Abu Dhabi 2013 - Race

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mercedes put up a fight but in the end Red Bull was faster to take yet another front row this time with WEB ahead of VET. Nico was faster than Lewis in row 2, Kimi was as quick as the Mercedes (5th)but will have to start last due to technical infringement (more of that in a second).  One Ferrari (not ALO), one Sauber (not the Mexican), one McLaren (the Mexican), one Toro Rosso, and the sister Lotus made it into the shoot out. ALO(11th), who didn’t pass Q2 for the first time this year,  will now be promoted to the 5throw.

This officially our worst CFA qualifying session ever. Ever. Lou won the honours with 1 point (ROS/ 3rd), the rest, I mean all of us, zero. Enough said.

The grid for tomorrow:

WEB  VET  ROS  HAM   HUL  GRO  MAS  PER  RIC  ALO

It was a very demanding QF session in Yas Mariana, as the track temperature dropped the set up on the car was very difficult to guess.  Much of the same is expected for the race tomorrow. 

Red Bull is not showing any weakness either on the med or soft compounds, only Lotus looks stronger  managing its prime tyres in the long-runs and high fuel load, that’s how GRO has got the last 3 straight podiums. RAI opted to use the older short wheel-base E36 chassis as it drives more to his liking, but it was found to vertically deflect  its floor past the allowed 5mm. The stewards did not accept the Team’s explanation that it was caused by the floor hitting the kerbs and RAI was sent to start 22nd, dead last. Mercedes qualified well as always but you never know if they will fade or shine during the race, the drastic temperatures changes emphasize their problems preserving the prime tyres. McLaren and Sauber dialed their cars for the 2 DRS- back straights (less wing, larger 7th gear); that might be  slower than the top 5 cars in front of them but you can’t pass in the rest of the Mickey Mouse layout anyways. Ferrari is hopelessly slow in sector 3 with its lack of traction pulling out the corners. You have the feeling they’d just throw the towel for this year.

Pirelli’s theory  is to do the 55 laps in 2 stops. Since the soft tyres are 1-1.5 seconds a lap faster than the medium the strategy is to make 2 stints on them. One stop is marginal (maybe RAI) as the track drop in temperature will affect tyre wear. The other factor could be the Safety Car, but curiously enough in this place with barriers everywhere it has come on track in only one occasion (33.3%).

So far in 2013 the poleman has won 50% of the races (8 of 16), let’s see tomorrow...

Oh my, here we go again – WEB VET GRO ROS HAM HUL

Let’s hope this race is as good as last year’s – and not as processional as before, you never know at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Enjoy,  good luck!

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