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Lotus driver
Kimi Raikkonen has sealed the first victory of his Formula One comeback with
Pirelli: the 19th of his career. The Finn used a one-stop strategy, stopping
on lap 31 to move from the P Zero Yellow soft to the P Zero White medium
tyres. Raikkonen, who started fourth on the grid, took the lead following
the retirement of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton on lap 19, and did not relinquish
it until the finish. Second place for Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso – who used
an identical strategy to Raikkonen, stopping three laps earlier – meant that
the Spaniard reduced his gap to the lead of the drivers’ championship to 10
points with two races to go, pushing the Lotus driver all the way to the
chequered flag.
The majority of the 24 starters began the race on the soft compound, with
the exception of Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher, the Williams of Bruno
Senna and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel: who started from the pit lane after
having his qualifying times disallowed.
The Red Bull driver used a different strategy to boost himself from last –
having been released from the pit lane once the rest of the field was into
turn one – to third at the finish. Despite some damage to his front wing
endplate, Vettel was already up to 13th by lap seven, when he benefitted
from a safety car that closed up the field and altered the tyre strategy.
Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne, Force India’s Paul Di Resta and Lotus
driver Romain Grosjean were the only drivers who changed their tyres during
the safety car period. Vergne and Di Resta changed to the medium tyre while
Grosjean changed to the soft tyre (having made his first pit stop on the
opening lap from soft to medium tyres following an incident at the start).
Vettel also changed tyres from medium to soft on lap 13, when he came into
the pits for a nose change, still under the safety car period. Vettel then
used the extra speed of the soft compound – worth around half a second per
lap – to climb up to second place and he pitted for his final set of softs
on lap 37, rejoining in fourth just before a final three-lap safety car
period that closed up the field once more.
Alonso was the first driver in the top six to make a scheduled stop on lap
28, moving from the soft to the medium compound, followed by McLaren’s
Jenson Button and Williams driver Pastor Maldonado on the following lap. The
final one-stopper to pit was the other Williams of Bruno Senna, who went
from the medium to the soft tyre on lap 32 and finished eighth.
The race started in track and ambient temperatures of around 30 degrees
centigrade, which dropped slightly as the race continued, minimising tyre
wear. The smooth track surface of Abu Dhabi also helped to contain the
amount of tyre wear, as the teams made the most of their knowledge of
Pirelli’s compounds accumulated over the year. Most drivers were able to
make a one-stop strategy work, while the highest placed two-stopper was
Vettel in third.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented:
“Congratulations to Kimi for becoming the eighth different winner we’ve seen
this year, and to Lotus and Eric Boullier, for his first win as team
principal, after what was one of the most exciting grands prix of the year,
which revolved around two safety car periods. The timing of the first safety
car altered the race strategies for everyone, enabling the soft tyre runners
to go even longer, while two drivers switched to the medium tyre and
Sebastian Vettel went onto the soft: the start of an amazing run. It also
meant that one stop was quite clearly the way to go for most competitors, as
the five laps under the safety car reduced the overall amount of tyre wear
during the race, which was already low. This enabled the drivers who stopped
early to complete up to nearly 30 laps on the medium compound and make up
places by undercutting those who stopped later. It was definitely a mixed-up
race with several different strategies at work, which gave the fans some
spectacular action to watch from start to finish.” |
