Vettel wins 7th straight in Abu Dhabi

Sebastian Vettel dominates again

Predicted by AR1.com that he would be the greatest F1 driver of all-time three years ago, Sebastian Vettel certainly is making that prediction come true.

Vettel dominated the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in his Red Bull-Renault today leading every lap for his 7th straight win in winning by over 30-seconds.

His teammate Mark Webber who started on pole, was beaten by Vettel into Turn 1 at the start and never sniffed the lead again. He finished second.

Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes was third.

Vettel grabs the lead at the start

At the start Vettel put together his now customary mind-blowing first lap to go 1.9 seconds clear. The competition was already demoralized. Race over.

While Vettel pulled away up front, Webber gradually fell away from Rosberg and was soon under pressure from the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

Webber recovered from his poor performance before his first tire change by chasing Rosberg down once they were both on the medium-compound Pirellis and sweeping round the outside of the Mercedes on lap 20.

Rosberg kept the second Red Bull in sight, but did not have the pace to seriously challenge Webber and they finished 2nd and 3rd.

It was the 15th 1-2 finish for the young Red Bull team and the win is Vettel's eleventh of the 2013 season and 38th career win. Since AR1.com published this article showing how statistically F1 has never seen anyone like Vettel, he has won four more times. Amazing.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso has been cleared of any wrongdoing after a controversial overtaking on Jean-Eric Vergne during Sunday evening's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Alonso, who ultimately finished the race in fifth position, jumped past Toro Rosso driver Vergne on the run down to the Turn 5/6 chicane after completing his second and final pit-stop of the day, but the Spaniard put all four wheels off-track in the process.

Having assessed the relevant data and telemetry, the stewards opted against handing out a post-race drive-through, which would have equated to 25 seconds.

"You have to leave a space when you have a car alongside," Alonso had explained to reporters after the race. "He didn't give space and I had to go outside of the track."

Felipe Massa finished eighth in the sister Ferrari, although the Maranello-based squad slipped to 11 points behind Mercedes in the battle for second position.

Massa claimed Ferrari's tactical error cost him a top five finish in Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Brazilian, who is leaving Ferrari at the end of the year, said he was amazed when the Italian team switched him to a new set of medium compound tires for the final 17 laps, instead of fitting soft tires.

"We made a mistake," he said. "I didn't expect to use the medium compound in the last stint.

"I didn't discuss it (with the team beforehand) because for me it was clear. We were going to go on the softs. It's better, at the beginning I was the best car on the soft tire.

"I expected to see the soft tires on the car and I saw the other. Without this problem I would have finished easy in the top five."

Car 1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Finish Position: WINNER, Start Position: 2nd
"I think today was incredible; the pace we had was scary at some stages, I felt very, very good on the soft tires and was able to pull out a good gap in the first couple of laps. I think it’s difficult, being an active member of the team, to put things like today into perspective. When I think of the times we’ve experienced over the last few years, it’s incredible to have a strong group of people together that believes so much in what they do. To be part of that is great and makes me proud. The car was so enjoyable on every single lap. There are not that many races when you are in complete control of the car – so it’s special. I didn’t get the maximum out of myself yesterday, but we made up for it today."

Car 2 MARK WEBBER, Finish Position: 2nd, Start Position: 1st
"Seb was on another planet today and was very, very strong in the first stint. He was super quick and his tires didn’t wear out, which is a recipe for disaster for the rest of the opposition, me included. Nico had a very good start on both Sebastian and I, but fortunately it wasn’t a long run to the first corner. We got under way from there and I attacked Nico on the first lap, but then we had to look after the tires, so we waited and then on lap eight or nine we were in trouble with the rears. I made a good move on Nico to get back into position. It would have been good to win, but we got second and I’ll go to Austin and try and do better."

More to follow…..

Results

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Behind	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	55	Winner	2	25
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	55	+30.8 secs	1	18
3	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	55	+33.6 secs	3	15
4	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	55	+34.8 secs	6	12
5	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	55	+67.1 secs	10	10
6	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	55	+78.1 secs	11	8
7	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	55	+79.2 secs	4	6
8	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	55	+82.8 secs	7	4
9	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	55	+91.1 secs	8	2
10	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	55	+93.2 secs	17	1
11	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	55	+95.9 secs	14	0
12	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	54	+ secs	12	0
13	12	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	54	+ secs	16	0
14	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	54	+1 Lap	5	0
15	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	54	+1 Lap	15	0
16	19	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	54	+1 Lap	9	0
17	18	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	54	+1 Lap	13	0
18	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	54	+1 Lap	18	0
19	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	54	+1 Lap	19	0
20	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	53	+2 Lap	21	0
21	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	53	+2 Lap	20	0
Ret	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	DNF	+ secs	22	0