Mercedes AMG F1's Lewis Hamilton secured his second Formula 1 drivers title by winning the final round of the 2014 season at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Nico Rosberg, who was his only challenger, finished outside of the points after the ERS(Energy Recovery System) on his car failed midway through the race.
At the start of the race, Lewis Hamilton swept past pole sitter Nico Rosberg from P2 to take the lead with Massa settling behind in third place.
The status quo remained at the front until Rosberg reported a loss of power on his W05 Hybrid. The Mercedes engineers confirmed that the ERS on his car had failed, meaning he was about 160 bhp down on his teammate as well as every other car in the field.
Instead of catching Lewis Hamilton, he started losing positions lap after lap and eventually finished well outside of the points in 14th place.
HEARTBREAK FOR ROSBERG
It was a heartbreak for Nico Rosberg who has given Hamilton run for his money all through the season, beating him comprehensively in qualifying where the latter normally excels. Despite his troubles, the German showed great sportsmanship by choosing to finish the race, despite the team suggesting him that he may retire from the race as there was no point in going any further.
With Rosberg slipping out of contention, Williams celebrated a double podium finish with Massa finishing second and Bottas taking the chequered flag in third place.
WILLIAMS LOOKING COMPETITIVE
Massa extended his middle stint and put on a set of super soft tyres right at the end of the race. This allowed him to mount a challenge on the driver that denied him of a maiden world title in 2008. In the end, he finished just two and a half seconds adrift of eventual race and championship winner Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas also played with his strategy after a poor start dropped him down the order. While his rivals pitted as early as lap 5 and lost time in the traffic, Bottas stayed away from the 80 km/hr zone until lap 10. This allowed him to jump some of his rivals and secure his sixth podium result of the field.
Daniel Ricciardo followed Bottas’ footsteps with a long first stint(albeit on the prime tyre) saving him significant time that he would have otherwise lost in traffic. He finished the race in a strong fourth place having started in the pitlane after Formula 1's governing body, FIA, deemed Red Bull's front wing as illegal.
Sebastian Vettel, who also given the same penalty finished half a minute adrift of his teammate in eighth place. This was Vettel’s last race for Red Bull Racing - the team with which he enjoyed four titles in a trot.
Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez stormed through the field on the super soft tyres, overtaking the Ferraris with apparent ease to take sixth and seventh respectively. Despite adding 28 points to their tally in the double points season finale, the Silverstone based team couldn't leapfrog McLaren in the standings.
Ferrari doesn't have particularly good memories from the Yas Marina Circuit and they didn't any this year with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen taking the final two points scoring positions in ninth and tenth respectively.
With this victory, Mercedes eclipsed Ferrari’s and McLaren’s record of most grand prix wins in a season. But the team knows that their record breaking year has been marred with reliability problems with both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg on the receiving end of troubles. Providing a bullet proof car in 2015 must be their top most priority.
CLAIMING HIS PLACE IN HISTORY
With his second title, Hamilton becomes just the 16th driver in F1 history to win multiple world championships. He joins Michael Schumacher (7), Juan Manuel Fangio (5), Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel (4), Jack Brabham/Niki Lauda/Jackie Stewart/Nelson Piquet/Ayrton Senna (3) and Graham Hill/Alberto Ascari/Jim Clark/Emerson Fittipaldi/Mika Hakkinen/Fernando Alonso (2).
The win in Abu Dhabi was also Hamilton's 33rd of his career, which puts him ahead of Alonso as the fifth winnigest driver in F1 history. His win tally has come from the period of 2007 to 2014 just like Vettel who has won six more races and two more titles.
F1 ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX RESULTS (Top 10)
1) Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1hr. 29min. 02.619sec
2) Felipe Massa Williams +2.5
3) Valtteri Bottas Williams +28.8
4) Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull +37.1
5) Jenson Button McLaren +60.1
6) Nico Hulkenberg Force India +61.9
7) Sergio Perez Force India +70.8
8) Sebastian Vettel Red Bull +71.7
9) Fernando Alonso Ferrari +85.4
10) Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +87.4
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