I'm pretty sure 2 safety cars at a track like Abu Dhabi is pretty fricking lucky! Without those safety cars (and the incidents/retirements that caused them), I doubt Vettel would have made the podium.
Correct, but lets play the stupid "if" game. Lets say all the same stupid incidents and collisions happened, but no safety cars, he would've probably ended up 4th.
Before the safety car, Vettel was behind the leader by 25 seconds.
During the safety car, Vettel was behind the leader by 13 seconds.
After he fell asleep and drove in to the DRS sign like a jackass and forced himself in to a pitstop, he was put at the back of the field and was behind the leader by 23 seconds.
So, that safety car did absolutely nothing for him because of him being a jackass.
Before the second safety car, he already had the fourth place. All the second safety car did for him was give him the opportunity to get third place, which he did.
Newey mentioned after the race that they were actually planning to not change his front wing because it wouldn't have been worth the extra 5 - 7 seconds that it cost during a pit stop. Well, until he damaged it further...
Honestly, I think he could've finished even further up if he didn't hit that DRS sign because that forced him in to a two stop race.
Someone said in the Indian GP thread that he was so in awe of Vettel's composure recently, and that Alonso being "unsmiling" was showing his mental weakness.
Well, after Vettel's shouting on the radio and raggedy Anne performance, I think that is null and void. It was a great result for him; 2 safety car periods and more GP2-esque incidents saved him losing more points.
Regardless, it is nicely poised now with 2 GP to go. SV has to be the favourite, given the performance advantage RBR have, however as we have seen, there are many unseen wildcards in the form of LH's pace and COTA. Alonso seems to be able to handle pressure more measuredly then SV, and it really is shaping up to be an exciting end to the season.
Vettel should be able to handle the pressure just fine. He did in 2010.
Interesting tweet by F1 Fanatic:
https://twitter.com/f1fanatic_co_uk/status/265161402040332288