Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi & F1 World Championship

Lewis Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi for his 2nd F1 World Championship

Lewis Hamilton made a superb start to snatch the lead from Rosberg in the first lap itself and win the race and Championship. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas of Williams finished in 2nd and 3rd positions. Nico Rosberg finished in 14th.

Hamilton had raced to 1.2 seconds lead by the second lap. He knew he had to put a big distance between him and the following pack before the pitstops and he really sped away. Nico Rosberg's slim hopes for a championship win vanished into thin air as his poor start resulted in all strategies being ruined. Rosberg had tyres that were one lap older than Hamilton as Rosberg had done one more lap in the qualifying due to a mistake. It is the prerogative of the race leader to decide when to pit. His teammate can only follow in the next lap. So Rosberg had to wait for Hamilton to pit first.

The first pit stop was interesting, as Fernando Alonso dived in into the pits in lap 6. However, he got stuck in traffic as were other drivers. So Mercedes told its drivers to delay the pit stop a bit. So Lewis Hamilton came into the pits in lap 11 followed by Nico Rosberg in the next lap.

Both the Red Bull cars had to start from the pitlane as Red Bull was penalised for using a front wing that flexed beyond the limits. So they had to change it. And since the rules state that you can't change the car between the qualifying and the start, so the Red Bull cars had to start from the pitlane.

After the first round of pitstops, Nico Rosberg kept on pushing the gap was around 2.5 seconds. However, Rosberg couldn't perhaps handle the pressure and made a mistake in lap 24 and locked up in turn 17. In the next lap he reported loss of engine power and Mercedes told him that his Energy Recovery System (ERS) failed. So not only his championship dreams but also scoring a podium finish vanished. Soon after in lap 27 Felipe Massa overtook Rosberg for second position. Pastor Maldonado's wretched year continued as his Lotus car was engulfed by flames.

There was more drama, as suddenly Lewis Hamilton's car slowed down bring fears that his car is also having technical problems. However, it appeared that it was purposefully slowed down to avoid problems. Lewis soon changed tyres in lap 32 and came behind Rosberg but quickly overtook him. This resulted in Massa leading the race. Lewis Hamilton even told his Mercedes team over radio "I am not racing Massa anymore" as perhaps he was worried that his car might have some problems. Clearly he wanted to trade a race win for a Championship win. However Massa still had to pit for tyres and stopped in lap 44 handing over the lead back to Lewis Hamilton. Felipe Massa though changed over to Super Soft tyres and wanted to chase down Lewis Hamilton as the Williams team knew that Mercedes is conservative and afraid of technical problems.  By lap 53 Massa had narrowed the gap to 3.5 seconds to Hamilton. On lap 55 Lewis Hamilton lapped Nico Rosberg and continued his lead over Felipe Massa to win the race as well as the 2014 drivers F1 chamipionship.

This was the 11th race win of Lewis Hamilton in this season. He had more engine problems this year. Despite that he has shown tremendous maturity, grit and pace to win races and his 2nd World Championship.

Final Results of F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

01. Lewis Hamilton         Mercedes
02. Felipe Massa              Williams
03. Valtteri Bottas            Williams
04. Daniel Ricciardo        Red Bull
05. Jenson Button             McLaren
06. Nico Hulkenberg        Force India
07. Sergio Perez               Force India
08. Sebastian Vettel         Red Bull
09. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari
10. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari
11. Kevin Magnussen      McLaren
12. Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso
13. Romain Grosjean       Lotus
14. Nico Rosberg             Mercedes
15. Esteban Gutierrez      Sauber
16. Adrian Sutil               Sauber
17. Will Stevens              Caterham

Retirements in Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix

Kamui Kobayashi  Caterham            Lap 42
Pastor Maldonado  Lotus                  Lap 27
Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso         Lap 15

Hamilton gets his 10th win at Austin

Hamilton gets his 10th F1 race win at Austin

Hamilton started P2 to his nearest rival and teammate Nico Rosberg who started in pole in Austin in US Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg took off cleanly preventing Hamilton from overtaking him during the race to the turn 1.

Hamilton drove a patient race showing that he has matured immensely. After the first pit stop in lap 16, Hamilton upped the pace to close the gap between him and Rosberg. Then in lap 23 he squeezed past Rosberg using DRS in the long straight before turn 12. He then controlled the race and finished 4.3 seconds ahead of Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton thus extended his lead from 17 to 24 points over Nico Rosberg.

Daniel Ricciardo finished third by beating both the Williams drivers Felipe Massa (4th) and Vatteri Bottas (5th). Felipe Massa would be sad as he had a slow pit stop and for much of the race he was expected to be third.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari finished 6th and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen a distant 13th with a lap down.

Sebastian Vettel who started from the pitlane due to change of engine, charged up the field and finished in 7th position. He could have done better if he would have avoided a bit of sloppy driving in lap 26 where he lost places to Romain Grosjean of Lotus and Jean-Eric Vergne of sister team Toro Rosso.

Kevin Magnussen of McLaren finished 8th. His teammate Jenson Button lost places and finished in 12th. Jenson Button was supposed to come in for tyre change in lap 27 as his tyres were degrading. McLaren had confirmed that but then suddenly they asked him not to come into pits and changed the tyres of his teammate Kevin Magnussen instead. Button became a sitting duck and three cars passed him before the next lap when he was called in for a tyre change. It seems that next year Jenson Button is not going to drive for McLaren. McLaren has not confirmed its driver lineup for next year. According to grapevine Fernando Alonso is to drive for McLaren next year. He is still negotiating his terms. Next year Honda is going to partner McLaren and supply engine to the team. Though Jenson Button has earlier driven for BAR-Honda team and has a high profile Japanese model girlfriend and is highly popular in Japan, he seems to be out of favour with the team. It seems McLaren will have Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen next year.

Jean-Eric Vergne was penalised for a contact with Romain Grosjean of Lotus and hence instead of 9th position his final classification was 10th as 5 seconds penalty was added to his tally. He got 1 point for the 10th position. Romain Grosjean's teammate Pastor Maldonado of Lotus benefitted and became 9th and got 2 points.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus finished in 11th. Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber finished in 14th followed by Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India had an engine problem in lap 16 and retired. The other Force India car of Sergio Perez was embroiled in an accident with Adrian Sutil of Sauber in the first lap and both retired.

Hamilton wins red-flagged Japanese F1 Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton overtook Nico Rosberg in lap 29 in spectacular fashion to lead the race till it was red-flagged in lap 47 when Jules Bianchi crashed.

Jules Bianchi of Marussia crashed into a recovery vehicle which had been deployed after Adrian Sutil's crash. Bianchi suffered severe head injuries and has undergone head surgery. The result was backdated to lap 44. Aware about the extent of injuries to Jules Bianchi there was no celebration on the podium by winner Lewis Hamilton, second placed Nico Rosberg and third placed Sebastian Vettel. There were no champagnes opened and the stony face of the drivers reflected the severity of the incident.

The weather reports indicated that the Japanese F1 Grand Prix will have massive rains. Accordingly FIA had given the option to hold the race earlier in the day. However fearing cancellation by spectators, the race organisers decided to hold it on the scheduled time. So the race was started under safety car and the visibility was extremely poor. The safety car period ended in lap 9 and normal racing began. However, the spray from the cars ahead made it difficult for the drivers.

Daniel Ricciardo of RedBull finished 4th behind his teammate Vettel. He was followed by Jenson Button of McLaren in 5th. It was a good performance from Jenson Button whose seat for next year is in doubt.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa of Williams came in 6th and 7th. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished on 8th.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso who doesn't have a race seat next year finished on 9th. He was followed by Sergio Perez of Force India on 10th.

Kvyat of Toro Rosso finished without points on 11th. He was followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari on 12th. Infact both the two Ferrari's finished without points as earlier Fernando Alonso's engine failed and he had to retire in the 2nd lap during the safety car period itself.

Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber and Kevin Magnussen of McLaren finished on 13th and 14th. The Lotus duo of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado finished on 15th and 16th.

Marcus Ericsson of Caterham finished 17th ahead of Max Chilton of Marussia in 18th. Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham finished 19th and last in his home race. This may be his last race considering his performance as well as the difficult financial position of the Caterham team.

Retirements in Japanese F1 Grand Prix 2014

Jules Bianchi             Marussia
Adrian Sutil               Sauber
Fernando Alonso       Ferrari