A new race and a new victory for Sebastian Vettel who reaches his eleventh victory in 2013 and won his seventh consecutive race in the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi.
The German world champion led from start to finish in the race at Yas Marina. The poleman Mark Webber had to settle for second place, more than half a minute behind Vettel. Nico Rosberg completed the podium for Mercedes.
At the start Vettel was able to hold off Rosberg and get ahead of Webber at the first corner, the German also got through to the Australian at the first corner. Romain Grosjean moved up to fourth place going over Lewis Hamilton at the first corner, the British also slipped behind Nico Hulkenberg, but did a good overtaking overthe Sauber and went back to the fifth position, below Fernando Alonso took the eighth place after starting tenth, but in the back of the grid, things went wrong for Raikkonen. The Finn colided with a Caterham breaking his suspension, which caused him to abandon the race.
Vettel began to pull away at the front as always does so by creating a space of four seconds in five laps. Jenson Button pitted at the start of the race to put the soft compound and replace the damaged front wing.
As the race settled down, the first round of pit stops began much earlier than expected, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton were the first to pit on lap 7 and 8. The other leaders soon followed them, with Webber and Grosjean fighting even in pits, but the Frenchman could not get ahead of the Australian.
Rosberg and Vettel waited a couple of laps later to pit ,and with this the newly crowned champion was in front getting away and extending the gap to nine seconds before the Mercedes first stop on lap 11.
Vettel ‘s gap was only 22 seconds, and when the one-stop people finally went to box, Webber took advantage and made a great move on Rosberg at lap 11 for the second position.
Perez joined what would become the main battle of the race, Hulkenberg would then receive a drive through to get into the way of Perez exiting the pits.
Hamilton was able to bounce back passing Massa after his final pit stop but Alonso was stuck behind the Brazilian.
The Spanish waited much longer for his final stop and change to soft tyres again, and finally came out ahead of Massa and Jean-Eric Vergne , who gave battle with his strategy. The Ferrari is now under investigation for violating limits trying to pass Vergne at track when exiting the pits.
Up front the race was dominated by Vettel, getting one of his easiest wins of the season ahead of Webber and Rosberg in second and third position, Romain Grosjean also had a quiet but impressive race finishing fourth.
The German victory today is added to the incredible winning streak to seven in-a-row and eleven in 2013 to Vettel, if he can win the last two races of the season in the United States and Brazil, he would match Michael Schumacher’s record of most wins in a season.
P S Driver Team Diff.
1 2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull
2 1 Mark Webber Red Bull +30.8
3 3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +33.6
4 7 Romain Grosjean Lotus +34.8
5 11 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +67.1
6 12 Paul di Resta Force India +78.1
7 4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +79.2
8 8 Felipe Massa Ferrari +82.8
9 9 Sergio Pérez McLaren +91.1
10 18 Adrian Sutil Force India +93.2
11 15 Pastor Maldonado Williams +95.9
12 13 Jenson Button McLaren +103.6
13 17 Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber +104.1
14 6 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +1 Lap
15 16 Valtteri Bottas Williams +1 Lap
16 10 Daniel Ricciardo STR +1 Lap
17 14 Jean Eric Vergne STR +1 Lap
18 19 Giedo van der Garde Caterham +1 Lap
19 21 Charles Pic Caterham +1 Lap
20 20 Jules Bianchi Marussia +2 Laps
21 22 Max Chilton Marussia +2 Laps
RET 5 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus +55 Laps