2016 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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TenEightyOne
TenEightyOne
It looks like @shoemaker's thread was locked+deleted for being too early... so here it is again, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Qualifying Result
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Results So Far (FP 1,2 + 3)

Free Practice 1
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Free Practice 2

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Free Practice 3

AbuDhabiFP3.png

The obvious story of the weekend will be the crowning of the 2016 World Driver Champion and the odds for that win are firmly with Nico Rosberg.

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Other stories are the retirement of some famous figures from the sport; Felipe Massa, Jenson Button (probably), Charlie Whiting and Herbie Blache.

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Some Abu Dhabi stats from @JockeP22

Wins
Nico - 1
Lewis - 2

Pole positions
Nico - 2
Lewis - 2

Fastest laps
Nico - 0
Lewis - 2

Podiums
Nico - 2
Lewis - 4

Laps led
Nico - 44
Lewis - 138
 
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So will we finally see an exciting, on track battle between the Mercedes to end the championship? Probably not. I was procrastinating as usual earlier so decided to actually check it.

  • Australia - Hamilton falls down to 6th on lap one and never got close to Rosberg again.
  • Bahrain - HAM clashes with Bottas and falls to 9th, never sees ROS again.
  • China - HAM starts from the back because of tech issues, they never see each other.
  • Russia - HAM has more tech issues to start tenth so again, they don't see each other.
  • Spain - Well, I don't need to explain this. They raced together......very briefly.
  • Monaco - ROS has poor pace in the rain and whilst they appear on the same piece of tarmac, it's only for ROS to let HAM through.
  • Canada - HAM nudges ROS out at T1 on L1, ROS then falls further back and they never see each other again.
  • Europe - HAM makes a hash of qualifying and starts tenth, race not much better, they never see each other.
  • Austria - Racing! Well, in the last 1/3 of the race at least. They manage to clash again, but still, undoubted on track battling.
  • Britain - HAM just pulls away from ROS on pure pace in the rain and they never race, ROS dealing with VES instead.
  • Hungary - They are relatively close all race but real racing never really threatened to break out.
  • Germany - Immidiatly any chance of battling is over as ROS makes a bad start then has a bit of a mare the rest of the race.
  • Belgium - HAM has a 4000 place grid penalty, starts last and they never see each other.
  • Italy - HAM takes his turn to make a bad start, drops back, and never sees ROS the rest of the race.
  • Singapore - HAM doesn't have the pace to match ROS, starts third, they never see each other.
  • Malaysia - ROS spins at T1 L1, ends any chance of them directly racing and HAM retires anyway.
  • Japan - HAM has another bad start, yet again ending any chance of them racing each other.
  • USA - ROS drops to third at the start, they never see each other again.
  • Mexico - ROS mostly battles with VES, not HAM, not on pace.
  • Brazil - HAM just has the pace on ROS again, never looked like challenging him

ONE RACE! Twenty races and they've had a decent on track battle once. Twice if you count a few corners in Spain.
 
Christian Horner has suggested that Hamilton's best shot at the title is to back Rosberg up so that he falls into the clutches of Verstappen and Ricciardo; Hamilton, however, says that he won't do it:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127247/hamilton-rules-out-backing-rosberg-up

Meanwhile, he has also suggested that there was more to the story of the crew swaps earlier in the year, but refuses to go into any detail on it:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127249/hamilton-hints-at-story-behind-crew-swaps
 
Christian Horner has suggested that Hamilton's best shot at the title is to back Rosberg up so that he falls into the clutches of Verstappen and Ricciardo; Hamilton, however, says that he won't do it:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127247/hamilton-rules-out-backing-rosberg-up
That could be quite the race tho. I remember when Lorenzo did the same thing to Marquez in Valenica some years ago. Fantastic first laps till race direction told Lorenzo to stop it. Of course you can't compare MotoGP to F1, but it still could lead to some good fights on the track.
 
It will be a Merc 1-2 with however starts on pole will lead from start to finish without being threatened. Same goes for the nr2 spot.
 
Why do I think there will be an early mechanical failure in this race? -

Any midfield battles we should look out for?
 
Will most probably miss a chunk of the race as we getting a new sky box fitted....
 
Pub will almost certainly have the Football on, i can watch it on my laptop.
 
It will be a Merc 1-2 with however starts on pole will lead from start to finish without being threatened. Same goes for the nr2 spot.

If Rosberg gets pole (betting he will) he'll probably not bother and let Lewis pass when he gets the chance.

Hamilton needs Rosberg to get hit or suffer a failure no other way Nico can finish fourth otherwise.
 
If Rosberg gets pole (betting he will) he'll probably not bother and let Lewis pass when he gets the chance.

Hamilton needs Rosberg to get hit or suffer a failure no other way Nico can finish fourth otherwise.

Sure there is, but Hamilton isn't going to do it. He's starting his masochistic winter early.
 
Like I said, he is really loyal to his masochistic life style, even his love of Senna can't stop it. Thus he'll take this self inflicted loss of a WDC

:lol: Let's take another look at it, if Nico ran into him. Can they deduct points for that?
 
Can they deduct points for that?
There is a precedent - Michael Schumacher at Jerez in 1997. But the FIA would need to be certain that he did it deliberately, and that would likely be difficult to prove given that Rosberg has a points cushion. Hamilton stands to gain more from Rosberg retiring than Rosberg does from a Hamilton DNF.
 
Well he is a Senna fan. I'd do it If I was him though.
Why should he do that? Unlike Lewis, Senna was leading the championship when he crashed with Prost in Japan 1990 (I guess that's what you were referring to?). Lewis would need to create a crash that would only destroy Rosbergs car and not his own, while trying not to lose too many positions.
 
It's simply not worth the risk. Sure, everyone points to the Senna-Prost clash as a precedent, but again Jerez 1997 springs to mind. If Hamilton and Rosberg clash, and if Hamilton benefits from it or Rosberg suffers as a result (or both), and if Hamilton is responsible for it, the stewards will throw the book at him. If they do not exclude him outright, they will most likely hand down a penalty that guarantees that he loses the title.
 
Formula1 live from YouTube. Not the race, just a chat with some of the drivers... not bad. Part of a) F1's commitment to more accessible media and b) Coulthard's transition into F1 media ownership?

 

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