Kimi Raikkonen had a good weekend in Abu Dhabi, although he did tell David Coulthard in the post race interview that he felt 'nothing much'. It was the Iceman's first win since he made a comeback to Formula 1 earlier this year after a two-year hiatus from the sport. Raikkonen started the race fourth on the grid and got off to a good start, slotting in second behind pole man Lewis Hamilton and he stuck right there. When Hamilton's McLaren gave up with a problem, the Lotus driver took the lead and didn't give it up all the way to the chequered flag.
Finishing second on the podium was Fernando Alonso who had started the race from sixth on the grid. While Alonso carved his way up the order, hoping to rack up enough points to ensure he'd retake the lead in the championship, it wasn't to be. Sebastian Vettel, despite starting in the pitlane and then colliding with the barriers during a Safety Car period, had made his way up the order and could sniff a podium. And so he drove aggressively and muscled his way past McLaren driver Jenson Button to take third, maintaining his lead in the championship by 10 points with only two races to go.
There was chaos aplenty during the race though, that resulted in two Safety Car periods. The first was when Nico Rosberg drove into the back of Narain Karthikeyan's HRT, causing debris to be strewn all the way across the track. The HRT slowed down when a hydraulic failure meant Karthikeyan's car lost steering and he needed to brake. Rosberg's Mercedes GP then drove into and flew over the car and straight into the barriers. Lucky for both drivers, neither was injured.
The other Safety Car period was neccessitated when Paul di Resta, Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez tangled with each other, catching Mark Webber out in the process as well. And while Webber's race ended then, he'd been involved in contact with Felipe Massa during the course of the race as well. A manoeuvre that Massa declared ought to have earned the Aussie a penalty.
We're warming up to Yas Marina rather nicely now!
