Rate the race: 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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What did you think of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (3%)
  • 9 (4%)
  • 8 (9%)
  • 7 (28%)
  • 6 (24%)
  • 5 (16%)
  • 4 (7%)
  • 3 (4%)
  • 2 (2%)
  • 1 (2%)

Total Voters: 490

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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234 comments on “Rate the race: 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix”

  1. 6/10 from me.

    Not particularly exciting, but not bad, either. Plenty of passing, but not a lot of overtaking. The double DRS zone wasn’t actually that bad in my opinion, it’s just drivers weren’t being particularly clever about it. The smartest way around it was to use the first zone to get close and then concentrate on getting a good exit before the second zone. After we saw Webber fall victim to it at the start with Button, the other teams should have been telling their drivers.

    I wasn’t exactly upset when I saw Vettel spinning at the start, but I was quite annoyed that it meant he had to retire as it would have been brilliant to see him come through the field like in Silverstone last year. I was looking forward to seeing someone challenge Seb and hopefully a good battle for the lead between him and Lewis. Whilst I like seeing people other than Seb getting a win, I prefer it when they beat him by being better, not simply because he had a problem.

    But overall, it was a reasonably entertaining race. I’m just not sure if I liked the DRS. The only thing that annoyed me during the race was the negative comments about Massa on Twitter. I actually thought he did a fantastic job up until his spin and he showed that he is a good racer and he’s improving his pace. I’m convinced he’ll be back to his best soon, but it still pains me to see people picking on him as if they’re better than him or something. Give him a break; he’s been through a lot and he deserves so much more respect than he gets.

    1. Four from me. Not much more to say really.

      1. yep me too.

        1. That would be me three then…

    2. When he had to perform under pressure to beat Webber he span, says it all about him over the last two years really

    3. I had the same thought that it would be good to see Vettel coming up the order.. but alas..

      1. Yeah, I think overall, a 4. The first lap was incredible and gave me false hope, the rest of the race was irritating to say the least. I’m neutral towards DRS but the double zone was ridiculous. Pastor Maldonado alone accounted for about 90% of my irritation. I’m starting to worry that I’m becoming one of those fans losing interest, because I’m genuinely bored less than half way in these days. Of course I’ll still watch and I always will, but I’m losing hope of any reasonable short term solutions for better racing.

      2. Another PR disaster for DRS. Stop the madness…

    4. I pretty much agree with everything Damon said, 6/10.

      1. sid_prasher (@)
        13th November 2011, 16:16

        @damonsmedley: generally agree. For me this was the most boring race of the year…I think if Vettel had stayed we might have seen a good battle between him and Hamilton.
        I think the 2 DRS zones on straights is a disaster…there is no point getting ahead in the first 1 unless the driver has made a mistake.
        As for Massa, it was unfortunate but the best way for him to get people of his back is to get a series of solid results.

        1. sid_prasher (@)
          13th November 2011, 18:31

          after 283 votes, the average is 6.32 – way more than the Indian GP averaged :(
          I cant believe that was even more boring than this…

        2. yes, the DRS overshadowed the race, it was because of the two detection points really didnt work out, it was in my opinion the worst race of the season alonso never challenged Hamilton, the DRS disaster but its good to see Ham win again and that might be a major factor for this poll.

    5. Massa is not a child, he’s not being picked on. He’s also well over 100 points behind is teammate and has had a shocking season.

      Why isn’t he up on the podium with Alonso?

      He deserves the negative comments.

      1. Surely we are now at the stage where the only reason Massa is still in a Ferrari is that he can promote the brand in Brazil.

      2. Its shocking that one driver has had around 10 podiums (including a win), and his teammate has had a season high finish of 5th, and was incredibly pleased with that result

      3. @John H, lets see you get a spring bounce and crush your skull and then get back in and race a car as good as he does. I don’t think he’s had a good season but he’s got one more year to make it otherwise I don’t see him at Ferrari anymore. Massa in my opinion is the 2008 champ until I see Hamilton actually win another championship, which he won’t since Button is the new #1 driver at McLaren.

        1. @Surfinsoljah

          lets see you get a spring bounce and crush your skull and then get back in and race a car as good as he does

          Unfortunately, I don’t drive for Ferrari.

          I also don’t have a problem with Massa retaining his seat in 2012. I just think he deserves negative comments because he hasn’t had a podium all season in a car that is clearly capable.

          And I don’t understand what Hamilton & Button have got to do with it at all.

        2. @surfinsoljah
          Why is he the 2008 champion?

      4. He’s also well over 100 points behind is teammate and has had a shocking season.

        @john-h indeed, Webber’s had a dismal time of it… oh wait, you were talking about Massa.

        1. So? Do you think that by pointing out to another driver who had a bad season, you somehow redeem and excuse Massa’s season performance?

          1. @john-h @andrewf1 Not at all. Massa has had a very disappointing season, he’s been far off Alonso’s pace for the most part and involved himself in far too many incidents on track. I was merely amused at how much negativity is directed at Massa, while I haven’t really seen many comments about Webber’s performance, but perhaps I chose a poor way of calling attention to that. I wonder if perhaps Webber has just kept a lower profile this season.

          2. @Puffy Fair point. I think though its probably due to the fact Massa has been poor for two seasons now, whereas Webber had a pretty good season last year. I know he had to recover from his crash, but it’s been quite a while now.

            If Webber continues on this path next year, expect the voices to be louder.

          3. @john-h yeah, that it probably the most likely explanation, Massa certainly hasn’t been in any real kind of form since his return from the accident. Certainly both Massa and Webber will need to do a lot better next season because there are plenty of other very talented drivers vying for those seats.

        2. @Puffy

          Webber has also had a shocking season.

          I don’t understand your point.

      5. @John-H @Jonathan189 @Todfod

        He’ll be back. I’m not sure if he’ll ever be as good as he was before the accident, but Dr. Sid Watkins once said that it takes 2 years to properly recover from an injury that severe, did he not? I’m optimistic about his chances next year, but having said that, I wouldn’t be too surprised if nothing has changed. It just makes me hate that Hungarian Grand Prix weekend even more.

    6. Five for me and two of those were because somebody other than Vettel won the race. Not that I have anything against Vettel, just that the races have become predictable, boring processions.

    7. 7/10
      I always found something interesting to watch during the race, be it the duel between Massa and Webber, Webber and Button, Di Resta and Buemi, Senna and Glock, Perez and Kobayashi, or any other. There were some good passes, and in one way the second DRS zone was good because it gave a driver who had been passed a chance to pass again, but it was also unfair as someone who maybe had wisely passed another driver found himself behind again.
      The retirement of Vettel not only brought an unexpected result, but also helped us to see a battle for first position in the opening laps, when Alonso was frequently close to being under 1 second from Hamilton, where he would have used DRS and reached his rival faster.
      I’m angry as well with those who pick on Massa, @damonsmedley: he was also unlucky when he hit that debris of a Williams, as the conditions, with dark, make it hard to see a small and black piece of carbon fibre. I believe he lost 3 seconds after that, as he went from 7 to 10 seconds of gap from Button. His spin was unlucky, but he defended very well from Webber, and although he didn’t have Alonso’s pace he kept that of Webber and Button. Sadly when he had a podium opportunity he wasted it again and finished in his usual place: 5th.

    8. Totally agree Damon, I voted a 6 too.

      There was some minor tension (the battle for the lead and the battle for third) but they never really developed into anything, making it quite forgettable.

  2. Certainly better than our other Abu Dhabi races although still lacking true excitement. A 7 from me.

    Great drive by Lewis and Fernando. Maldonado once again proving he isn’t worthy of an F1 drive.

    1. Couldn’t believe the incompetence of Maldonado. It’s disgraceful that Barrichello looks to be without a seat in favour of him because of money. Rubens had a great drive and didn’t put a foot wrong. 12th from 24th was a great result.

      1. He seems to have a bit of a bad reaction when something goes against him.

        1. Yesterday Rubinho was interview after qualifying (he couldn’t set a lap): he was not angry (at least, he didn’t show it). He was calm and said the car had a problem and he was disappointed, but that’s quite a good reaction considering the situation.
          Barrichello might not have reached Q3 when Maldonado did, but it’s hardly a fault with his car. Maldonado did well on those occasions, but in the races he’s been mostly awful. Add to that the Spa incident with Hamilton and today’s blue-flags-ignoring and think if he’s more worthy than Rubens to remain in F1. If Barrichello has remained for so long there must be a reason. Maldonado is here because he brought more money than Hulkenberg.

    2. I think you should lay off Maldonado. He wasn’t the only driver to get in the way (notice Barrichello re-passing the race leader?) and was trying his best to get out of the way. He got it wrong, but everyone makes mistakes. And it’s not like he has a history of getting in the way.

      1. Exactly. Bruno and Jaime also messed around when being blue-flagged, and got drive-throughs.

        1. Maldonado is being demonized because when he came into F1 many people had already decided not to like him because he brought money. What he has had is a perfectly normal rookie season. Di Resta and Perez have both made as many mistakes as him. I wish people would stop overreacting, I mean I’ve read comments on some sites saying Maldonado ranks alongside Ide, Deletraz etc as one of the worst F1 drivers ever. It’s just ridiculous, the hatred in some people.

          1. I was okay with him, quietly impressed with his qualifying and his street circuit know how. A few weeks ago I thought Williams keeping him to fund Kimi was an alright idea. But combined with his petulance in Belgium and his complete idiocy in Abu Dhabi – and with Rubinho being a total class act this weekend – I just want him out. He may be decent, but he’s not worthy of being a Williams driver imo.

          2. Maldonado is not being demonised for being a pay driver – his actions at Spa were simply unacceptable.

            And – while I agree that he wasn’t the only driver to get in the way of the leaders, he did it twice. Once after having just been given a drive through penalty. Hardly using his brain, is he?

      2. I have nothing against Maldonado personally – but even though it wasn’t shown on TV, Alonso’s gap to Lewis dropping a whole second while trying to get around Pastor proves the drive-through was probably deserved. And that’s before the ridiculous few moments with Webber and Massa; first he held them both up as if racing for position, before letting Massa through and chopping back in front of Webber.

        1. He was racing with Alguersuari, the leaders should respect that. The midfield drivers shouldn’t have to sacrifice their own races to get out of the way.

          1. Your comment is wrong. It is the duty of the back markers to get out of the way – thats the whole point of the blue flag rule. Respect the leaders.

          2. I don’t necessarily agree with the blue flag situation these days, but those are the rules. He flouted them twice! If he can’t learn the rules of the Formula, he should probably move on. Petrov maybe a pay driver, but at least his mistakes last year were generally his own and he did seem to learn from them.

  3. 5/10

    One of the most boring races all year, only first lap was entertaining. Also some great midfield battles but they were not broadcasted. Gotta say I’m dissapointed in the last few races.

    1. Same. Webber v. Button and Massa v. Webber was quite interesting. The rest was meh.

  4. some fun battles, (+1) some average ones.. (0)

    Mass and Hamilton didn’t get intimate (-1)

    DRS (-1)

    Vettel Retiring (+1000)

    Ricciardo retiring (-1000)

    so probs a 7 or something? either way.. is it still a “horrible track”?

    1. DRS FTW

    2. Assuming you start your rating at 5 that analysis would make a 4 :p

      Race was a 2/3 for me.

      1. ok, I may have failed maths at high-school!

        2/3 sounds about right though

        1. That being a 2 or 3 out of 10, or a 2/3s – ending up with a 7/10 when rounded up @iamsa8 and @pjtierney?

          1. @aus_steve – cought me out there.

          2. 2 / 3, so it rounds up to 7/10!

      2. So @pjtierney is going to start rating races out of 3, hey? Why don’t we make is some obscure number like 1.7? I’d give it about a 1 in that case. Perhaps 0.9.

        And @Aus_Steve‘s maths is great!

        1. What I’m saying is, at the start of the race nothing’s happened so it’s a 5. Good aspects of the race add points and bad aspects dock points.

          5 + 1 – 1 – 1 + 1000 -1000 = 4

          1. I really should develop a method of evaluating the race.. this could work!

  5. Can’t help but feel happy for Lewis, it’s good for the sport too, to have him firing on all cylinders.

    Not as thrilling as his other wins, but not bad for an Abu Dhabi race.

  6. Probably would have been better if Vettel hadn’t retired. Much like at India, first and second places were never in doubt, and the contest for third was only mildly diverting.

    It had a few more exciting moments than previous races at Yas Marina, but that really is damning with faint praise.

    I wasn’t impressed with all the DRS passes and re-passes in the two zones. That wasn’t racing, that was like watching cars on a motorway.

    If F1 is going to settle for this artificial spectacle as a substitute for real racing, then it will rapidly lose its appeal for me.

    1. That wasn’t racing, that was like watching cars on a motorway.

      Trulli.

    2. The double DRS was just silly. The DRS can be ok when you have on driver actually passing another. However with the two zones they practically canceled each other out. More like a motorway than a raceway.

    3. @keithcollatine – I think the DRS zones were misplaced (possibly in the mad rush to create more passing). It would have been better to include one on the pit straight and one on the back straight, or on the approach to the bottom chicane. Someone had Comment of the Day a few weeks ago when they said that two DRS zones was a bad idea because it would discourage drivers from passing in one zone because they knew they would simply lose the place in the next – so they would hold off and pounce in the second zone.

      The circuit needs work (but I’m willing to bet that the organisers will be gushing with praise for this race and decide against changing the layout), but at least there was something going on from time to time.

    4. What suggests the race would have been any different to India had Vettel not retired, Keith? Brundle himself pointed out that Hamilton was at the limit holding off Alonso so he probably wouldn’t have been in much of a place to attack Vettel.

      1. @Lachie Who knows, but him not being there didn’t automatically make it an exciting race. I’d’ve like to see if he could keep his winning streak going. Losing it because of a puncture is a bit anti-climatic.

        1. Now if Vettel had had a puncture and would have been able to continue and fight back, that might have given a better race.
          I agree that now it only changed the names of the drivers at the top, but not made for better racing. DRS was really too much for me to enjoy seeing cars pass, repass lap after lap.

          For me, it was an OK race on a bad track (“best” so far in AbuDhabi), nothing more.

      2. Where was the proof he was at the limit? Coulthard saw Hamilton being massively held up by traffic one lap and mentioned how much it would slow him down- as a result Alonso caught up about 0.5 seconds (or more) and Coulthard immediately forgot the previous fact and stated that the difference in lap times was evidence that Hamilton was trying his hardest.

      3. This is the problem. How can Brundle know if a driver is at the limit of holding another one off. Brundle and Coulthard make analyses during the races, and they are often liberal with their assumptions.
        The fact they are former drivers doesn’t mean they have absolute insight into a driver’s strategy or ability.
        Hamilton and Alonso were going through traffic, and Coulthard and Brundle busy claiming that Button’s laptimes were fantastic compared to people trying to evade slower cars.
        Kobayashi was using his DRS to get past Perez, only those two saw it as the team letting the lead driver get past. I’m fed up with the patronising comments comming from those two under achievers.
        In my opinion, Brundle and Coulthard doing a lot to mislead their viewers, and should always stick to the facts, instead of resorting to tabloid style commentaries.

        1. I for one have never really felt DC is better than Legard. But that’s me…

        2. It’s as if he’s working for Sky already!

      4. Sorry, but two cars more than 4 seconds apart doesn’t count as “holding off”, or a battle, or excitement, for me. Maybe if you are in a commentary box, with a face full of timing screens.

        This race was too much like the bad old days of fuel stops – what could happen after the next pit stop?

        Still, 5 out of 5 (Abu Dhabi races only go up to 5 for me)

    5. I think having 2 zones was better than 1 though (and I don’t like DRS), as it allowed cars to come back, meaning that at least it wasn’t a simple case of a car breezing past and it being done- having a second zone almost immediately at least does a little to correct the issue that the leading driver can’t defend. Had the second zone not been there we would have seen too many cases of cars passing and then immediately disappearing. As it was we saw a reasonable number of braking battles such as Button-Webber rather than purely ‘slipstream-style’ passes. Having the 2 zones also adds a bit of a strategic element that is missing from DRS otherwise, as drivers have to consider when to attempt a pass. I still dislike DRS, but I think it was far from at its worst here.

      1. I agree with you fully. Nothing was wrong with the DRS. It was competitive, and actually encouraged some good battles.

    6. couldn’t agree more Keith. A track needs some changes but not sure that will happen. I did enjoy the race though so i’ll give it a 6. What the hell is wrong with some of the back markers?

    7. @Keith Collantine

      Probably would have been better if Vettel hadn’t retired.

      With Vettel we would see a domination like Lewis´s today. Sorry for his DNF, but at least we have a different winner this time and no ‘Yabadabadoo’ celebrations.

      A point: The guys from Clip the Apex said in the middle of the race that we had 40 overtakes until that moment. Quite a contrast from 6 in 2009 and 13 in 2010.

    8. What can we the fans of the sport do to stop DRS and how it is presently being used?? Does the weight of a fan base have any affect on rules and the need for change?? Something needs to be done and the comments by Keith are a true reflection of what many of us have said all year long.

    9. My only point, I liked the double DRS zones, nothing infuriated me more than someone who’s slightly faster in a straight line, catching up to someone who’s a sitting duck and being passed with no recourse. That’s what I really hated about DRS. This time, the passer had to make good quickly and get ahead enough so the DRS capable opponent wasn’t able to easily repass. I forget which race (old age syndrome) but watching Michael Schumacher getting passed with nothing to ‘block’ with was infuriating. At least here there was some recourse.
      So much for the defense of DRS, personally I’d like to get rid of it, unless reminded of Alonso being stuck behind Petrov for the length of the entire season last year here. (At least it seemed that long…)

    10. Kieth some how from the previous article, I know you don’t like abu dahbi from day one – no surprises there. But still, you can’t say there was nothing to it. There was a real fight for the lead, mid-field battle, chase for thrid, many passes, nice opening lap scraps and beautiful scenery. It was better than the average race this season. I give it an 8.

      1. you don’t like abu dahbi from day one

        On the contrary, when F1 first went to Yas Marina I was more than prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt. After two dreadful races and one poor one I’m naturally less charitable.

        There was a real fight for the lead

        When?

        At best there was the possibility one driver might jump the other in the pits. That’s not a “battle” in my book. See the closing stages of this year’s Chinese, Monaco, Spanish or Canadian Grands Prix for an example of a battle for the lead.

    11. first and second places were never in doubt

      On the contrary, I think Alonso had a real shot of jumping Hamilton in the stops. I think Hamilton was held up by Rubens and on the radio they told him it would be close. Unfortunately Alonso had traffic on his in-lap, the HRT and then the botched pit-stop.

      Up until then I think it was still up for grabs, although Hamilton was the more likely victor (even if Alonso had come out in front due to the hard tyre).

  7. 6 for me but Vettel-less race adds 1 points. even DRS and Pirellis couldn’t fix the nature of the track.

  8. I’m going to give this race 10/10. Why? Because I think a lot of people are going to give it 1/10 simply because it is Abu Dhabi. And I think the race deserves more than that – because while the racing might not have been the most exciting, there was a whole lot of interesting stuff going on:

    – Sebastian Vettel proves that he is fallible.
    – The Button-Webber-Massa scrap might not have gone anywhere, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good.
    – Rubens Barrichello went from the back of the grid to 12th.
    – We had a good old-fashioned strategy battle between Alonso and Hamilton.
    – In fact, we had half a dozen strategies up and down the grid.
    – The midfield fight between the Saubers and the Toro Rossos and the Force Indias came up.
    – Most importantly, we saw the return of Lewis Hamilton.

    1. @prisoner-monkeys Please just give the race the score you think it deserves. Don’t worry about how other people are going to rate it.

      If everyone did that all we’ll get are people voting 1 and 10 and that will be utterly worthless. You will just spoil the whole thing.

    2. – Sebastian Vettel proves that he is fallible.

      How was what happened to Vettel his fault? Did I miss some news?

    3. God-tier trolling. I actually think you’re right. There’s going to be a tsunami of poor voted from people blinded by hatred of this circuit, I’m afraid to say.

      It was definitely the most exciting Abu Dhabi race ever. DRS did its job by allowing overtaking and we saw some genuinely decent scraps because of it.

      Also, Sauber scored some points. Which is always nice. Especially at this stage of the season.

      1. @Magnificent-Geoffrey We’ve not reached 50 votes yet but there’s absolutely no evidence of this so far.

        It’s so, so depressing to see two long-term users of this site jumping to a negative conclusion about others for no reason whatsoever.

        1. Keith, Abu Dhabi usually gets a mauling from fans. And while their criticisms may be valid, I wanted to draw attention to some of the positives from the race.

          1. @Prisoner-Monkeys And you can do that in the comments.

            But if you start pre-judging other people’s reactions and changing your vote accordingly, then that will end with everyone else doing the same and all the votes getting skewed as I just explained. So will you please not do that?

        2. @keithcollantine.

          It’s so, so depressing to see two long-term users of this site jumping to a negative conclusion about others for no reason whatsoever.

          That’s an excellent point, you know. You’d never catch me doing that, especially not about two curmudgeonly, self righteous, witless, disco-loving, Simon Cowell lookalike old trolls like @prisonermonkeys and @magnificent-geoffrey. *cough*

          1. Fair point. I take criticism from level-minded, thoughtful, considerate and not in any way reactionary posters such as yourself seriously. :P

          2. Disappointed not to get COTD for this one, I have to admit. That’s my natural modesty coming out again, I’m sure.

        3. @Keith-Collantine I apologise if I came across as being overly negative, that wasn’t my intention. I hope I’ll be proven wrong about the low voting. I really do (and, pleasingly, it looks so far like I will be). But I’ve noticed that there seems to be a perpetuating hegemony amongst F1 fans that ‘Abu Dhabi is terrible and we have to criticise it at every opportunity’. I don’t like that. I like to judge each race on its own individual merits.

          Looking at many of the comments on the live blog and on Twitter and elsewhere, I saw a lot of people saying how this was another boring, forgettable race and I felt that wasn’t justified. So I fully expected that I’d find a load of sub-5 votes in this poll reflecting that.

          I gave this race a 6/10. It wasn’t a classic, but it was the best Abu Dhabi race by far. We had many more battles than we usually would do around here and while there wasn’t a battle at the front, we had a different winner, which always helps.

          1. Well, @magnificent-geoffrey, up to now theres almost 200 votes, and its 1 single vote of 1/10 (but 12 people felt it was the perfect race or followed @prisoner-monkeys idea, possibly giving it an unfair vote upwards :-P), so it seems both of your concerns were really premature.

          2. @BasCB Looks as though you’re right, and I’m wrong! I am pleased to see this, but I’ll admit it wasn’t what I was expecting.

            I apologise for being too quick to judge and it’s nice to see some sensibility return to the sport for once!

          3. I voted 5 because that’s what I think.

      2. There’s going to be a tsunami of poor voted from people blinded by hatred of this circuit, I’m afraid to say.

        The irony of it is that the people who vote like this don’t know what actually goes into circuit design. It’s all well and good to say “all new circuits should be like Spa”, but the truth is that good circuit design is like the Higgs-Boson Particle: we’re pretty sure it exists, we’re just having a lot of trouble finding it. During the telecast, David Coulthard said that he had asked Hermann Tilke about the pit lane going under the circuit, and Tilke replied that it was not his idea. Which makes me wonder – what else was not Tilke’s idea? The chicane at Turn 5? The other chicane at Turn 11? The bit under the hotel?

        1. This is incredibly patronising to most f1fanatics.

          1. Sorry PM, misread your post a little. I take it back.

      3. @Magnificent-Geoffrey And what does “God-tier trolling” mean?

        1. @KeithCollantine Prisoner Monkeys knows what he’s doing. He’s giving a race 10/10 to try and wind up those who thought it was rubbish. Whether you think that’s deliberately malicious or just a bit of Aussie banter, I’d call it a fairly obvious attempt to stir people up!

          1. @Magnificent-Geoffrey As I say, all that will end with is other people posting malicious things to “wind people up”.

    4. – Sebastian Vettel proves that he is fallible.

      I don’t think it’s even been ascertained whether the puncture was a result of driver error.

      – Most importantly, we saw the return of Lewis Hamilton.

      To be fair, all he really had to do was keep it on the black stuff and the win was guaranteed.

      1. That’s all Vettel’s had to do all year long.

    5. Just a few corrections Yardbird Primates.

      “- Sebastian Vettel proves that he is fallible. ”

      Sebastian Vettel proves his car (or rather, the Pirelli tyre) is fallible.

      “- The Button-Webber-Massa scrap might not have gone anywhere, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good.”

      It was OK at best. It wasn’t like Hamilton vs Webber in Korea and nowhere near as good as Vettel vs Hamilton in Spain let alone Vettel vs Alonso & Button in Monaco.

      That was excitement lap after lap, this was just “Oh is he gonna get it? No he isn’t… And he’s backed off. Well that was that.”

      “- Most importantly, we saw the return of Lewis Hamilton. ”

      Yeah, after Vettel retired. I would have loved to see him win by beating Vettel or at least fight with Vettel for the lead. This was just… Meh.
      He controlled the race and was faultless but that’s about it really.
      Remember Alonso is in the third fastest car and was able to keep up with Hamilton for most of the race.
      That’s not exactly convincing me Hamilton is back to true form. I hope he is, but I doubt it.

      Overall, a 6 from me. An anticlimactic start followed by an anticlimactic race. 1 point for Hamilton on the top step.

      1. “- Sebastian Vettel proves that he is fallible. ”

        Sebastian Vettel proves his car (or rather, the Pirelli tyre) is fallible.

        Just curious, if the car is responsible for this mistakes is it therefore logically responsible for his successes?

        (Calm down guys just muck raking a little :D)

        1. Well, I’ve learned today that the driver is invariably responsible for punctures, without any supporting evidence necessary. Good to know! I’m sure this will be applied equally to all drivers who get punctures in the future. ;-)

        2. Was the car responsible?

          And was it a mistake?

          Or was it a tyre failure…

          Which could it be….

          10.000 points for the man/woman with the correct answer!

  9. 7 – better than India in my opinion, although it is sad the DRS is needed to allow most of the overtaking. Happy that Hamilton kept out of trouble and performed like he can, Alonso was fantastic and Button did well considering his KERS wasn’t working for part of the race. Webber was the quickest car on track but just can’t get the track position to make it count. Massa the less said the better.

    Would love to know what caused Vettel’s tyre to fail, sure we’ll find out soon enough, quite happy we didn’t see him streaking into the distance once again though

    1. It’s a shame isn’t it? If DRS is required to pass on modern circuits then it will continue to be employed, which lends a facade of quality to circuits that aren’t any good. It’s a self-perpetuating problem.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        13th November 2011, 15:52

        DRS shouldn’t guarantee a pass. When it is physically impossible to defend – it can only be seen as a failure. DRS should enable cars to get alongside each other so they can race but it shouldn’t allow for cars to complete a pass before they reach the corner.

        Hopefully, they’ll use data from this year to tweak activation points next year so it works as it should.

  10. Not a bad race…. Lewis did a good job, a sign of his old form :)… if Vettel hadn’t gone off it could have proved a very interesting race.

  11. 10/10 Lewis won.

    Only joking, 7 slipped into a 6 at the anti-climactic end.

    1. yes, I think a 6/10 is just about fair

  12. First lap was exciting, then the backmakers were rubbish, and there was nothing to see, appart from Mark’s alternative strategy.

    DRS worked, but there was not much excitement on track. Probably it’d have been better with Vettel not suffering that puncture.

    1. I think the worst part about the backmarkers actually was the fact they got penalized!

      Not a clue what Maldonado got his first drive through for though, as I am pretty sure that was never shown (might have been making coffee though ;-) ). With the incident where ALG and MAL were fighting, it really was a bit long, and ALG almost hit Massa. But a few laps later Maldonado really almost drove right off the track to find a place to let Webber past.
      What was clear for me was, that its too hard even to let another car past on part of the track, and in the straights those backmarkers weren’t that much slower to allow guys like Massa and Webber easily past.

  13. 10 for the result. But the race was dull as that result was never in question. The mid-field had a few good bits of racing, as did Webber and Button briefly, but I still found it boring enough to be a 5.

    1. the race was dull as that result was never in question

      I’m pretty sure it was in question for the first five hundred metres given that Vettel had about half a dozen car lenghts on Hamilton before wiping out.

      1. Haha. Taking that distance where the result was ‘open’ as a percentage of the race, it is probably worth about 0.001 extra points. As Keith didn’t have the hindsight to put 5.001 as a scoring option, I will have to settle on 5. Shame on you Keith.

  14. another bizzare short sighted ferarri strategy. Not sure it would of made much difference. But if they kept him out 4 laps longer on first stop which was more than possible as his tyres looked fine. he would of then had an extra 4 laps on top of the extra 3 he already had done against lewis after 2nd stop. This would of (with a half decent stop) put him ahead or very close to lewis after 2nd stop.

    ferrari very very short sighted strategy is hurting them. And is bizzare cos if i could pick up on at his first stop(not later, right at the time). Why cant they?

    i think lewis had it in his pocket really cos mclaren is much faster, but ferrari make life hard for their selves. Thankfully for them they have a stunning lead driver otherwise they would of had no podiums in 2011.

  15. Stunning puncture from Vettel, never saw it coming ;)

    It would be hypocritical of me to say this race was leaps and bounds over the Vettel-bores we’ve had this year, but the simple fact that we saw something different occur in this race makes puts it that shade above for me.

  16. Puncture for Vettel
    Floor damage for Webber
    Kers faliure for Button –

    It could have been a really fun race, with the one-two DRS punch promising a lot of wheel-to-wheel action, and the McLarens seemingly quicker than the Red Bulls which meant we’d really have got to see a show from Vettel.

    But fate intervened :(

  17. 3/10.

    Bring back re-fueling and bridgestone tyres. Get rid of KERS and DRS!

    1. I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU! DRS is ruining F1 completely!

      1. I’d love to see re-fueling back… there needs to be another variable on strategy outside of tires and pit changes. The Pirelli’s don’t degrade as quickly as they did early on in the season… boring race

        1. Refuelling reduces a team’s strategic options.

          If you’ve loaded your car with the fuel for 1/3 of a GP before the race, you have no choice – you must stop then. You cannot run longer, and if you try to go shorter you are leaving performance on the table.

          Thus we would see less jockeying for undercuts / overcuts, less ability to cover other cars, less ability to change strategy mid-race.

          We would also see fewer drivers at different stages of tyre degredation (because again, the pit timings would be more constrained), and so there would be less overtaking.

    2. Yes because refualing would have made things better?

      refueling did nothing but harm the racing which is why the ontrack racing declined from the 1st race refueling was introduced.

      if you like watching racing done in the pit lane then fine bring in refueling, however if you like watching the racing done on the track then keep it away!

      1. The main benefit of refueling is not on race day, but in qualifying – how much fuel do they do their qualifying lap on vs. leaving some in for the start of the race etc.

        1. That is not a benefit, why would anyone want to go back to the nonsense of race-fuel qualifying? Terrible idea.

          Top ten… Reasons race fuel qualifying must go

          14 reasons to love the refuelling ban

          1. If it’s nonsense to you it doesn’t mean it’s to everyone.

            That’s the way I enjoyed racing whether you like it or not.

          2. I agree with Keith on this.

            Refueling was a part of the problem with the non exciting races in the past.

            Teams would just fill up their cars when stuck behind slower ones, the drivers would then simply run longer and that made passing even easier than the “artificial” DRS passes we see today.

            I’m sure glad that parade racing is over.

  18. 8. I really, really enjoyed this race. I’m not a DRS fan but seeing as I’m stuck with it I’ve decided to keep an open mind and I think it worked quite well today. There were some lovely battles throughout the field. I’d have loved to see Vettel carve his way back through but I can’t have everything. Lewis looked reborn (although not forgetting how disastrously things went after Ger), Alo was just perfection, there was a nice three way scrap for the last spot, some good battles and different strategies and a bit of controversy with Pastor. If that had been the season finale I’d have gone away happy.

  19. I gave it a ‘6’. It means nothing, Vettel not winning because as we know the likelihood is, he would have won, if he didn’t have the puncture on the opening lap. Nothing special. Great drive by Nico Rosberg. Hope for better in Brazil.

  20. While one driver controls the gap at the front and eventually wins comfortably, the other has a KERS failure and makes the podium.

    Have McLaren turned into Red Bull?

    1. That explains the blue suits yesterday.

  21. 6/10 for me. Ironically it would have been better with Vettel there, as Hamilton surely had the pace. Even Alonso would have challenged him, but I enjoyed it none the less!

  22. 7,Possibly would’ve gave it a 6 had Lewis not won the race today,Congrats to him Brilliant & Controlled victory.Also a great Drive from Fernando as well.

    I would say today was an average race you would expect from this season,DRS produced something decent although not exciting or spectacular.

  23. It was perfect… ok, ok: just joking. It was a very, very average race, but was nice to see Lewis winning again. The old Lew is back.

    And after all, not hear Vettel´s celebration and Horner radio transmissions was a blessing!

    Race: 7/10
    Lewis win:10/10

  24. 3/10. Two points for the two short scraps between three cars and one point for the slightly different strategies.

    Negatives:
    – Yas Marina. When the highlight of the track is the phallic shaped hotel, there’s something wrong with it.
    – DRS zones so close to each other.
    – Either Pirelli brought a too conservative tyre choice, or the teams are too good at setting up their cars in the latter part of the season. This could’ve easily been a Bridgestone race.

    1. DRS Zones being close together was a good thing. For a change the guy defending actually had a chance to effectively defend by being able to pass back so instantly.

      At least today the guy leading wasnt doomed to be past the moment he was caught, he actually had a chance!

      One of few races i thought DRS actually helped the show, cos it gave equal opportunity to the attacker and defender.

  25. Double DRS zone was terrible, That sort of passing/Re-Passing is just an artificial gimmick which is neither exciting or real racing!

    I don’t like DRS anyway but today it was even more ridiculous.

  26. I gave it a 6… this is based on what I have given other races and on how enjoyable it was. I would have loved to see the double world champion fighting his way up the field but sadly it didnt happen. Pretty dull race… but look forward to the pictures later, they are always lovely at this track.

  27. VINTAGE Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately.

    Enjoyed the opening laps (well, the bits that weren’t hidden behind numerous replays of the start) and Mark Webber’s battles/alternative strategy, but otherwise a bit stagnant.

    6.

  28. 4/10 from me.

    First lap was excellent, but despite threatening to produce some good battles (Massa/Webber, Webber/Jenson, Mercedes) nothing ever really materialised.

    Everyone that is slamming DRS, which would you prefer: DRS providing some (artificial) overtaking or absolutely no overtaking and a processional race? I would personally go for the first.

    1. Id rather watch real racing which DRS isn’t.

      I’d also rather see exciting overtaking which is something DRS does not provide.

      Also the main critisise today isn’t so much DRS, Its the fact that DRS was providing passing/repassing which was completely artificial.

      1. but for a change it was at least a battle as the double zones allowed the guy to pass back.

        surely that is better than the guy behind flying past without a fight. At least now he had to think about the 2nd zone coming up. You cant take away the defenders tools completely.

        1. Disagree, I thought the Passing/Re-Passing was completely ridiculous, If I wanted to watch stuff like that I’d just watch Nascar.

          Even David Coulthard who has refused to critisise DRS all year actualy admitted that it’s artificial & gimmickey.

  29. I would give the race a ten, if for no other reason than that it answers a lot of questions about drivers and the technical features of this season. But, I would really like to know why Button didn’t come over and congratulate his team mate as he did Vettel in the previous race. That clears up a few things, but all in all the race was competitive.

  30. I know the race organizers were desperate for a more interesting race this year… but I think leaving a thumbtack on the apex of turn 2 was taking it a bit too far.

  31. Gonna say a 6.

    Much much much better than the previous two races, but still not a classic.

    I thought DRS was excellent, it created some really good battles, like Buemi and di Resta early on in the race.

    It also proved how improtant and useful KERS is to a driver, by looking at Button’s speed after he regained the KERS Button.

    Hamilton and Alonso drove like a dream, and the race was hugely improved. Whether that was DRS or KERS or what, it was much better.

  32. I saw the race as a five … and the only reason it was that high was from watching the mid-field duke it out for position.

  33. What might have been, if Vettel hadn’t had the flat he was still well ahead of Hamilton on the second corner. If his upright hadn’t broken to see him work it back up through the field would have made this a much better race.
    Not too many exciting bits overall. Button did a fantastic job keeping it together, Webbo’s strategy was interesting, the Speed crew went nutz watching the pit boys lounging to the last change.
    A beautiful view on a mediocre track. 6/10.
    Much harder to determine the #1 driver of the weekend/race though.

  34. 6/10

    It wasn’t that exciting for me personally. It was less boring than the previous two iterations. As said before, there was more passing, but not that much actual overtaking.

    1. “there was more passing, but not that much actual overtaking.”

      And that is the problem with DRS it creates passing & not overtaking.

  35. Pitstop rules should seriously be changed, it should be upto the team to decide on the no. of stops they wanna make. Webber made some interestings passes in the last few laps, but wasn’t much handy cuz of his 2nd last lap stop.
    The race did have some interesting moments with button and webber going full on, and also between di resta and buemi.
    Overall a decent race.

  36. I went for 7. I was disappointed that Vettel dropped out as we didn’t ever see whether Hamilton was actually pushing his hardest holding off Alonso, so their relative pace to Vettel would’ve been interesting.

    DRS in the midfield was a bit of a joke. But interestingly at the front it looked to be a lot more even and less artificial, I don;t know why that would be but it would be interesting to here if anyone else thought that too??

    A controlled win for Hamilton was a big surprise, as was Alonso’s pace in an inferior car, he clearly outperformed the machinery he was given.

  37. Positives:

    Someone other than Vettel won.
    Alonso and Hamilton pushed each other for most of the race. There was a time when I really thought Alonso was going to jump Hamilton at the pits, but it obviously didn’t happen.
    Good strategy choice by Mark Webber to make things interesting at the end, helped by a spin by Felipe Massa – under pressure?
    Great drive by Nico Rosberg, brilliant first lap fight with Michael Schumacher.

    Negatives:

    Practically all of the overtaking moves were made with DRS, which feels artificial and doesn’t hide the fact the circuit is really poor.
    The two DRS zones meant that an overtake in the first was usually nullified in the second.
    Not a lot of genuine wheel-to-wheel fighting after the first lap.
    Cars being lapped interfered with the leading cars too much. I wouldn’t mind seeing the blue flags scrapped altogether, but while it’s there, drivers have to abide by it.
    The big performance gap between the two tyre compounds made almost all the cars go with the same strategy. There wasn’t enough tyre wear to make that an interesting aspect to the race.

    Overall, 4/10. It probably would have been a three if Vettel had dominated once again, as I expect he would have done if not for the early puncture. You could already see how much of a lead he was pulling out at the first corner, as he tends to do.

    1. Also, I can’t believe how 10/10 votes are given to just about every race. Either some people are trolling, or they’re blinded by their love for the winning driver, or they really haven’t watched any classic F1 to see how much better is can be, and has been.

      1. By ‘classic F1’, do you mean Canada and China this year?

        1. I think Canada will be remembered as a classic race, while China probably won’t be, exciting as it was. But I meant the best races in F1 history – there are plenty to choose from!

  38. Rated 5 for the race. Left me wondering when was the last time I really sat at the edge of couch; tapped my hell nervously during the race.

    Thrilled for Lewis’s come back & very disappointed with Schumi’s race pace ; very inconsistent.

  39. 7 from me, as the race was good but not amazing. Good fight between But-Web-Mas.

  40. 9/10.

    I must admit that I’ve fallen in love with this circuit. I love the modern buildings, the lights and the shiny cars.

    I think we saw a very good race, too. There was drama in the 1st corner, there were different strategies, some nice on-track battles and a very meaning win for Hamilton. I think there were too many penalties for ‘ignoring blue flags’ so no 10 but a very convincing 9 from me.

  41. This race is the epitome of everything thats wrong with the sport – it is too artifical, clinical, clean, with an awful track that doesnt punish driver errors and only provides overtaking with silly gimmicks like DRS. The ‘use both tyres’ rule does absolutely nothing but make cars slower and is just as artifical as DRS and KERS.

    You can tell it was a bore-fest by the BBC F1 team dragging out the enquiry into Vettel’s puncture.

    Jake Humphrey: “Seb, what happened?”
    Vettel: “We got a puncture…”

    Also, FOM’s director missed absolutely everything today. Shocking.

    Haven’t heard the name Kenny Handkammer since Murray retired!

    1. ‘Also, FOM’s director missed absolutely everything today. Shocking.’

      Yeah, I gather they were not using one of the usual 2 directors this weekend.
      They have 2 directors which get cycled through the year, One of them is really good (Who used to work on F1 Digital+) & the other is still good but not quite as good.

      Don’t really know much about the guy they used today other than he has directoed coverage for some lower categories in the past.

  42. I enjoyed that, 7/10 for me.

    I think we had some great, close battles, namely Buemi and Di Resta. I couldn’t get my head around that at the time, but I heard he had rear traction issues, resulting in his retirement.

    A shame the final stint came to nothing, Alonso yet again couldn’t get the F150 to work with the prime tyre.

    Kudos to Vettel for doing the right thing and keeping himself busy with the telemetry.

  43. 4/10 for me.
    As I thought, very exciting opening lap, but there wasn’t anything else to watch after that. The DRS was a joke, Buemi passed Di Resta and was passed on the following straight three times. That’s nonsense.
    The battle for third could have been interesting but it was ruined by lapped cars.
    When Vettel got the puncture, I thought it could have been an exciting race, because he had to recover from last place. Unfortunately he had to retire.

  44. petebaldwin (@)
    13th November 2011, 15:49

    I gave it a 7.. If the Championship wasn’t already over, it would have been much more exciting but it would be unfair to reduce the rating based on that.

    As a race in it’s own right, there was some good overtaking (aided by DRS), some boring passing (solely down to DRS) and some interesting strategy.

    As I said at the start though, it all just feels like going through the motions with the Championship already wrapped up. Bring on next year and a fresh start – hopefully someone will be able to challenge Vettel. I don’t like to see a driver retire from a race but I was delighted to not hear “Look at the lead Vettel has built up already!” on lap 2!!

  45. Good race 7/10

    Brilliant drives from Lewis and Fernando!
    KAMUI SCORED POINT!!! WOOHOOO

  46. 5 for me simply because DRS made things look even worse for abu dhabi.

  47. Gave it a 7, some real good wheel banging going on behind Alonso, nice to see Mr Excitement back, just win baby. :)

  48. black (@blackvelveteen)
    13th November 2011, 16:02

    9 from me.

    – Vettel’s puncture makes me scream a lot at home, after a lot of boring
    races in this season
    – Button’s ability to maintain 3rd place despite his troubled KERS
    – Red Bull were failed to get into the podium
    – Button has secured the place above Hamilton for this season..

    1. 9 out of 10… for that? Because one car span off and another finished ahead of two others.

      Blimey, I’d hate to see a race that you rate as a 5.

  49. Harinarayanan (@)
    13th November 2011, 16:04

    Sebastian certainly cannot handle pressure. Good to see Lewis back on form. Managed to hold back Fernando, nursed his tyres cleverly and drove an impeccable race.

    Two DRS zones added some excitement to the race, so not futile.

    This time Yas Marina proved to be better than the last two Grands Prix. Overall I’d give 7/10.

    1. Sebastian certainly cannot handle pressure.

      LOL what? Please do feel free to elaborate on how that was illustrated today.

      1. Harinarayanan (@)
        13th November 2011, 18:09

        He tried very hard to hold back Lewis and as a result of that used too much kerb and paid the penalty.

        1. Man, here Pirelli and everyone are scratching their heads trying to figure out what happened, and you’ve got it solved! ;-)

          Gotta say, though, we might have been watching different races, because he didn’t look to be under much pressure to me. He had a good start and was already beginning to open his customary comfortable lead, and from what I understand he took his usual line through turn 1.

          1. Harinarayanan (@)
            13th November 2011, 19:35

            I might have got it wrong then. Apologies :)

          2. Harinarayanan (@)
            13th November 2011, 19:51

            Yeah. I did get it wrong. Just had a close look at Sebastian’s spin. He wasn’t far off the kerb.

      2. It seems his rear tire had trouble with pressure @aka_robyn, but I agree, it doesn’t seem very likely Vettel doing much to influence it negatively @bgarinarayanan.

        Perhaps, as Vettel said, he hit the curbs a bit too much yesterday, or something, perhaps it was bad luck. But he has been pretty good under pressure this season certainly.

        1. Harinarayanan (@)
          13th November 2011, 18:50

          Don’t you think he pushed more than he should have?

          1. Nonsense. You could see from replays of the start around half the field taking the same line Vettel did. And Vettel got off the line so much better than Hamilton that he didn’t block at all.

          2. Harinarayanan (@)
            13th November 2011, 19:56

            @David A . Read my comment above. I was mistaken.

    2. You sir, are a trolling.

  50. 6, how is this race rated as a 10 by 12 people? Or 1 for that matter. Pleased for Lewis but even he would say that it wasn’t the same without Seb in the race. I suppose he was unlucky in 2009 so what comes around goes around…

  51. 7/10, Good race, not spectacular, but certainly not boring. DRS improved the racing a lot i thought, even if it caused passes then re-passes i would rather see that than none at all. Was great to see Lewis win again, he needs the boost.
    The amount i celebrated when i saw Vettel facing the wrong way on the exit of turn 2 with a flat tyre was almost wrong, but i just loved knowing at that point there was going to be at least a different winner!

  52. A solid 6/10 I think, was dull in parts as Alonso never really looked likely to get near Hamilton, but some good overtaking moves, interesting strategy and some intrigue with Vettel’s puncture.

  53. i thought it was actually quite an interesting race, especcially with the pitstopstrategies and all.

  54. 10 fro me, for 3 very important and unscientific reasons:

    (a) I was there;
    (b) I didn’t have to witness the Vettel finger in person;
    (c) Lewis won.

    1. Heh, not very objective, but good to hear you enjoying it!

      1. Yeah, the number I actually clicked when I voted was a lot lower than 10. ;)

        1. I hope you had a really good time in the grandstands. Any special highlights for you?

  55. Dont no what your all moaning about, the track is challenging for the drivers, its not all about over taking you know! great strategies going on, very interesting race… the best man won, great job lewis… 9 out of 10!

  56. 7 for me – started off doing the ironing rather than glued to the live timing applet, but was gradually drawn away from the laundry. Brilliant drive from Hamilton, great chase from Alonso, and some good battles further down the field. Massa though. Poor chap.

  57. 6/10

    It was OK, and the spectacle of the double DRS zones was mildly amusing, but I still think that people have this misplaced fixation on overtaking instead of racing and that annoys me. The DRS, while arguably better here than some other places, is still too artificial.

    I’m not a big fan of this new F1. I’ve found myself getting either frustrated or bored, and there have only been a couple of standout races so far. This is the first time in years where I haven’t really cared about a race, and to be honest, Sky could hardly have chosen a worse time to take on F1 coverage as many disillusioned fans look to MotoGP and touring cars for their motorsport kicks.

  58. The most exciting Abu Dhabi GP, but that’s not saying much. Verttels early exit left his usual job of leading with control to Hamilton and he did it. Not too much passing and a lot of gaps (cars got strung out easily), maybe as good as India which doesn’t say much.

  59. Christopher Vissing
    13th November 2011, 17:27

    6

    great first lap battles, but generally a little bit dull.. would’ve been great to see vettel fight through the field, and a battle for 1st between hamilton and alonso at the end, haven’t alonso’s chances been spoiled by bad pitstops..

  60. People complaining the race was boring. . Maybe its because the guy who always bring the excitement was out in front for a change instead of Vettel. . . *just a thought*

    1. People complain just as much when it is Vettel leading.

  61. I gave it a 4. No real contest for the lead, the battle for 3rd flattered to deceive after the early laps, midfield battles were mainly down to DRS, which I thought was ridiculously easy on this circuit. As a comment above me mentioned, the FIA should concentrate on encouraging close racing, not inventing artificial overtaking. The DRS has again left me feeling that it’s nice to see overtaking, but I almost feel ashamed to watch that happening in my favourite sport in a way.

    It surprises me that most people are giving it 6s and 7s, but I think that’s mainly because “it wasn’t bad for Abu Dhabi”. We’ve had much better races this year given lower scores.

    It’s nice to see Hamilton win again, but in terms of the actual racing, it didn’t make a lot of difference.

  62. I find it interesting in a sad way that it has been virtually impossible to see a fight for the win. Initially thought it was all about Vettel, but Lewis demonstrated today that any top-notch driver who happens to be leading after 5 laps will somehow maintain a gap to the pack. With this in mind, surely the race wasn’t that different from the vast majority of races this year. The only difference was the car/driver in front…

  63. I gave it a 7. Vettel going off at turn 1 added a bit of excitement although I agree I would have loved to see him fight through the field. Some very good battles in the midfield pack. I think DRS was good and bad. Good in the sense that it helped make overtaking possible and bad in the sense that the got the positions a bit wrong so that most overtakes made in the first zone was cancelled out in the second one.

    Roll on Brazil!!!

  64. 4/10 – pretty boring really. Vettel retiring took about 1/3 of any good fight at the front away and we might have been able to find out if McLaren was really better than Red Bull today. KERS issues kept Button slower but no real dog-fights at the front other than Massa/Weber for a few laps. The race struggled to a 4 for the tire strategy Weber took, the little scrap, Button slowing and looking vulnerable, and that’s it. The rest of the pack are in a differnt league and we did not see much coverage of them anyway. Pretty boring circuit overall, despite the pretty lights. And the “suspense” whether someone will pile it in that pit tunnel.

  65. 9 was good 10-1 thats for vettel ret.

  66. Nearly half of the people who have voted rated the race 7+. Are you crazy?! 7 out of ten?! In my book that means it’s a great race, loads of real overtaking, different strategies, not many boring moments.

    Jog on.

    1. I totally agree. I mentioned it already in an earlier comment. As of right now, 17 people gave it 10/10, which must mean they considered it to be one of the best F1 races in history.

      Somehow I doubt that in years to come, people will rank Abu Dhabi 2011 alongside Brazil 2008, Japan 2005, Belgium 2000 Europe 1993, Spain 1986…

      Oh well, everyone’s entitled to an opinion, even if their opinion is wrong.

      1. Hits the nail right on the head. I doubt even one of those who voted 10/10 actually did it with any conviction.

    2. I guess it depends on how you rate races. For myself, I would not quickly give a race lower than a 6, and if I did, it would mean that F1 had somehow underperformed for me that day. However, I enjoy almost all races I watch, and I enjoyed this one too. There were battles on track, in the pits, and on strategy, and seeing Hamilton win just put a big smile back on my face. Perhaps we have been spoiled with action-packed races this year, but in years past there was often also not that much action on track. I enjoyed watching then, and I enjoy watching now.

      1. I get your point. For me too, I enjoy all the races. But the point is that I enjoy some more than others.

        What was there to get really excited about in this race though? Hamilton wasn’t really made to work for his win, he had bags of time in hand over Alonso. All the ‘overtakes’ came courtesy of the DRS – no real skill was involved.

        Let’s be honest, to rate this more than a 7 is a joke.

    3. “loads of real overtaking”

      Where was that then? All the ‘passing’ I saw was artificial because of the Dumb Racing Solution!

      1. That’s exactly my point

  67. 7. webber made it

  68. Mable Mable arms off the table
    13th November 2011, 19:20

    I am so glad Vettel DNF’d once I saw him take the lead I was picking up my remote to turn off the TV (i’d rather go back to sleep than watch him take a 15 second lead and cruise to victory) then boom he was out and at least you saw more interesting pit strategy when it came to P1

  69. 1

    I must admit, we had a little few battles which were more than just DRS passing/repassing, but I think @Keith Collantine, said it best above:

    That wasn’t racing, that was like watching cars on a motorway.

    And since I would never even consider to watch a motorway for leisure, I cannot give any more points than this. Here the bad outweighs the good for me.

    Furthermore, on DRS / tracks:
    – if a track produces bad races, it should be altered or never host a race again
    – DRS should be adjusted or banned for boring tracks. For classic tracks it should be banned; I have said before that I liked it in Barcelona, where it added to the suspense. The defending party shouldn’t become a sitting duck, but instead have a really hard time defending against the other car. I know that this also depends on the two cars and drivers involved, I mean Schumacher is always hard to pass, but I have a thourough dislike for the flying past ‘action’ we saw today.

  70. 7/10, seemingly agreeing with the majority here..

    For a track that’s received far more than it’s fair share of criticism this year, I think the race exceeded expectations.. The only thing I can say that really let us down is Vettel’s retirement.. Me and my Dad were watching in anticipation to see if he could get back to the pits to just put on a fresh pair of tyres and try and cut through the field.. I guess we’ll never know if we were robbed of Vettel’s best performance yet..

    Also, a shame he’s now missed out on Schumi’s 2004 record and Clarks percentage record.. Knowing how fascinated Vettel is about those stats, he’ll be very disappointed to retire so early.. Something like that only really comes once in a career, I’d be surprised if Vettel manages domination like this year’s in 2012

  71. Im not sure that the poor races at Abu Dhabi have all been down to the actual circuit design.

    There was 2 GP2 races this weekend & both were brilliant & featured lots of real overtaking without the need of silly gimmicks. Past GP2 races here have also been pretty good with a fair bit of overtaking.

    Other categories I have seen race the full GP circuit have also been pretty good, Its just been the F1 races which have been poor.

  72. Five. There was nothing special about that race. The Pirelli ‘cliff’ has been eroded away into a gentle incline, the double DRS just left everyone back where they started and none of the drivers were clever enough to wait until the second of them to overtake for the first time.

    And all the sunsets and sparkly hotels in the world were ever going to change that.

  73. first few laps were good, gave it a five, on reflection that seems a bit high, fell asleep about lap 40 – 47, woke up to see nothing had changed,good to see hamilton back to his best
    I think the cameras missed a few tricks as there were some good close up shots going through the chicanes, but not enough were shown.
    didnt watch the red button, went out to the garden to play catch up

  74. nearly forgot, it was good not to see horners foot for once!!!!
    in fact it was good not to see horner (and marko)at all, so for that reason alone i,ll change from a 5 to a 6!!

  75. I think the problem is in how the poll is structured. Many people compare a 10 point system to grades and in different places grades are different – USA: 7/10 = average, in Britain, Canada etc it’s 6/10. Others compare to a bell-shaped distribution and see 5.5 as the middle (5 above and 5 choices below middle) and so rate 6 as average since they can’t score 5.5.

    Maybe the polls should have a diffferent scale – out of 7 like marketing surveys, with 7 perfect, 1 the worst ever, and 4 average. On that scale I’d give this race a 3. Maybe a 4 on a very charitable day. We’ve had a run of really lean years though, so overall maybe our audience standards have slipped? Look up “French Grand Prix Villeneuve Arnoux” on youtube and you’ll see my point if you don’t remember action!

    On the plus side, Button and Weber did bang wheels today so I raise my original score to a 5.

    1. Since when has 7 been considered half way between 1 and 10?

  76. THE most boring race of the season hands down and it was the one where Vettel actually retired. Even the way he retired was a snooze fest. If Hamilton at least caused the puncture by touching him it would have brought in some controversy.. or if Vettel was able to continue and chase down the front runners, but unfortunately the whole race had below par written all over it. A very generous 3/10 from me.. shame.

  77. 8/10

    I’m usually pretty harsh on Abu Dhabi, but the race this weekend was pretty good viewing.

    Webber’s incredible third quarter push, Hamilton’s defending from Alonso, Alonso’s start and subsequent chase, the Button/Massa/Webber battles, the mid-pack battles between Force India/Renault/Sauber, the early battling between the Mercedes drivers, and even the back markers had their moments.

    I also thought the coverage was better than usual. They seemed to cover most of the overtaking all over the track, and not just follow the guy out front for lap after lap like they tend to do. They also skipped most of the pit stops, which is a plus in my view.

    Solid race overall. Entertained throughout.

    1. not sure Lewis ever had to ‘defend’ his lead. It never got under 2.5 seconds did it?
      There was much more than the other 2 races here but I always felt Hamilton could open the gap when he needed to and if we’re being consistant with other similar races its about a 6/10

    2. I agree. I didn’t find this at all boring and it was certainly the best at Yas so far. A lot of whinging going on in the first five pages of posts so I skipped that.

  78. 6/10

    This was a better race than India, but only just. Vettel’s puncture and some near misses in the midfield during the opening laps had me hoping for a good race, but it was not to be.

    Though I’m loving a Hamilton victory, he did today exactly what Vettel’s done all year. He built a gap, and maintained it. Button had an interesting race, but how much of that was down to KERS issues I don’t know.

    My biggest peeve is the DRS. I like the system’s goal, but today was a farce, surpassing Turkey and Canada in the race for the “Most LOL-worthy DRS Zones” award. The first zone worked well enough, and made for some really nice overtakes in the chicane section (Webber on Button comes to mind), but the second one ruined it. It put drivers in an odd position of either compromising their own corner approach to get the second hit of DRS, or go for it only to be re-passed.

    Next year I think we only need to have one zone, down the back straight into the 7-8 chicane. We didn’t see cars completely blow by here, the chicane is wide enough for two, and the car behind can strategically save KERS to counter attack into 9-10-11. Also, removing the 3-4-5 complex and replacing it with a wider hairpin may help things along.

    Maybe we’ve just been spoiled by some amazing racing this year, but this one felt like a clinical race, just a stopgap until we can get to Sao Paulo.

  79. Well, the start was very exciting but that’s to be expected. The middle of the race was quite dull. I found DRS overtakes to be too artificial, but they definitely made the race more exciting. I think with DRS, people need to give it this whole season so that the FIA can evaluate the gains made on specific tracks, and hopefully they will tweak and fine tune it to get cars side by side into the next corner, I believe this is the target result. 6/10.

  80. The double DRS zone explained everyone about “Newton’s third law of Motion” even he wouldn’t have believed that students will be taught with examples moving @ 300 km/h.I rated it 5 not too many actions for the lead all overtaking were in the DRS,but one good battle between Button & Webber. FIA need to stop the idea of double DRS zone in the future.

    1. I don’t mind the double DRS but not when they’re that close. Perhaps on two completely separate parts of the track – which pretty much means nowhere else at Yas Marina.

  81. 7.

    The big disappointment for me was Vettels puncture. The Vettel/RBR consistent domination and well consistency was something special in itself. That ending left me a little flat.

    Although I think Vettel looked to be charging away as usual we will never know if Lewis could have made a fist of it during the race.

    On the upside I have to love Jenson, KERS out great battle with Webber. Really clever driving by Button. Or is it that Webber is just hopeless, he is really embarrassing himself out there I think. I like Jenson and am not a fan of Webbers so I’ll say a bit of both actually, Jenson great drive Webber woeful. Great fun to watch these two.

    I am not a fan of Alonso but don’t dislike him either. I really admire the fact that he is one of the top drivers arguably the best and he is no prima donna, his work ethic impresses me. The result he got today was a result of him and him alone. Very exciting to watch him, I did feel like he might be in there with a chance during the race.

    Still, a really pretty place Yas. Lovely to watch the gorgeous scenery and the beautiful cars under the amazing lights.

    There were a few other interests but is Maldonado being craze racing or just a side show detracting form the sport.

    This was the first race this season I found myself drifting off and actually looking at things on the net during the race. Not a great sign.

    1. So if WEB is embarrassing himself HAM must be a right wally. He’s won three races and he still trails WEB in the points this year – as he did in 2009 and 2010. Must be really tough on the wonderboy to have trailed such an embarrasment for three seasons let alone having him place in front of the boy God two out of every three times they’ve raced since 2009. Hang on … Your name is Brundle isn’t it, come on ‘fess up.

      1. Yeah web has always been hopeless in my opinion, his longevity in F1 has been a mystery to me.

        Seb had heaps of mechanical DNF’s last year. Mechanical DNFs out, Seb owned Web again.

        Web has the best car. Web qualifies relatively poorly and then goes backwards losing places at the start every race.

        Your attempt to compare stats when they were in different cars is unhelpful. The best comparison is when they are driving the same car. Seb has absolutely murdered Webber.

        I also wasn’t a big fan of Web whining to everyone about his car when his team gave him the fastest car on track. As Seb said last year web should get help form the medical team.

        Seb is awesome and in form at the mo, and Web is an ordinary driver having a really bad run in form.

  82. better than last two years.i’ll go for 6/10.

  83. I have no idea why this race rated so highly, it was a complete snooze feat yet again! No real drama or excitement, plenty of artificial overtaking but no real skilled passing moves, what happened to the pirellis we had at the start of the year?! I hope to god next season is better than this!

  84. This race was the first time in years that I was so bored that I turned it off to do something else. I can’t remember the last time that happened.

  85. I gave it a 6/10.

    Even though I enjoyed Vettel dropping out of the race and especially Christian Horner’s face it did take away some of the drama from the race. Vettel hasn’t had an equal this year and it would have been awesome to see whether Hamilton could challenge him. Hamilton seemed to be on fire all weekend but we all know too well that practice times mean nothing when it comes down to the race.

    As a race at Abu Dhabi goes, it was exciting and was good to see the Button, Webber and Massa fight. Apart from that it was interesting to see different strategies at work such as Webber and Di Resta but other than that it was pretty much a non-event. Glad we had someone else on the top step and a great job by Alonso to take 2nd.

  86. Not a great race I rated it a 6.5 rounded up to a 7.

    I was hoping Alonso would have been able to come out in front of Hamilton after his last pit stop and so we would have been treated to a battle for the lead but it wasn’t to be.

    I am in two minds about DRS. It provided some entertainment with one driver overtaking in the first zone then being retaken in the second, but overall I felt it was a bit too artificial and overtakes made thanks to DRS just don’t impress me as much as regular overtaking manoeuvres.

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