2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix review

Picture taken from my seat.

The last race of the season is now over and it is time to make this review for you guys. As usual I will start from the beginning and ramble away from there.

In my opinion the best drivers at the start were Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez. Vettel overtook three cars on the first lap but Perez wasn't that lucky. He got blocked by Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen even though you could clearly see that he had a much faster start. This blocking meant that the positions stayed pretty much the same in the front and Perez was 4th behind Nico Rosberg, Hamilton and Räikkönen.

Further back Fernando Alonso crashed with Pastor Maldonado and they went off track. Both of them managed to continue to the pits but Maldonado had to retire from the race. For those of you who participated in the PREDICTORS LEAGUE should know that almost every time this season when we predicted first DNF most of you usually said Maldonado. This time only one of you said him! One of my admins (JI) who obviously got 5 bonus points for that. Back to the race.

Rosberg at the front was too fast for his teammate. Hamilton could not get in DRS range to gain an advantage and maybe overtake. Rosberg was driving with an old engine and still did a much better job.

Not much happened before the pitstops. When the drivers started to pit one by one after lap 7 there was drama right away. Once again Williams messed up Valtteri Bottas' race! That really sums up the season doesn't it? They made an unsafe release from the pits so that Bottas smashed into Jenson Button. Why didn't they look out after incoming cars?! That's the easiest thing!! That's not all folks! Do you believe me if I tell you that Williams actually blamed Bottas for the crash?! "BOTTAS SHOULD HAVE SEEN BUTTON". Are they crazy or something? I watched the replay of the crash several times and there was nothing Bottas could have done. Even though if he had locked his brakes he would have slided into Button anyways. The concrete floor in the pits is very slippery compared to the regular asphalt. They should remember this when their former driver Kazuki Nakajima slided into their pitcrew in 2007. One of them had to go to the hospital. That was only because of the concrete floor and he was too unexperienced. Let's move on again.

Bottas lost his front wing after the crash and had to pit again of course. He also got a 5 second penalty for the unsafe release which made him drop to the back and stay there. Last year he was on the podium and this year it was like this. Williams should really think about their mistakes they have done this season. I hope Bottas joins Ferrari when Räikkönen leaves. They don't tolerate mistakes like that.

Speaking of Ferrari, I really enjoyed Räikkönen's and Vettel's teamwork. Vettel let Räikkönen pass him right away because he was sure that Räikkönen's tires were in better condition than his. The only weird thing was that after Vettel had let Räikkönen through he asked on the radio "was I supposed to let Räikkönen pass?". Why wasn't it clear to him before that?! Ferrari really messed up with their communication this weekend. I mean look at Vettel's qualifying result. They didn't tell him to do another fast lap and he dropped out in Q1 and now in the race they don't even tell their drivers not to hold each other back. They have to figure it out on themselves?! Luckily Sebastian is a smart man and he knew what to do without the help of his team.

The Mercedes drivers on the other hand did not help each other at all. It's understandable because they were fighting for the win. Hamilton tried to argue with his team so that he could stay out and possibly beat Rosberg with older tires. The team made Hamilton understand that he has to pit because otherwise he could be overtaken by both Rosberg and Räikkönen, who by the way was as fast as Rosberg most of the race.

After Hamilton's pitstop the top3 was Rosberg, Hamilton, Räikkönen and it stayed like that till the end. Not a very special race If you ask me. I don't really have anything else to say about the race so let's go to the predictions and the results.

Predictions and results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. His teammate took his 6th pole in a row. Only Ayrton Senna has more pole positions in a row (8 poles).

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He won the race!
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 4th and Kimi was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Surprise: Kimi Räikkönen. Leave him alone he knows what he's doing! - He took 3rd which was a surprise for many. I thought he was going to be 4th.

The predictors league also came to an end and the winner was Peter McLaren for the second time. I made him an admin on our Facebook page as a reward.

Congratulations mate!

Rest of you guys know that even though the season is over I will still post F1 stuff every day for you to see. 

Tomorrow I will post how Pirelli's Abu Dhabi tests have gone. See you tomorrow guys ;)