Hamilton Wins As Vettel Retires on First Lap

From the BBC Website:

Hamilton was gifted the lead when Red Bull's world champion retired on the opening lap because of a puncture going through the second corner.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso pushed hard and tried to take the lead at the final pit stop but Hamilton was too strong.

McLaren's Jenson Button took third from Red Bull's Mark Webber while Paul di Resta was ninth for Force India.

Hamilton said on arrival in Abu Dhabi that winning the final two races here and in Brazil would help turn around a difficult season in which he has struggled on and off the track.

"He just turned it on here and looked like the old Lewis again," said BBC F1 commentator Martin Brundle.

Hamilton has been in confident mood and full of enthusiasm for the Yas Marina circuit, where he lost out on victory at its inaugural 2009 race when he was forced to retire."There is nothing missing in his armoury but sometimes he seems emotionally like he's not in the race. But there were no tantrums. He just got in it and got on."

There was some irony, then, that Vettel, who won the two previous races here in the desert, retired to gift Hamilton the lead.

The double world champion spun at the second corner when his right rear wheel suddenly punctured and his Red Bull slid onto the grass.

He damaged the car further on his way back to the pits and looked furious when it dawned on him he was out of the race.

It was Vettel's first retirement since last year's Korean Grand Prix - more than a year ago - and ended his run as the only driver to finish every race so far in 2011."He had damage to the floor and the exhaust and part of the wishbone," explained BBC pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz. "He couldn't carry on."

"I don't know what happened," Vettel said. "We lost pressure all of a sudden out of the exit of Turn One. I don't why. There is nothing that I did differently to any of the other laps.

"We need to find out why, maybe I cut the kerb at a funny angle. It is tough, but I used the opportunity to learn a bit on the pit wall."

Vettel had snatched pole from Hamilton by just 0.141 seconds but the Englishman has been strong here all weekend and ran a controlled race to capture his third win of the season to match Button.

Hamilton dedicated the win to his mother Carmen, who was there to greet him with a hug when he got out of the car.

Alonso, who appeared to have made up with his former foe bycomplimenting him in the build-up to the race, pushed Hamilton hard in the final phase of the race.

When Hamilton pitted for the harder tyres with 16 laps to go, Alonso stayed out to try and build up his lead but came in four laps later.

"I feel fantastic," Hamilton said. "It was one of my best races. To hold off one of the best drivers in the world is very tough to do.The Spaniard had not done enough and Hamilton resumed his lead to win by nearly nine seconds.

"I'm just happy. This is great. It's early days but this is definitely the start of something. We've got another great race ahead of us in Brazil. I've just got to keep my mind on the game."

Alonso added: "It was a fantastic race for me as well. We fight most of the race three-five seconds distance to Lewis.

"We were close but we had some traffic in the pit entry behind a HRT and in the last stint they had a little bit more pace so it would have been difficult to win the race even if we had got into the lead. I'm happy with second."

Button finished third but had to battle Webber and Ferrari's Felipe Massa for position after losing his Kers power boost system for half the race.

Webber had been running in third for much of the race but the Australian was switched to a three-stop strategy and ran until the final lap before making his obligatory stop for the harder 'medium' tyres, which put him back behind Button for the final podium place.

"Well obviously on the second stop, we fitted the option tyre again to cut the race into something different. It was worth a bit of a punt.

"The two DRS (overtaking zones) were tricky. The first one was easy but the second wasn't so easy. The DRS was a bit of a gimme today.

"We had pretty good pace and I was close to Jenson Button at the end of the first stint. Then we had a bad first pit stop. We lost a lot of time. It put us on the back foot. We lost track position. That's where we lost the podium."

Massa gained one place to finish fifth ahead of Nico Rosberg, who bravely re-passed Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher after losing out to him at the start.

Adrian Sutil, who is under pressure for his seat at Force India, beat his team-mate Paul di Resta, who crossed the line in ninth after an unconventional one-stop strategy.

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi took the final points with 10th and veteran Rubens Barrichello fought hard in his Williams to take 12th after starting at the back of the grid.

Vettel Breaks Mansell's Pole record!!!

The German's feat saw him equal Nigel Mansell's all-time record of 14 pole positions in a season, set in 1992.

McLaren's Jenson Button starts on the second row, ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

Scot Paul di Resta chose not to set a time in qualifying and will line up 10th for Force India.

McLaren had dominated every practice session at the Yas Marina circuit but, as he has done so many times this season, Vettel found some vital extra pace when it counted.

When asked if he had dug deep to claim his 29th career pole, Vettel answered: "Oh yes.

"Lewis looked very strong all weekend so it was good that we were able to be that little bit quicker than him.

"I wasn't happy with the car (on Friday). This place is tricky in many ways. It's not easy to get it right all the time.

"I think it'll be a long race. Lewis and Jenson will be very quick in the race. I'm confident, and ready."

Vettel adopted his usual tactic of being the last man to emerge from the pits in the final minutes of qualifying.

He pushed his Red Bull round the visually stunning Yas Marina circuit, brilliantly lit up by floodlights as darkness finally fell on the twilight session, and beat Hamilton's benchmark by 0.141 seconds.

"At the end that was as far as I could get out my lap," said Hamilton, who is the only man other than Vettel to claim pole this season and actually did a lap in the second qualifying session that would have put him on pole had he repeated it.

"It wasn't a great last lap, the car was understeering a little bit. The one I did in Q2 was better but it's been a good couple of days.

"I'm happy to be on the front row and to not have any penalties is a blessing for me."

Button was just 0.009secs adrift of Hamilton's time but said he had struggled for balance all weekend.

"We know the pace is in the car and it was finding the right balance," Button said. "I've not felt 100% comfortable all weekend.

"Q3 was very strange as there was less grip, the circuit was cooler and the car was acting differently."

Ferrari, Mercedes and Force India, who have upped their game as they aim to secure sixth place in the constructors' championship, shared the next three rows.

Alonso's prediction that he would start on the third row came true as he finished half a second off Vettel's time fifth. His Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa was sixth, but more than 0.6secs slower.

Nico Rosberg qualified in seventh ahead of team-mate Michael Schumacher for Mercedes, while the two Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta slotted in in ninth and 10th.

It was a straightforward Saturday for the rest of the field even though the second phase of qualifying was halted when a bollard was knocked over at Turn Nine.

Rubens Barrichello was the unluckiest driver out there as his Williams's reliability problems got worse.

An engine change and a subsequent oil leak hampered his practice on Saturday and stopped him going out in qualifying.

The Brazilian, who said it was "a must" for him to stay in F1 for a 20th season in 2012, was unable to set a timed lap and dropped out in the first stage of qualifying.

"It's been a hard weekend and I can't remember doing so few laps over a weekend," said Barrichello. "I will just try to enjoy myself as much as I can on Sunday."

Abu Dhabi 3rd Practice results

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m38.976s            17
 2.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m39.403s  + 0.427s  18
 3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m39.427s  + 0.451s  18
 4.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m39.429s  + 0.453s  16
 5.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m39.661s  + 0.685s  16
 6.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m40.135s  + 1.159s  19
 7.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m40.183s  + 1.207s  18
 8.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m40.429s  + 1.453s  21
 9.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m40.511s  + 1.535s  19
10.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m40.938s  + 1.962s  18
11.  Bruno Senna         Renault               1m41.509s  + 2.533s  21
12.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.527s  + 2.551s  21
13.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.566s  + 2.590s  20
14.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m41.594s  + 2.618s  18
15.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.622s  + 2.646s  18
16.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.855s  + 2.879s  18
17.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m42.025s  + 3.049s  19
18.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m43.409s  + 4.433s  22
19.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m43.861s  + 4.885s  5
20.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m45.262s  + 6.286s  23
21.  Tonio Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          1m45.302s  + 6.326s  20
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m45.509s  + 6.533s  22
23.  Daniel Ricciardo    HRT-Cosworth          1m45.732s  + 6.756s  20
24.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault                              1

All timing unofficial

No Off Throttle blowing allowed in 2012

Formula 1 teams will be unable to use any form of off-throttle blowing of exhausts next season after a fresh bid to allow the practice was blocked by Ferrari, Sauber and HRT ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

A move to ban blown diffusers in 2012 through the mandatory use of periscope exhausts had not been enough to quell fears that some outfits could still try and make use of hot gases to help boost the aerodynamic performance of their cars - perhaps by blowing air over suspension components or wings.

Those suspicions resulted in the FIA issuing a technical directive last month informing teams that there will be severe limitations on engine mapping next year to minimise the possibilities of off-throttle blowing.

The timing of that decision left several teams unhappy, because they had already begun designing their 2012 cars assuming that blowing could still be implemented – a practice that uses up fuel so would require a larger fuel tank.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said in India: "The clarification is a bit late and a few people wasted a bit of time, money and effort, but that is the same for all of us. We will look forward now."

Outside of that move, teams were pushing for the 2012 regulations to allow off-throttle blowing – with sources suggesting that unanimous approval was reached among them for this prior to their submission to the Formula 1 Commission last week for ratification.

However, the rules were rejected by the F1 Commission – with Ferrari, Sauber and HRT all deciding to vote against the regulations as they stood and forcing them back to think tank the Technical Working Group for amendment.

The TWG met in Abu Dhabi to discuss the exhaust regulations again and, although agreeing on most of the elements, a clause that would have allowed off-throttle blowing was again rejected by Ferrari, Sauber and HRT, so has been ditched for now.

Sources have revealed that the rule would have allowed any blowing of exhausts that interferes with the aerodynamic of the cars to be deemed as 'incidental' so therefore not illegal.

It is understood, however, that the TWG has agreed to re-look at the blowing rules for 2013.

With the practice effectively outlawed, the situation means that any team that uses off-throttle blowing next season will be in breach of Article 3.15 of the Formula 1 Technical Regulations – which states any part of the car that uses 'driver movement as a means of altering the aerodynamic characteristics of the car is prohibited.'

With the FIA having clarified its position on this matter, it means there is the possibility of a team protesting any rival that runs off-throttle blowing next year – as HRT pondered doing this year when the issue first came up.

The exhaust blowing saga has upset several teams, because they have already committed to elements of their 2012 design based around the idea that they would off-throttle blowing – so now their fuel tanks could be too big.

Renault boss Eric Boullier said at the Indian GP: "You have to take a decision now on car concepts and it is already too late.

"Some teams like ours have already started producing concepts of the car, so the concept has been finalised weeks ago. We need to stop changing the regulations all the time."

1st practice Abu Dhabi

Pos  Driver                Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m40.263s           21
 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m40.389s  + 0.126  26
 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m40.403s  + 0.140  27
 4.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m40.755s  + 0.492  27
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m40.801s  + 0.538  25
 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m41.260s  + 0.997  17
 7.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1m41.340s  + 1.077  23
 8.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m42.130s  + 1.867  26
 9.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m42.151s  + 1.888  28
10.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m42.377s  + 2.114  26
11.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m42.633s  + 2.370  26
12.  Romain Grosjean       Renault                 1m42.685s  + 2.422  29
13.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                 1m43.118s  + 2.855  13
14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth       1m43.255s  + 2.992  29
15.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m43.389s  + 3.126  24
16.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari          1m44.412s  + 4.149  28
17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m44.484s  + 4.221  18
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault           1m44.565s  + 4.302  27
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault           1m44.898s  + 4.635  25
20.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth            1m46.385s  + 6.122  28
21.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth            1m46.532s  + 6.269  27
22.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth         1m48.024s  + 7.761  20
23.  Robert Wickens        Virgin-Cosworth         1m48.551s  + 8.288  23
24.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth                            3

All Timing Unofficial

Schumacher wants more time on future

Michael Schumacher wants more time before deciding if he wants to extend his Formula 1 career with Mercedes GP, despite team-mate Nico Rosberg sorting out a fresh deal with the outfit.

Rosberg announced on Thursday that he has signed a new contract at Mercedes GP that will keep him at the team at least until the end of 2013 - with options for beyond that.

The new Rosberg deal has prompted talk that Schumacher too is pondering extending his deal into 2013 – with some reports in the German media even claiming that the deal was done.

Speaking ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, however, Schumacher said that it was not guaranteed he would sort out a fresh deal – and that he wanted to wait before working out both his own and the team's future prospects.

When asked if, on the back of Rosberg's announcement, he too was talking to Mercedes GP about a new deal, Schumacher said: "According to some journalists, yes. The reality no, because I told you already several times that this is not the time to talk about it.

"I need a little bit more time to see about myself and how we are heading, and some input to see if that is what I want or not."

Schumacher suggested that one of the reasons why he wanted to hold back on committing his future was that he needed to fully grasp the rate of improvement Mercedes GP made next year – and whether foundations were being laid for success in the future.

Small F1 Teams Vital!

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says any push towards three-car entries would be 'wrong' for Formula 1, and that it is more important to ensure the sport is cost-effective for smaller teams.

Last weekend Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo renewed his push for F1 teams to be allowed to run third cars - insisting fans would prefer to see top squads fielding additional entries rather than the current backmarker teams.

But in a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in conference call, Whitmarsh disagreed - declaring that the smaller squads gave F1 a diversity that is vital to its appeal, even though he acknowledged that McLaren would potentially be interested in running three cars.

"The statistic that I live by is the one that since McLaren entered Formula 1, being moderately successful in winning over a quarter of the races and on the podium for more than half of them, during that time 100-odd teams have disappeared from the sport," he said.

"I think that really just demonstrates the volatility of the sport.

"We have, in the last few years, evolved from really being a subset of the automotive sector back to a more pure Formula 1 set of businesses.

"I think we shouldn't underestimate how hard it is for the smaller teams. It's fine for perhaps some of the bigger teams who feel quite confident about their future, but the fact is we need 10 or 12 teams in the sport to race against.

"Personally I think that going to generate grid size with three-car teams, I understand why some people are attracted to that. If it was necessary, it has some interest for McLaren.

"But for Formula 1, it's the wrong solution. Formula 1 requires the diversity of entry, and I think we therefore have to work hard to ensure that to achieve all of that there are sustainable business models for all the teams that are in Formula 1."

Di Montezemolo had said that Ferrari would stand firm in its beliefs over third cars, and the need for changes to testing and aerodynamic regulations.

"We will support our views as we see fit, in the best way possible, but let's be clear, for those who agree, that is fine, but otherwise they will just have to accept it is our position," he said.

"If Formula 1 still wants Ferrari it must change and go back to being at the cutting edge of research, while always keeping an eye on costs. We are not in Formula 1 as sponsors, we are constructors."

But Whitmarsh played down the chances of di Montezemolo's stance opening up a new rift between F1 teams.

"I think Luca is an extremely charismatic figure within Ferrari, within Italy and within motorsport, and in fairness to him I know how off-the-cuff comments can be construed and amplified," said Whitmarsh.

"I think he is passionate about Formula 1, I think he's very proud of Ferrari's history and heritage, and he will inevitably push with great passion his personally-held opinions and views.

"I think on a day to day basis Formula 1 is much better when the teams and governing body work together to develop regulations.

"I think we've demonstrated over three years slightly calmer environments without paying too much attention to external rhetoric, and we've made some good decisions.

"I think the show that we generate has improved, there is much more overtaking, we've had some great races the last two years, and I think we should be very proud of that and I think that's been achieved by the teams working together with the FIA to develop sporting and technical regulations to achieve those aims."