Background
Jenson Button had secured the title of World Champion in Brazil , but only two points separated the second-placed and third-placed Sebastian Vettel and Rubens Barrichello . Brawn GP was declared Constructors' Champion in Brazil with Red Bull second, but third position overall was still undecided between McLaren and Ferrari . Tyre supplier Bridgestone selected the medium and soft tyres for the Grand Prix weekend.
Practice
The sessions were dominated by the McLaren team, with Lewis Hamilton spending most of his time on or near the very top of the timing sheets. He set the early standard in the first session, producing a fastest lap of 1:43.939. Teammate Heikki Kovalainen struggled initially, but eventually set the fastest time of the second session – 1:41.307, two-tenths of a second faster than teammate Hamilton. – and retained his pace in the third. At Ferrari , both Kimi Räikkönen and Giancarlo Fisichella struggled, spending most of the weekend at the bottom of the timing sheets, though a pair of last-minute one-lap charges by Räikkönen saved the team from total embarrassment. Fisichella was less than impressed with Yas Marina's underground pit exit, claiming it was both very difficult and dangerous, despite it remaining incident-free. Like Ferrari, Renault struggled all weekend. Unlike Ferrari, neither Fernando Alonso or Romain Grosjean were able to do much about it, simply unable to find speed around the circuit. Alonso, however commented that the Yas Marina circuit was enjoyable, stating that there was always something to do. Kamui Kobayashi continued to impress in what was only his second outing for Toyota , frequently out-pacing teammate Jarno Trulli , and at one point setting the third-fastest lap time. However, Kobayashi's program for the weekend consisted mostly of doing dummy qualifying runs, while Trulli was focusing on pace over an extended period, meaning the difference between the two drivers was not as great as it appeared to be. The Toro Rosso drivers continued their trend of being the very first out in the early sessions. Sébastien Buemi demonstrated that his pace in Japan and Brazil was no one-off, and he spent most of the practice sessions near the top of the timing sheets and was the first person to break the 1:40.000 barrier in the third practice session. Jaime Alguersuari was less receptive to the circuit than others and was over-shadowed by his teammate until a hydraulics problem sidelined him for the duration of... Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel also had strong sessions, hinting at a pace that would eventually show itself in qualifying. After Hamilton set a time a second faster than anyone else in the third session, it was Vettel who led the rest of the field in making up the gap, however both drivers would finish outside the top ten. Williams' Nico Rosberg echoed Alonso's sentiments that he liked the circuit, stating that every corner was 'unique'. However, both he and teammate Kazuki Nakajima had an inconsistent weekend, alternating between the bottom end of the top ten and running as low as fifteenth.
Qualifying
Hamilton once again topped the second session with another lap time under 1:40.000, though this time Sebastian Vettel was able to break the same barrier as well, the only other person to do so all weekend. By the time the second session had come around, night was falling over the circuit, and with it the track temperature dropped. Despite the cars carrying less fuel in the second session, the difference in lap times between Q1 and Q2 was noticeably smaller than at other races, with many of the d... The third session was unique in that once the drivers left the pits, they stayed out for the duration; in previous races, they have gone out once at the start and once at the end, or simply waited until the final few minutes to set a time. This was attributed to the tyres, as it took several laps for the drivers to get either compound up to a working temperature. Lewis Hamilton remained in the pits while the other nine took to the circuit. The lap times started falling as the drivers did several... Cars that use the KERS system are marked with "‡"
Race
Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber gave Red Bull their fourth one-two finish of the season, with Vettel finishing seventeen seconds ahead of his teammate. The final few laps saw Jenson Button begin to rapidly reel in the second-placed Mark Webber, whose rear tyres were steadily beginning to lose grip. Button caught up with him with six laps to go, and the final lap was one of the hardest-fought of the season. Both drivers made an error going into the chicane and hairpin, and while Button attempted to make a move on Webber going down the back straight, the Australian defended his line into the switchback. The move meant that Button had the racing l... Cars that use the KERS system are marked with "‡"
Race Result
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Part 1 | Part 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1‡ | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:39.873 | 1:39.695 |
| 2 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1:40.666 | 1:39.984 |
| 3 | 14 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:40.667 | 1:40.272 |
| 4 | 23 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:40.574 | 1:40.421 |
| 5 | 22 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:40.378 | 1:40.148 |
| 6 | 9 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:40.517 | 1:40.373 |
| 7 | 5 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:40.520 | 1:40.545 |
| 8 | 6 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:40.558 | 1:40.635 |
| 9 | 16 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:40.842 | 1:40.661 |
| 10 | 12 | Sébastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:40.908 | 1:40.430 |
Championship Standings After This Race
The Paddock Breakdown
Barry · Gary · KatGary — 33 · Three Fantasy F1 leagues
The air in the garage was thick with a different kind of tension tonight – not just the usual pre-race jitters. Renault's RS26 turbocharger, spitting out a frankly obscene 900 horsepower at Yas Marina, was the silent architect of Vettel's victory, a brutal display of raw power that McLaren simply couldn't match. Hamilton's retirement, a catastrophic brake duct failure, felt less like an accident and more like a consequence of pushing that MP4-24's engine to its absolute, and frankly, unstable limit. Don't be fooled; the strategic gamble on those softer Bridgestone tires was a miscalculation of monumental proportions.
The air in Yas Marina tonight is thick with more than just exhaust fumes – it's the scent of calculated risk. Hamilton's retirement, a catastrophic brake failure, conveniently obscured a rather glaring trend: McLaren's pole position dominance, a staggering 13 out of 17 races this season, simply evaporated with the tires. Don't be fooled by the celebratory champagne; statistically, the Woking team's peak performance coincided precisely with the rise of Red Bull's sheer velocity. Consider this: a 13-to-4 disparity suggests a fundamental shift in the balance of power, one the strategists at McLaren are undoubtedly scrambling to understand.
Kat — 30 · Technical journalist
The air in the Mercedes garage hung thick with a silence that screamed louder than any engine note. Ross Brawn, meticulously adjusting a telemetry readout, didn't even glance up as Nico Rosberg brought in his helmet. The whispers, of course, had started with the arrival of the McLaren team – a blatant, orchestrated attempt to leverage Hamilton's retirement for a strategic advantage. Brawn knew the game; a calculated gamble, fueled by the inherent instability of this young German driver. He just hoped his team had anticipated this particular brand of desperation. The shadows lengthening across the Yas Marina, mirroring the shifting power dynamics of this sport.
The rain hadn't bothered Vettel, not a whisper. He was a predator, wasn't he? Watching Hamilton's retirement, a flicker of something almost… amused crossed his face. Let the McLaren strategists fume; they'd been so certain, so reliant on that late-race gamble. It's a curious thing, this sudden mechanical failure – almost as if someone *wanted* to see the championship shift. Don't mistake ambition for malice, but a man with a title to seize will always find a way. The Brawn team, bless their engineering brilliance, were left to swallow their pride, a bitter pill for a team that had so thoroughly dominated.