Abu Dhabi GP 2013: Vettel cruises to victory, Räikkönen out at Turn 1

Sebastian Vettel settled the Abu Dhabi GP 2013 as early as the first corner. Starting from grid position 2, he got away ahead of polesitter Mark Webber and led every lap from there. At the flag he was 30.829 seconds clear of his teammate. That gave Red Bull a one-two, with Nico Rosberg third for Mercedes. It was Vettel's seventh win in a row.

Webber had taken pole at the Yas Marina Circuit, but he botched his start. Vettel and Rosberg both went past him. After the start the order was Vettel, Rosberg, Webber, Romain Grosjean in the Lotus F1 and Lewis Hamilton. Vettel pulled away immediately. According to grandprix.com, he was already 4.7 seconds ahead of Rosberg after five laps.

For Kimi Räikkönen the race was over after just a few hundred metres. The Lotus driver had qualified fifth, but his car then failed the floor plank test and he was moved to grid position 22. At the first corner he made contact with a Caterham, damaging his front suspension or steering. The sources name different opponents: grandprix.com says Charles Pic, Wikipedia says Giedo van der Garde. Officially, Räikkönen retired with an accident without completing a single lap. It was the only retirement of the race.

Jenson Button didn't get a good start either. The McLaren driver reported a damaged front wing and pitted as early as the second lap.

There was no fight at the front. Vettel pitted on lap 14 and lap 37 and was straight back in the lead after both stops. He led all 55 laps.

The battle for 2nd place was more exciting. Rosberg initially kept Webber behind him, but by his own account his rear tyres were soon finished. Mercedes brought him in for his first tyre change on lap 10. On lap 20, according to grandprix.com, Webber passed Rosberg using DRS, at that point in the fight for 3rd place, and stayed ahead of him to the finish. Grosjean ran with the leaders for a long time. Before his second stop on lap 37 he was even running 2nd. At the end, in fourth, he was around 1.2 seconds short of Rosberg (34.8 versus 33.6 seconds behind Vettel).

Most teams went for two stops. Force India took a different route: Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil pitted only once, di Resta on lap 20 and Sutil on lap 28. Before his stop, di Resta was briefly running in 2nd place, and he went from grid position 11 to 6th at the finish. Sutil climbed from grid position 17 to 10th place.

Little went right for Hamilton, on the other hand. He was already reporting vibrations on the way to the grid. After an early first stop on lap 7, he was stuck behind the Sauber of Esteban Gutiérrez for a long time. From grid position 4 he dropped to 7th, 1:19.2 minutes behind Vettel.

There was an intra-team battle at Ferrari. Fernando Alonso had missed out on Q3 and started only 10th. Early in the race he got past Felipe Massa, but Massa took the place back. Alonso only got ahead through the pit stops. Massa also lost time at his second stop due to a problem with the left front wheel and finished eighth.

Alonso's exit from the pits after his second stop caused a stir. Alongside him was Jean-Éric Vergne in the Toro Rosso. Alonso took avoiding action over the kerbs, went off the track and completed the move there. As the car landed, it registered an impact of 25g, Autosport reported. The stewards looked into the incident but did not penalise Alonso. They accepted his view that Vergne had not left him any room. Despite back pain, Alonso finished 5th and set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap. Afterwards he had to undergo a precautionary medical check.

The biggest setback came for Nico Hülkenberg. He had started the race from grid position 5. After his first pit stop, Sauber released him unsafely back onto the track in front of Sergio Pérez. He was handed a drive-through penalty for it, which he served on lap 34. In the end he was only fourteenth, a lap down.

Winners:

• Adrian Sutil: His one-stop strategy gained him 7 places, more than anyone else. He drove from grid position 17 into the points.
• Fernando Alonso and Paul di Resta: Both gained 5 places, from grid position 10 to 5 and from 11 to 6 respectively.
• Sebastian Vettel: He started second, took the lead at the start and never gave it up.

Losers:

• Nico Hülkenberg: After the drive-through penalty he dropped from grid position 5 to 14th. That was 9 places, the biggest loss of the day.
• Daniel Ricciardo: He started ninth, lost 7 places and finished sixteenth, a lap down.
• Lewis Hamilton: He started fourth and finished only seventh.
• Kimi Räikkönen: First he lost his grid position through his disqualification from qualifying, then he retired at the very first corner.

Williams came away without points. Pastor Maldonado was eleventh, Valtteri Bottas fifteenth. The two Marussia cars of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton finished two laps down in 20th and 21st.

The title had already been decided by the 17th of 19 rounds. After the race Vettel had 347 points, with Alonso second on 217. Despite failing to score, Räikkönen held on to 3rd place with 183 points, ahead of Hamilton (175) and Webber (166). In the constructors' championship, Red Bull were well clear on 513 points, ahead of Mercedes (334), Ferrari (323) and Lotus F1 (297). Behind Red Bull, the fight for 2nd place remained close. You can find the full 2013 standings in our archive.

In Abu Dhabi, Vettel claimed his seventh consecutive Grand Prix win. His run had begun in August at the Belgian GP. According to Wikipedia, this put him level with the previous record marks of Alberto Ascari and Michael Schumacher. It was his eleventh win of the season and the 37th of his career. As after clinching the title in India, he performed donuts after crossing the line, this time together with Webber. Team principal Christian Horner joked that Vettel would have to pay any penalty himself. According to Wikipedia, however, the stewards did not issue one.