Formula One Highlights: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Raceday.Part 5
Welcome back to the battle for the championships. Fernando Alonso was in a fix, as things stood. The Spaniard was stuck behind the ‘slow moving’ Renault of Vitaly Petrov and needed to work some magic on track in order to hold on to what seemed like a title slowly slipping from his grasps. Lewis Hamilton too, wasn’t quick enough to catch Vettel which made it increasingly important for the Spaniard to turn things around himself.
Jarno Truli entered the pits at the start of lap 30 as his team changed his front wing – The Lotus had struggled to make it to the finish line in one piece on numerous occasions in the season and the pit crew was determined to patch up the car as efficiently as they could to avoid just that. Meanwhile, Hamilton nearly ran into the rear end of Robert Kubica while trying to get past. Kubica was on the harder compound tyre so it seemed a while before he was going to make his stop.
Shortly afterwards, the McLaren radio sprang to life as Hamilton’s race engineer encouraged his driver to overtake the Renault in front – The battle was fierce; much harder than Alonso and Petrov further back the track as both cars looked not only to defend their positions but also be in touching distance of the race leading cars ahead.
Lewis Hamilton was shortly heard complaining over the radio that he needed to pit again as he felt his front left tyre lacking grip. His team on the other hand, were rather reluctant to comply and added that a pit stop wouldn’t materialize unless ‘absolutely necessary’ – A gambe by McLaren? It made sense since they had nothing to lose anymore.
Jenson Button still continued with his exploits at the front of the pack without pitting. Lewis Hamilton rather dissimilarly, looked to be the wearier of the two cars and had dropped back a bit from Kubica due to excessive tyre wear.
We were two thirds through the race and Sebastian Vettel looked comfortable in 2nd place and was set to takeover the race lead after seeing Jenson Button’s McLaren off to the pit lane. Fernando Alonso needed to finish 4th if he needed to win the championship. It was looking like a tough task for him; perhaps tougher than expected.
The Red Bull in front was flexing its muscles once again as the young German set the fastest lap of the race – A whopping 1 minute 42.942 seconds. The Ferrari camp looked gloomy and a couple of faces were already dropping in the garage as they looked on as Alonso still struggled to find a way past Petrov.
Lewis Hamilton who was experiencing tyre wear issues had stepped up his pace and had caught up with Robert Kubica once again as he set his personal fastest lap. It was believed that the premature wearing of his tyres was due to his stint in the slip stream of the Renault - The lack of down force while being stuck behind a car at 300 km/h offsets the aerodynamics of a Formula One car and in turn eats up the tyres quicker – Was the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso experiencing a similar dilemma?
As things stood at the start of lap 37, Sebastian Vettel was set to be on 249 points, with Alonso 2nd on 247. It was increasingly looking like Vettel’s championship. Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg headed for the pits and took on the set of option tyres. While the harder compound had ensured a reliable drive all weekend, the option tyres had enabled greater performance. The Williams, though bound to take on the softer tyres due to the tyre regulations for the season, could benefit from the change of rubber as it might have enabled him to make some ground on Force India ahead of him – Matching their closest constructor rivals was vital.
Stay tuned for the final third of the final race of the season...
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