lap 25, Nico Rosberg radios his team, "Loosing engine power!" (The energy recovery system was causing the problems, it seemed. But it was bad news and it was clear to everyone that if it could not be fixed, the dream of the world championship title was over.
Two laps later, Massa easily passed Rosberg, who was still second until then, and chased Hamilton, who was 13 seconds ahead of him in the lead. One lap after that, Maldonado set his Lotus down on the grass with engine failure and a burning rear end. Another retirement this season.
Massa was subsequently continuously faster than Hamilton and reduced the gap by 4 seconds to 9 seconds in 4 laps. Hamilton came in for his final tire change one lap later.
On lap 35, Rosberg was ordered into the pits and made aware that he would then have to start manually. After a standing time of 4.7 seconds, everything went smoothly after all, but he dropped back to 7th place. It seemed to be another puncture race for Nico.
In the final third it was Massa who tried to threaten Hamilton's victory
On lap 40, Felipe Massa led the race by 15 seconds from Lewis Hamilton. The question was whether he would drive through. But after a few slow laps, he pitted and switched to supersoft tires. He came back out behind Hamilton in second place, 11 seconds behind. Only he had the fresh tires.
Hamilton was instructed to maintain the pace so as not to let Massa catch up. On lap 46 Hamilton set the fastest lap of 1:45.813 min, but Massa countered with a faster time of 1:45.342 on the same lap, followed by a lap time of 1:44.953 and he reduced the gap to 7 seconds by lap 48.
Meanwhile, Rosberg was pushed further back and was relegated to ninth place by Vettel. But Massa's tires took their toll on the chase and he was unable to close the gap of 3.5 seconds by lap 52. With one lap to go, Mercedes radioed Rosberg, "Box,Box!" Rosberg replied that he wanted to finish the race, which he was granted.
Lewis Hamilton drove to an unchallenged start-finish victory and the world championship title. After a long dry spell, Felipe Massa was once again an excellent second and Valtteri Bottas also made it back to the winner's stand. The performance of Daniel Ricciardo, who finished in 4th place, was also outstanding considering that he started the race from the very back of the field.
In addition to the fireworks, Hamilton let his tires smoke and made a few spins.
During the winner's interview with Martin Brandl, he confessed: "It was a rocket start. The best start I've ever had. After that I had the race under control and a great car. Nico gave me a great fight throughout the year."
Ranking GP of Abu Dhabi 2014
1 L. Hamilton Mercedes
2 F. Massa Williams + 0:02.576 min.
3 V. Bottas Williams + 0:28.880 min.
4 D. Ricciardo Red Bull + 0:37.237 min.
5 J. Button McLaren + 1:00.334 min.
6 N. Hülkenberg Force India + 1:02.148 min.
7 S. Perez Force India + 1:11.060 min.
8 S. Vettel Red Bull + 1:12.045 min.
9 F. Alonso Ferrari + 1:25.813 min.
10 K. Raikkonen Ferrari + 1:27.820 min.
11 K. Magnussen McLaren + 1:30.376 min.
12 J. Vergne Toro Rosso + 1:31.947 min.
13 R. Grosjean Lotus +1 Rnd.
14 N. Rosberg Mercedes +1 Rnd.
15 E. Gutierrez Sauber +1 rnd.
16 A. Sutil Sauber +1 Rnd.
17 W. Stevens Caterham +1 Rnd.
Out of service
18 K. Kobayashi Caterham +14 Rnd.
19 P. Maldonado Lotus +29 Rnd.
20 D. Kwjat Toro Rosso +41 Rnd.
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