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Vettel wins Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in Style
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took a dominant victory at the 2009 season finale in Abu Dhabi this evening, beating team-mate Mark Webber home by 17 seconds to secure the team’s fourth 1-2 finish in impressive style. After a largely processional race, Webber and champion-elect Jenson Button brought the race to life in the closing laps with a nail-biting duel, with Webber somehow managing to hold off the faster Brawn.
At the start, Lewis Hamilton kept the lead from pole position, with the rest of the field slotting behind in grid order. Despite expectations of Hamilton cruising into the distance, the Briton was unable to shake off the challenge of Vettel in the opening stint, and duly lost the lead after the first round of pitstops, before retiring with brake problems soon after.
Hamilton takes pole at the first ever Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this evening in the Middle East, after going over two thirds of a second quicker than his nearest rival in qualifying. Despite leading Q1 and Q2 earlier in the qualifying hour, strong competition from Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber forced the Briton to go for broke, and ultimately eased ahead of the Red Bulls to take his fourth pole position of the season.
With the tyres proving difficult to warm up for a single-lap run, all drivers opted for one multi-lap stint on the harder tyre in Q3, with Hamilton emerging from the pitlane in time for just four flying laps compared to his rivals’ five. After scuffing his first flyer by running wide at turn 17, Hamilton bolted to the top of the timesheets with a 1m41.773s on the second time of asking.
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