Vettel breezes to 11th Victory of the Season in Abu Dhabi

Red Bull Racing’s German driver Sebastian Vettel drives at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi

Sebastian Vettel breezed past to his 11th victory of the season after he took the Chequered Flag in Abu Dhabi by nearly half a minute. The newly crowned four time world champion, who started second on the grid got past his teammate Mark Webber on the run down to turn 1 and never looked back on his way to seventh straight win.

Mark Webber finished in second after falling down to third place at the very start of the race. While he had no answer to his teammate’s dethroning pace, he passed Nico Rosberg on track to take second and secure a Red Bull one-two. Nico Rosberg meanwhile had a very strong race for Mercedes as the German outfit stretched their lead over Ferrari in the constructors standings.

However, the other Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton had a tough day in the office, spending majority of the race in traffic. Firstly, the 2008 world champion got struck behind the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez, before being held by the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta. The race again underlined Hamilton’s weakness in getting past slower cars on track and it is something he must work upon over the winter break. He finished in seventh.

Romain Grosjean meanwhile couldn’t continue with his podium streak in Abu Dhabi. However, fourth place was still a strong result for the Frenchman who might just be given a job to lead Lotus in 2014.

Fernando Alonso finished in a strong fifth place after missing out on Q3 on Saturday. The Spaniard made a late switch to a two stop strategy and ran the faster soft tyres to make his way through traffic at the Yas Marina Circuit. However, he is currently investigated by the Stewards for extending the track limits while overtaking Jean Eric Vergne, as soon as he came out of the pits.

It was another good day for Force India as both their drivers finished in the points. Paul di Resta held off Lewis Hamilton in the latter stages of the race to take sixth, while Sutil took the final point in 10th. The latter got away with a penalty after Stewards found that he had been forced wide at one of the corners where he retained his place over Maldonado and also got past Sergio Perez. Perez, nevertheless got past the German on the final lap of the race to take ninth.

Felipe Massa finished ahead of this scrap in eight after putting on a spectacular move where he got past Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Gutierrez in a single corner.

Two seconds separated Pastor Maldonado and the final point scoring postion as he finished the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 11th place. Jenson Button’s race was again compromised after a first lap collision forced him to pit for a new front wing and nose. He recovered well with his low downforce rear wing but it wasn’t enough to get him into points. He finished the race in 12th place.

Esteban Gutierrez and Nico Hulkenberg finished in 13th and 14th on a poor day for Sauber. Hulkenberg was set for a strong finish but a drive through penalty for coming into the path of Sergio Perez in the pit lane meant that he couldn’t make into points for a second race running.

Valterri Bottas was 15th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean Eric Vergne. The latter was up in top 10 for much of the race but his Toro Rosso was not good enough for him to successfully execute a one stop strategy.

There were team orders in the Caterham camp at the bottom end of the grid which Charles Pic initially didn’t agree upon before finally letting his faster teammate Giedo van der Garde to pass him on track to take 18th. Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton were 20th and 21st while Kimi Raikkonen was the sole retiree from the race.