2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

[AndyL]

Session times:

Friday 27 Nov
Free practice 1 starts: GMT 9:00 AM, CET 10:00 AM, local 1:00 PM
Free practice 2 starts: GMT 1:00 PM, CET 2:00 PM, local 5:00 PM
Saturday 28 Nov
Free practice 3 starts: GMT 10:00 AM, CET 11:00 AM, local 2:00 PM
Qualifying starts: GMT 1:00 PM, CET 2:00 PM, local 5:00 PM
Sunday 29 Nov
Race starts: GMT 1:00 PM, CET 2:00 PM, local 5:00 PM

[Rollo]

This thread needs cats - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3br0tDqW3r8

[airshifter]

Should be an interesting qually. Nico quicker in practice and hungry for wins. Seb loves the track, and Kimi has done well in the Lotus. Surprising to see Force India up so high in practice. I always enjoy this race.

[Mia 01]

Ahhhhhhh, Kimi p3!!!!

[Nitrodaze]

Rosberg pole with older engine. Wonder if he has taken too much life out of that engine to get pole. Hamilton behind by three tenths of a sec with fresher engine makes you wonder if he is trying or is his gripes about the car a genuine issue for him. Whatever the case, l hope Merc let these guys race each other without interference. It would be great to see a repeat of the 2014 Abu Dhabi race.

It is also great to see Kimi in 3rd place. The Ferrari seemed great on long runs hence may well take the fight to the Mercs. A Kimi win would be great but those Merc are rapid. Perez has really done well to give Ferrari a brief scare at taking the 3rd place from Kimi. 2nd row is still a great place to be, l think he is going to have a strong race.

I was really disappointed the Williams was unable to get one of their cars onto the 2nd row. Shame for Bottas to lose 4th place in the championship. But the race is tomorrow, anything could happen. Vettel 3rd and Kimi 4th would be great for Ferrari. I hope Williams fix their issues before the start of the 2016 season.

[Bagwan]

Rosberg pole with older engine. Wonder if he has taken too much life out of that engine to get pole. Hamilton behind by three tenths of a sec with fresher engine makes you wonder if he is trying or is his gripes about the car a genuine issue for him. Whatever the case, l hope Merc let these guys race each other without interference. It would be great to see a repeat of the 2014 Abu Dhabi race.

It is also great to see Kimi in 3rd place. The Ferrari seemed great on long runs hence may well take the fight to the Mercs. A Kimi win would be great but those Merc are rapid. Perez has really done well to give Ferrari a brief scare at taking the 3rd place from Kimi. 2nd row is still a great place to be, l think he is going to have a strong race.

I was really disappointed the Williams was unable to get one of their cars onto the 2nd row. Shame for Bottas to lose 4th place in the championship. But the race is tomorrow, anything could happen. Vettel 3rd and Kimi 4th would be great for Ferrari. I hope Williams fix their issues before the start of the 2016 season.

Wow , dude , are you a fan or what ?

You wonder if he was trying because he doesn't get pole ?
And , if not that , it was a car issue ?

And , then a stab at Merc for favouring his rival .

Nice to see you start it off with a tip of the hat for Nico , only to knock Nico's off , intimating he may have foolishly taken too much out of the PU to contend .


A "super-fan" , to be sure . Keep it up . Fun to read .



I started writing this post , and when I finished , the post I quoted was 3 times as long .....Weird .
This one is about the first paragraph of that one .

[Nitrodaze]

Wow , dude , are you a fan or what ?

You wonder if he was trying because he doesn't get pole ?
And , if not that , it was a car issue ?

And , then a stab at Merc for favouring his rival .

Nice to see you start it off with a tip of the hat for Nico , only to knock Nico's off , intimating he may have foolishly taken too much out of the PU to contend .


A "super-fan" , to be sure . Keep it up . Fun to read .



I started writing this post , and when I finished , the post I quoted was 3 times as long .....Weird .
This one is about the first paragraph of that one .

Come on buddy, don't dig for the sake of it. Hamilton with a fresher engine would be expected to be within a tenth of Rosbergs best time, even on a bad day. Get real :-)

[steveaki13]

Hey guys.... not been around for any pre race stuff, but here for the last round of a disappointing season.

[steveaki13]

Crazy side by side first lap.

Vettel has a good start

[gm99]

Early out for Maldonado for a change...

EDIT: Not his fault this time...

[gm99]

Williams pit crew working hard to defend their donkey title...Unsafe release for Bottas.

[steveaki13]

Pretty dull race so far after the first lap.

Nico absolutely destroying Lewis again today. 4 seconds clear

[N4D13]

I'm curious about the Alonso-Maldonado incident. Did Alonso move in onto Nasr or did Felipe drive into him? I didn't see the accident really well and the guys at Spanish TV are fuming over Nando's drive through penalty.

Incidentally, unsafe releases are supposed to net you an automatic 10-second stop-and-go penalty, not just a 5-second penalty, aren't they?

[Nitrodaze]

What a crap strategy for Hamilton. The Mercs are not fighting but a procession. Very boring

Daft strategy actually

[Nitrodaze]

Great drive by Rosberg. But a very boring race at the front

[AndyL]

Incidentally, unsafe releases are supposed to net you an automatic 10-second stop-and-go penalty, not just a 5-second penalty, aren't they?

Hmm that's what I thought too. They cracked down on unsafe releases a couple of years ago didn't they, after the incidents with tyres flying around in the pit lane.

[Nitrodaze]

Interesting to hear that Merc allowed both sides of the garage to choose whatever strategy they wanted. If that is the case, the Hamilton side of the garage did not do the tripe world champion great service. A 6 seconds gap is evidence of that. That said, Rosberg drove an excellent race, untroubled of course.

[Nitrodaze]

Hmm that's what I thought too. They cracked down on unsafe releases a couple of years ago didn't they, after the incidents with tyres flying around in the pit lane.

It was unfortunate for Bottas. I hope Williams get their act together for 2016.

[Nitrodaze]

Interesting to hear that Merc allowed both sides of the garage to choose whatever strategy they wanted. If that is the case, the Hamilton side of the garage did not do the tripe world champion great service. A 6 seconds gap is evidence of that. That said, Rosberg drove an excellent race, untroubled of course.

And Eddy agrees and says it like it is.

[Bagwan]

Come on buddy, don't dig for the sake of it. Hamilton with a fresher engine would be expected to be within a tenth of Rosbergs best time, even on a bad day. Get real :-)

I think it's clear that when the car is at it's lightest , it suits Nico's style better now , whereas it suited Lewis before the change .

It takes a super-fan to suggest that when he doesn't get his 50th pole position in the last race of the year , he perhaps wasn't trying .
It would have , for sure , given him a better chance of getting his 44th win , and topped off #44's season quite nicely .
No chance he wasn't trying . No chance at all .

More worrying to him , it sounds , is that he stated that they won't be reverting to the suspension configuration that he liked , so he'll have to find a way around the foible .

Worrying for his fans is that he again questioned even his own side of the garage on strategy mid-race , and given his quote about how they won't change it back , seems to be starting to think they are favouring Nico , fundamentally .
And , paranoia like that , for the set-up tweeter , is his kryptonite .



That's what I think .
And , that post was a compliment .

Seriously , keep it up !

[The Black Knight]

This whole older engine talk I think is a load of nonsense. It's ultimately not going to make much difference. Sergio Perez did 6000km on one of his engines, Rosberg was only at 3600km before today.

In the end Nico was simply faster than Lewis this weekend. This whole talk about an older engine is really the media grasping at straws due to the fact that this has been a pretty poor season overall, I guess they need something to talk about and much of the reporting this season has been grasping at straws to say the least.

At the end of the day it boils down to this, Rosberg won the last 3 races, Hamilton won the previous 3. Hamilton has most poles, wins, fastest laps etc He has absolutely dominated Rosberg. Ask any driver on the grid whose position they would prefer to be in they would say Hamilton than Rosberg because he's now a 3XWDC. If Nico is happy going into the winter with that situation then so be it but I guarantee Lewis wouldn't be happy were the shoe on the other foot. It's just psychological games and at the end of the day it is Nico putting on a big smile to somehow make up to himself for getting his ass kicked for the most of the season. He can take some solace from the last couple of races but it doesn't change anything.

Next year is a new season and we'll see what happens but I can't see see Nico beating Lewis over the course of a season barring massive reliability issues for Lewis. I think there is more to Lewis being beaten than we're being told. To me he hasn't looked fit and healthy over the last 4-5 races. We'll probably never find out for certain the real reason but I'm sure Lewis will come back next year.

[henners88]

I think it's clear that when the car is at it's lightest , it suits Nico's style better now , whereas it suited Lewis before the change .

It takes a super-fan to suggest that when he doesn't get his 50th pole position in the last race of the year , he perhaps wasn't trying .
It would have , for sure , given him a better chance of getting his 44th win , and topped off #44's season quite nicely .
No chance he wasn't trying . No chance at all .

More worrying to him , it sounds , is that he stated that they won't be reverting to the suspension configuration that he liked , so he'll have to find a way around the foible .

Worrying for his fans is that he again questioned even his own side of the garage on strategy mid-race , and given his quote about how they won't change it back , seems to be starting to think they are favouring Nico , fundamentally .
And , paranoia like that , for the set-up tweeter , is his kryptonite .



That's what I think .
And , that post was a compliment .

Seriously , keep it up !

You saw it as Hamilton questioning the team and I saw it as a mid race discussion. Driver to engineer discussing options, quite natural.

I think the fact he doesn't want to revert to an old setup is good news. He wants to learn to adapt, which we know he is very good at based on history.

I know which driver is going into the off season incredibly disappointed and it isn't Hamilton, much to your own dismay I am sure.

[Mia 01]

Very very happy, Kimi on the podium!!!

[Bagwan]

You saw it as Hamilton questioning the team and I saw it as a mid race discussion. Driver to engineer discussing options, quite natural.

I think the fact he doesn't want to revert to an old setup is good news. He wants to learn to adapt, which we know he is very good at based on history.

I know which driver is going into the off season incredibly disappointed and it isn't Hamilton, much to your own dismay I am sure.

My thoughts come on the back of Toto having reminded us all that drivers trying to run their own strategies will come up short every time , which came to the fore after Lewis had questioned them in the last race .

And , apparently , his side of the garage and he , himself were at odds over how to tackle the rest of the race . His engineer had to convince him , reminding him he had more data than Lewis , to make the decision .


And , did he not say he preferred it the way it was before ?
He should be up for the challenge , to be sure , but I not so sure he's happy with 2nd .
I'm quite sure he'd rather have the old config back , rather than to have to adapt .


And , this season was over a few races ago . Lewis won . That's cool .

And , as Nico stated , he would try to win the 3 race mini-championship at the end of the year . He did , and convincingly so . And , that's cool , too .
It's the best he could do at that point .

And , now he might have things tilted a wee bit towards his side going into the winter , and as much momentum as he could get for himself , given that Hamilton had just won the big prize .

[Nitrodaze]

I think it's clear that when the car is at it's lightest , it suits Nico's style better now , whereas it suited Lewis before the change .

It takes a super-fan to suggest that when he doesn't get his 50th pole position in the last race of the year , he perhaps wasn't trying .
It would have , for sure , given him a better chance of getting his 44th win , and topped off #44's season quite nicely .
No chance he wasn't trying . No chance at all .

More worrying to him , it sounds , is that he stated that they won't be reverting to the suspension configuration that he liked , so he'll have to find a way around the foible .

Worrying for his fans is that he again questioned even his own side of the garage on strategy mid-race , and given his quote about how they won't change it back , seems to be starting to think they are favouring Nico , fundamentally .
And , paranoia like that , for the set-up tweeter , is his kryptonite .



That's what I think .
And , that post was a compliment .

Seriously , keep it up !

The problem with your comments is, it is well of base. If you have read any of my previous posts you would find that l hold an equal support for both Hamilton and Rosberg. As a fan, l want genuine racing where Mercedes gives their drivers an equitable and fair opportunity to race each other, particularly since there are no real competition to the Mercedes.

I really was looking forward to a repeat of Abu Dhabi 2014 but got a damp squid instead. So please don't jump to conclusions buddy. As l really don't care which Mercedes driver wins the race, l just want a real duel not some stage managed procession which Mercedes tends to do.

[N4D13]

Now that the season is over, I need to ask - where do I sign up for my $1000 now that Macca has failed to score a single podium?

Also, where is Tazio?

[steveaki13]

Now that the season is over, I need to ask - where do I sign up for my $1000 now that Macca has failed to score a single podium?

Also, where is Tazio?

I am also waiting for the dosh. Maybe Taz is at the bank?

[Tazio]

Never to be one to go back on my word, here are your USDs:
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Enjoy! :angel:

[N4D13]

Diamond.

[jens]

Thanks, Taz. The wallet feels heavy now.:)

[N. Jones]

Is this money back because your FGP team was horrible?
:D

[Tazio]

Hey I had an awesome FGP team, F1 just let me down :angel: