Grand Prix 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

This one's gonna be a classic.......

After the utterly amazing Indian Grand Prix where it's facilities wowed pretty much everyone worldwide and to be honest we are so lucky to have an Indian Grand Prix at the moment........

Thats would you would think if you were the BBC or any major commentator, for the fans it was a pretty dour race with little or no action throughout apart from the now routine crash between Hamilton and Massa and the rather humerous reaction of Rowan Atkinson in the Mclaren pitlane.

Sebastian Vettel continues to dominate the 2011 season with yet another win in the old jewel of the British Empire with Button consolidating his position in the WDC with another second place as his stock at Mclaren continues to rise.

However at the other side of the garage things aren't quite so rosy with Hamilton adding to his list of high profile accidents which included yet another crash with Felipe Massa. But this time it was Massa who was given a penalty as it was perceived by the stewards that he had turned in on the Mclaren, a decision which bemused the Brazilian as he felt he had given Hamilton enough room and he had the racing line, but both sides (and fans) have differing opinions and a definitive answer is unlikely to come any time soon.

Ferrari and Alonso continue to go through the motions as they wind down and focus on their 2012 after a poor season by their standards, while the car hasn't been awful like their 2009 car, Fernando is rarely anywhere other than third or fourth come the chequered flag. Ferrari have been a team that has been caught out my the ever changing EBD rules and clarity over this for 2012 should help them regain top end competitiveness at the start of next season.

In the midfield it is still close as drivers are fighting for championship places and also contract extensions as very little has been agreed for 2012 although we are now in November and approaching the second last race of a very long season. At Toro Rosso Jaime Alguesuari continued his impressive turnaround with yet more points in India to take his season haul to 26, more than Paul Di Resta and 11 more than his team mate Buemi which could be crucial with the likes of Ricciardo waiting in the wings for a possible seat and there is always the possibility of a Red Bull seat at some point in the future as there is still a question mark about Webbers future, particularly past 2012.

We go to Abu Dhabi for the third time and while the first two races have been pretty lacklustre with a lack of action and overtaking (just ask Alonso), with DRS maybe we might have more this weekend, but then, we can only hope really, just like we can hope Vettel isn't top of the podium by Sunday evening, but that usually ends up to be false hope as I expect another dominating performance from the young German.

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PREDICTIONS

Vettel will qualify on pole, bugger off into the distance and win.

McLaren will look like finally challenging the German, but Hamilton (qualifying 2nd) will pick up a penalty for (say) crossing the white line behind the Safety Car, dropping him to 5th. Button finishes 2nd.

Webber qualifies 2nd, but loses 3 places off the grid to recover to 3rd with Alonso 4th.

Massa outqualifies his team-mate into 5th but drops back to 6th on Lap 2, and stays there.

Rosberg qualifies, and finishes 7th, while his team-mate Schumacher recovers to 8th from 11th on the grid.

Alguersuari finishes 8th ahead of Sutil, Buemi and di Resta.

Perez one-stops his way into 13th ahead of Senna. Petrov hits Kobayashi after an over-ambitious passing move from the Japanese driver.

Kovalainen beats home Barrichello to prove Caterham's intrinsic pace, with Trulli just behind the Brazilian. Maldonado crashes the car early on.

Ricciardo finishes 18th, in front of d'Ambrosio. Glock's early retirement allows Liuzzi to take 20th and last.
 
I'm hoping someone can challenge Seb at Abu Dhabi and I think Mr. Hamilton might be the person to do it if history is anything to go by.

In 2009 he got pole by some margin (nearly 7 tenths) and would of had a good chance of winning the race if he didn't have to retire with a terminal mechanical issue. In 2010, he was only 3 hundredths of a second off pole, which was mainly down to him somehow matching Vettel in the final sector 3, even though the Red Bull car was clearly much more suited to it. In the race, he was then arguably faster than Vettel until the first pitstops and then he got stuck behind Kubica for half the race, which wrecked any chances of victory.

All in all, Hamilton is very much suited to this track because the characteristics of the 3rd sector, combined with the setup required for the first 2 sectors means that the drivers always complain with the amount of over-steer they experience during that final (and most important) sector. As Hamilton very much likes oversteer and can handle it better than some other drivers, he'll be expected to do well.

In-fact, this is what Autosport's and BBC's Mark Hughes had to say prior to the 2010 Abu Dhabi finale:-

"Alonso's best friend in Abu Dhabi may in fact be Lewis Hamilton. Recall his devastating form there in qualifying last year. He was 0.7secs clear of the field, most of that margin coming in the final sector where he was uniquely at ease with oversteer that helped the car change direction, then skimmed the walls with breathtaking audacity. It was a section that might have been designed specially for him. The McLaren has not been the fastest car for some time now, but there's a chance that Lewis may be able to overturn the deficit - and if he can win the race, that makes it extremely difficult for Webber, let alone Vettel."

Maybe it'll be 3rd time lucky for him?
 
2 DRS zones
Do you know where? I would guess on the run to the chicane and then approaching turn 8, as it would be hard to have a separate detection zone if the DRS was run on the consecutive back straights, if that makes any sense.
 
Here is the map showing the zones:
abu-dhabi-drs.png


You were right, Jos.
 
I think activation point 1 should be futher back, they shoud get rid of T13 and 18 and 17-19 should just be a U-shaped corner like India T10 only shorter and more banked
 
What they should do is tighten turn 1, make turn 5 a hairpin, followed by a turn 6 hairpin which leads into turn 7, bank turn 8 and quicken turn 9, make turn 11 a hairpin, which goes straight into turn 15, then open out turn 17 to make it faster, make turn 18/19 into one corner, and make turn 20 and 21 faster. Like this:
Untitled.jpg
 
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