Abu Dhabi saw Red Bull in with a shout of taking the constructors title home, but Seb was already having an iffy weekend with brake issues, before clouting the wall in Q1.
He survived, but Hamilton was clearly the fastest man of the weekend, even at this stage.
Q2 saw Rosberg give a dejected Mercedes team a brief glimmer of hope, as he managed to progress through to the final session, but the surprise outcome was Hamilton with an easy pole, followed by Webber and Vettel, with Alonso only 7th.
Or so we thought. Seb had been told to park the car on track rather than return to the pits, and it turned out the FIA couldn’t get the requisite litre of fuel out to sample. Suddenly, the championship was looking much more lively, as Das Sebulator got bunged to the back of the grid.
Race start saw Webber get his customary crappy getaway, dropping down to 4th, whilst Raikkonen passed Maldonad’oh into 3rd place.
Senna, Hulkywulkyberg and Dire Sta all attempted to use the same bit of tarmac, resulting it an untidy crunch, and Grosjean, Paul D and Rosberg were all destined for an early pit stop too, with punctures for the first two, and a new nose for Rosberg, in yet another weekend that was heading downhill rapidly.
Webber’s tardy start saw him fall victim to Alonso too before the lap was out, and Hamilton was soon under pressure from Raikkonen. Meanwhile, at the other end of the field, Seb had a battered front wing after contact with Senna. Game over for points, surely..?
After 8 laps, Seb (who’d stuck with the rearranged wing) was 13th, whilst Hamilton had eased out an 8.5 second lead at the front.
The following lap saw a scary crash, as Rosberg piled into the back of a slowing Karthikeyan, seeing Nico’s car launched over the top of the Force India, before piling into the barriers, leaving a trail of debris in his wake. Both drivers were unscathed, and the Safety Car deployed.
Vettel seemingly had the self-destruct button on his steering wheel stuck on, as he misjudged Ricciardo’s tyre-warming braking manoeuvres, and had to steer violently sideways to avoid the Aussie, sending him crashing through a chunky polystyrene marker board at the side of the track. Now his front wing really was knackered, and he pitted for a replacement. Game over for points, yeah..?
The race got under way again on lap 15, and whilst Lewis shot off rapidly, Alonso seemed to be struggling with tyre temperatures, and was immediately under pressure from a recovering Webber.
Seb was keeping busy swapping places with Grosjean at the back of the field, passing him in a move that saw him go entirely inside the white line in the process. Rather than wait for a penalty, the team wisely advised him to let Romain past.
Abu Dhabi has been fairly dull in it’s short history, but not this year – Lap 20 saw Hamilton retire, promoting Raikkonen to the lead, whilst Alonso passed Pastor for 2nd, leaving Maldo battling Webber and Button.
Lotus were trying to helpfully fill Kimi in on what was going on via the radio, only to be met with a surly “Leave me alone!” from their driver. You’ve got to love his style, haven’t you?
Webber and Maldonad’oh collided on lap 23, in what was turning out to be a decidedly scruffy outing for Mark. The resulting spin left him down in 7th.
The overtakes continued aplenty, with Button passing Pastor, whilst Perez (having a better weekend than recently, but only temporarily) got Massa for 5th.
Lap 26 saw Kimi a comfortable 7 seconds ahead of Alonso, but amazingly, Seb was up to 8th. Webber wasn’t done yet either, tangling with Massa in a wheel-banging moment that saw him off-track again, before Felipe himself spun in a tyre-shredding way, sending him scurrying to the pits.
Alonso became the first of the front-runners to pit on lap 29, and Perez briefly took 3rd place as he passed Pastor. Button and Mado pitted the following lap, whilst Webber got the message not to hold Vettel up. A lap or so later, the team pitted him anyway, solving any potential problem on that front.
Seb’s later 2nd stop (the rest were only doing one) saw him out in 4th, just ahead of a pack containing Grosjean, di Resta, Perez and a somehow-still-going Webber. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that didn’t last long as lap 39’s messy scrap between the bunch saw di Resta off track, before all hell broke loose, leaving Grosjean and Webber out of it, and Perez limping to the pits.
With enough bits of carbon fibre on the track to make a full car, the Safety Car was deployed once more, whilst the marshals tried to find enough brooms to cope with the mess.
It was definitely no longer ‘Game over for points for Seb’; with the cars grouped together under SC conditions, he was now 4th, with new tyres too.
Lotus were again trying to helpfully remind Kimi about keeping his tyres warm, and what over things he needed to be doing, but the grumpy Finn was on the radio again before they got the message finished, with a beautifully impatient “Yes, yes, yes, I’m doing all these things, you don’t have to remind me”. I hope they pay the radio guy well – tough gig.
With 12 laps left to run, the SC was in, and Perez served a stop/go penalty for the earlier collision and forcing Paul D off track. Kimi was 2 seconds up on Alonso after 1 lap, and Button and Vettel were close behind too, as Fernando again struggled with the restart.
With 5 laps left, the balance had changed, and Nando was piling in fastest laps, and closing on the Kimster. Seb passed Jenson on lap 52, to seal a stunning comeback with a podium, and whilst Fernando got tantalising close to DRS range of Kimi, he couldn’t quite manage it, allowing Raikkonen his first win since his return to F1, and well deserved too, after a season a strong races.
From a race that looked almost certain to see Alonso restored as Championship leader, it was Vettel who left the circuit with a 10 point lead. You can’t write the pointy-fingered one off, can you?
(Better get used to this - it's Mike Oldfield season. Tonight's album is 1980's reasonable, but not stellar, effort "Q.E.2.")
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