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Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Vettel goes flat
Lewis Hamilton gave McLaren its 175th Grand Prix win with a convincing victory at the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Hamilton drove a flawless race and was able to take advantage of Sebastian Vettel's misfortune.
Sebastian Vettel jumped into the lead at the start of the race and by the second turn had built up 15 car length lead on the second place Lewis Hamilton. As Vettel negotiated the second turn his right rear tire exploded causing Vettel's Red Bull Racing car to spin off course. Vettel was able to nurse the car back to the pits but the damage had been done to the car's suspension and Vettel's day was over.
“On the exit of the first corner, everything seemed fine and then turning into the second corner I could feel that something was odd on the rear right,” explained Vettel. “I had to catch the car surprisingly and then the second time, I couldn’t do it anymore, as I’d lost too much air in tire. I had a puncture and spun off. When I got back to the pits, the resulting suspension damage meant we couldn’t carry on. There wasn’t anything we could have done better really this weekend; we just need to look at what had caused the puncture. I had a good start and I was very happy with the car up until that point. To lose the race there, so early on, it hurts for sure. There wasn’t much we could do, so after that I took the opportunity to learn a little bit on the pit wall.” 
Hamilton inherited the lead with McLaren teammate Jensen Button in second, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in third followed by Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber and Felipe Massa's Ferrari. By the end of the first lap Alonso was able to get by Button for second.
“I saw immediately that something had happened to his tire, and that’s why he was going sideways,” said Hamilton, speaking after the race in the FIA press conference. “I was just making sure that I didn’t collect him as he potentially came across the track. After that, I just saw that I had two very quick drivers behind me and I was just trying to keep the gap.”
The top of the field held steady until the first round of pits stops began on lap 16 with Massa leading the way. Webber was the last of the leaders to pit on lap 18 and was held in the pits for several seconds as the team inspected the rear suspension of Webber's car. The crew was apparently looking for any malfunction that would cause a tire to go flat as it had on Vettel's car.
At lap 20 with the first round of pit stops behing completed Hamilton had a 3.3 second lead over Alonso followed by Button, Massa and Webber.
Hamilton continued to lead through the midpoint of the race stretching the lead over Alonso to 4.3 seconds.
Webber started what most believed to be the second and last round of stops as the leaders all needed to run a session on the harder compound tires. Red Bull decided to go a different route running a third session of soft tires meaning he would still need one more stop.
While Webber was pushing one more session on soft tires Alonso was stretching out his second session on soft tires trying to delay the inevitable switch to the harder compound tires which were not to the liking of his Ferrari. Knowing his only hope to catch Hamilton was stay on the soft tires as long has he could Alonso stayed out until lap 44 before pitting. The strategy did not work as Alonso surrendered the lead to Hamilton while making his pit stop for the harder tires.
Hamilton coasted the rest of the way to the checkered flag crossing the finish line 8.4 seconds ahead of Alonso. Webber was forced to pit on the last lap to run at least one lap on the harder compound tires and dropped to fourth with Button moving up to third. Massa finished fifth.
"It’s my mum’s birthday this weekend", said Hamilton after the race, "and it is great to be able to win while she’s here. I feel fantastic. I think it was one of my best races. I said that to myself as I slowed down, just being able to hold off one of the best drivers in the world throughout the race is something that is very, very tough to do. Just looking after the tyres, just managing the gap. Obviously the team did a fantastic job in the pit-stops, but I’m ecstatic. Really very happy to be back up here. This is great. I can get on my flight tonight and smile."
1 L. HAMILTON GBR Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2 F. ALONSO ESP Scuderia Ferrari
3 J. BUTTON GBR Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
4 M. WEBBER AUS Red Bull Racing
5 F. MASSA BRA Scuderia Ferrari
6 N. ROSBERG GER Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team
7 M. SCHUMACHER GER Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team
8 A. SUTIL GER Force India F1 Team
9 P. DI RESTA GBR Force India F1 Team
10 K. KOBAYASHI JPN Sauber F1 Team
11 S. PEREZ MEX Sauber F1 Team
12 R. BARRICHELLO BRA AT&T
13 V. PETROV RUS Lotus Renault GP 5
14 P. MALDONADO VEN AT&T Williams
15 J. ALGUERSUARI ESP Scuderia Toro Rosso
16 B. SENNA BRA Lotus Renault GP
17 H. KOVALAINEN FIN Team Lotus
18 J. TRULLI ITA Team Lotus
19 T. GLOCK GER Marussia Virgin Racing
20 V. LIUZZI ITA HRT F1 TeamNOT CLASSIFIED
D. RICCIARDO AUS HRT F1 Team 48 1:29:24.467 DNF 178.828 1:48.274 35
S. BUEMI SUI Scuderia Toro Rosso 19 35:18.105 DNF 179.159 1:47.094 17
J. D'AMBROSIO BEL Marussia Virgin Racing 18 34:01.981 DNF 176.047 1:51.196 16
S. VETTEL GER Red Bull Racing 1 2:54.331
11/13/11
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