| 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 17 of 17 in the2009 Formula One World Championship
| |||||
 | |||||
| Race details | |||||
| Date | 1 November 2009 | ||||
| Official name | 2009 Formula 1Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | ||||
| Location | Yas Island,Abu Dhabi,United Arab Emirates | ||||
| Course | Yas Marina Circuit | ||||
| Course length | 5.554 km (3.451 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 55 laps, 305.470 km (189.810 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Dry | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Time | 1:40.948 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | |||
| Time | 1:40.279 on lap 54 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Red Bull-Renault | ||||
| Second | Red Bull-Renault | ||||
| Third | Brawn-Mercedes | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (officially the2009 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix)[1] was the seventeenth and finalFormula One motor race of the2009 Formula One season. It took place on 1 November 2009 at the 5.554 kilometres (3.451 mi)Hermann Tilke-designed[2]Yas Marina Circuit. It was the inauguralAbu Dhabi Grand Prix and also the first ever day-night Grand Prix (starting at 17:00, with sunset at 17:43 on raceday).
The race was won bySebastian Vettel forRed Bull, with polesitterLewis Hamilton (driving forMcLaren) having retired due to a brake failure.[3] This was the last Formula One race forKazuki Nakajima andGiancarlo Fisichella and theBrawn GP,BMW Sauber andToyota teams (respectively). As of 2025[update] this is the last F1 race to feature in-race refueling, as the practice was banned for the2010 season. It was also the last Grand Prix appearance of aBMW-powered car in Formula One.
Jenson Button had secured the title of World Champion inBrazil, but only two points separated the second-placed and third-placedSebastian Vettel andRubens Barrichello.Brawn GP was declared Constructors' Champion in Brazil withRed Bull second, but third position overall was still undecided betweenMcLaren andFerrari.
Tyre supplierBridgestone selected the medium and soft tyres for the Grand Prix weekend.[4]
This would be the last race in Formula One forNico Rosberg atWilliams and for Robert Kubica (replacing Alonso atRenault in 2010) at BMW Sauber. This would be the last race for Nick Heidfeld until the2010 Singapore Grand Prix.
As in Brazil,Kamui Kobayashi continued to race forToyota asTimo Glock was ruled out after he was injured in a crash at theJapanese Grand Prix during qualifying.[5]
In keeping with FIA regulations that state the practice and qualifying sessions must be run under the same conditions as the race, the practice sessions were run in the late afternoon and early evening so as to simulate the transition between day and night.
The sessions were dominated by theMcLaren team, withLewis 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.[6] TeammateHeikki 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.[7] – and retained his pace in the third.
AtFerrari, bothKimi Räikkönen andGiancarlo 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,[8] despite it remaining incident-free.
Robert Kubica stopped on the circuit halfway through the second practice session with a suspected engine failure. The Pole, down to the last of his eight racing engines, was running with a used engine at the time, thus preventing the need for him to take a grid penalty.Nick Heidfeld spent most of the sessions at the tail end – at one point unable to explain why he was over two seconds slower than Kubica – until his final runs in the last session, which elevated him into the top ten.
Like Ferrari,Renault struggled all weekend. Unlike Ferrari, neitherFernando Alonso orRomain 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.[8]
Kamui Kobayashi continued to impress in what was only his second outing forToyota, frequently out-pacing teammateJarno 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.
TheToro Rosso drivers continued their trend of being the very first out in the early sessions.Sébastien Buemi demonstrated that his pace inJapan andBrazil 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 the third session.
Red Bull driversMark Webber andSebastian 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'.[8] However, both he and teammateKazuki Nakajima had an inconsistent weekend, alternating between the bottom end of the top ten and running as low as fifteenth.
Force India'sAdrian Sutil commented that he preferred Abu Dhabi overMarina Bay inSingapore as it was easier to see around the Yas Marina circuit.[8] After being limited by brake problems early in the first session, he eventually took to the circuit. Like teammateVitantonio Liuzzi, his occasional bursts of speed were soon overrun by the other drivers.
Jenson Button spent most of first practice exchanging blows with Hamilton, responding to each of Hamilton's fastest laps with one of his own. The trend continued into the third session with Button prevailing, setting a 1:40.625,[9] two-thousandths of a second quicker than Hamilton.Rubens Barrichello had a relatively anonymous string of practice sessions, finishing within the top ten on each occasion, but never quite having the pace of his teammate.
_on_Sunday_at_2009_Abu_Dhabi_Grand_Prix.jpg)
Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in the first qualifying session, becoming the first man to set a lap time of less than 1:40.000 with a 1:39.873. Fellow BritonJenson Button was the only other driver who came close, with his best lap time half a second slower than Hamilton. For the fourth race of the season – afterLuca Badoer inValencia andSpa, andGiancarlo Fisichella atInterlagos – aFerrari qualified in twentieth and last place, with Fisichella finishing one second behindKimi Räikkönen and two behind Hamilton. Joining Fisichella in an early elimination were theForce Indias ofAdrian Sutil andVitantonio Liuzzi and theRenaults ofFernando Alonso andRomain Grosjean afterJaime Alguersuari relegated Alonso to fifteenth place in the final few minutes of the first session.
Hamilton once again topped the second session with another lap time under 1:40.000, though this timeSebastian 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 drivers struggling to improve upon their first-session times.Heikki Kovalainen came to a halt on the circuit with a gearbox failure, which would afford him a five-place penalty for the race. Elsewhere, the second Ferrari ofKimi Räikkönen was eliminated, as were Jaime Alguersuari andKazuki Nakajima.Kamui Kobayashi was also eliminated after qualifying twelfth, just one place behind his starting position inBrazil.
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 laps, withJenson Button andJarno Trulli exchanging lap times before Hamilton emerged and took the provisional pole.Sebastian Vettel andMark Webber both went faster, only for Hamilton to secure a front-row berth on his final lap with a 1:40.948 and leaving Vettel and Webber second and third respectively.Rubens Barrichello slotted into fourth, while Button edged out Trulli for fifth. TheBMW Saubers ofRobert Kubica andNick Heidfeld took seventh and eighth, followed by theWilliams ofNico Rosberg in his final race for the Grove-based team, andSébastien Buemi taking tenth on his twenty-first birthday.
Sebastian Vettel andMark Webber gaveRed Bull their fourth one-two finish of the season, with Vettel finishing seventeen seconds ahead of his teammate.
Lewis Hamilton led the race from the start, but did not open a singularly impressive lead as was expected, and Vettel stayed within a few seconds of him during the early phase of the race. There was contact betweenRubens Barrichello and Webber in the first corner, with Barrichello losing a part of his front wing, which hurt his pace to begin with. The first lap was otherwise clean.
_on_Sunday_at_2009_Abu_Dhabi_Grand_Prix.jpg)
Vettel leap-frogged Hamilton during the first round of stops before theMcLaren pit wall reported that Hamilton had a problem with his right-rear brake. Hamilton was forced to retire the car after eighteen laps, as it was unsafe to continue given that the circuit contained three very large braking areas. It was briefly suggested that the problem may have been a faulty data logger that was showing a problem, but McLaren was still obliged to retire the car. The only other retirement of the race wasJaime Alguersuari during the pit stops. His in-lap had been slow and he made the mistake of pulling up in the Red Bull pit instead of the Toro Rosso garages. With Sebastian Vettel due in that lap, Red Bull were forced to send him back out. Alguersuari later claimed that when he was ready for the stop, his team were not. The Red Bull and Toro Rosso garages were located next to one another, with the pit crews in similar uniforms. Alguersuari retired when he returned to the circuit.
From there, the race remained relatively incident-free.Jenson Button exited from his stop to find the Toyota ofKamui Kobayashi, who was running on a one-stop strategy. Button, in a heavier car and with tyres that would take several laps to break in, was powerless to stop Kobayashi from simply driving around the outside of him at the giant hairpin at one end of the circuit. Kobayashi would run as high as third during the race before his stop, and would ultimately finish sixth, collecting three World Championship points in only his second race. His performance in Brazil and Abu Dhabi in particular impressed Toyota's management enough for him to be seriously considered for a full-time race seat in 2010[10] (although it subsequently transpired that Toyota withdrew from Formula One before the start of the 2010 season). Fellow Japanese driverKazuki Nakajima finished in thirteenth, making him the only driver to race in every Grand Prix of the season without scoring a single point.
_on_Saturday_at_2009_Abu_Dhabi_Grand_Prix.jpg)
Elsewhere,Giancarlo Fisichella was given a drive-through penalty and finished his final race for Ferrari a lowly sixteenth, ahead of onlyAdrian Sutil andRomain Grosjean.Ferrari teammateKimi Räikkönen – in the final race for his first stint at the Maranello-based outfit, before his return at the2014 Australian Grand Prix – had a similar struggle from eleventh on the grid, finishing down in twelfth behind fellow FinnHeikki Kovalainen. Ferrari's failure to score points meant that the team conceded third place in the Constructors' championship, closing their worst season sinceJean Alesi andGerhard Berger drove for them in1993.
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 line and came out of the ninth corner nose-to-tail with the Red Bull. Button drew alongside Webber in the run down to the bottom corner, forcing Webber to take a defensive line again, but the Red Bull driver held his line and managed to pull the car up in time and held on for second place despite a minor error at turn fourteen.
At the front of the field, Sebastian Vettel won the race by seventeen seconds, securing the runner-up position in the championship from Barrichello, who went on to finish fourth ahead ofNick Heidfeld inBMW Sauber's final race. Kobayashi was sixth, scoring his first career points, with Toyota teammateJarno Trulli taking seventh, andSébastien Buemi closing out the points-scoring positions in eighth, four seconds ahead of theWilliams ofNico Rosberg, also in his final race for his team.
This was the last race to featurepit stops for refueling, which had been re-introduced in1994, as the regulations for2010 had banned them.Jarno Trulli made the final refueling stop on lap 42. This was also the last race to use the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points scoring system, introduced in2003 and the last race to date for drivers Fisichella, Nakajima, and the constructors Toyota, BMW and Brawn GP.
Cars that use theKERS system are marked with "‡"
Cars that use theKERS system are marked with "‡"
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 55 | 1:34:03.414 | 2 | 10 |
| 2 | 14 |  Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 55 | +17.857 | 3 | 8 |
| 3 | 22 |  Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 55 | +18.467 | 5 | 6 |
| 4 | 23 |  Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 55 | +22.735 | 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 6 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 55 | +26.253 | 8 | 4 |
| 6 | 10 |  Kamui Kobayashi | Toyota | 55 | +28.343 | 12 | 3 |
| 7 | 9 |  Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 55 | +34.366 | 6 | 2 |
| 8 | 12 |  Sébastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 55 | +41.294 | 10 | 1 |
| 9 | 16 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 55 | +45.941 | 9 | |
| 10 | 5 |  Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 55 | +48.180 | 7 | |
| 11 | 2‡ |  Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 55 | +52.798 | 18 | |
| 12 | 4‡ | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 55 | +54.317 | 11 | |
| 13 | 17 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 55 | +59.839 | 13 | |
| 14 | 7 |  Fernando Alonso | Renault | 55 | +1:09.687 | 15 | |
| 15 | 21 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 55 | +1:34.450 | 16 | |
| 16 | 3‡ | Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari | 54 | +1 Lap | 20 | |
| 17 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 54 | +1 Lap | 17 | |
| 18 | 8 |  Romain Grosjean | Renault | 54 | +1 Lap | 19 | |
| Ret | 1‡ | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 20 | Brakes | 1 | |
| Ret | 11 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 18 | Gearbox | 14 | |
Source:[13] | |||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous race: 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2009 season | Next race: 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix |
| Previous race: None | Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | Next race: 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix |
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by 2008 Singapore Grand Prix | Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 2009 | Succeeded by 2010 Korean Grand Prix |
