2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Previous←	2014 Brazilian Grand Prix
Round	19 of 2014
Next→	2015 Australian Grand Prix
The Yas Marina Circuit
Race Details
Date	November 23, 2014
Official Name	2014 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Location	Yas Marina Circuit Yas Island, Abu Dhabi
Course	Permanent Racing Facility 5.554 km (3.451 mi)
Distance	55 laps, 305.47 km (189.810 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Nico Rosberg Mercedes
Time	1:40.480
Podium

The 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (officially the 2014 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix) is nineteenth and final round of the 2014 Formula One Season. This will also be the first Grand Prix event to be worth double points for the World Championship. It will be held between November 21 and November 23, 2014.

The race will see the culmination of the epic title battle between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, with Hamilton having a 17-point advantage.

British driver Will Stevens will make his début at the race for the Caterham team.

Background

Weather Conditions
Practice 1	Sunny
Practice 2	Sunny
Practice 3	Sunny
Qualifying	Sunny

Available Tyres
Option	Supersoft
Prime	Soft
Inters	Intermediate
Wets	Wet

In a move that was considered controversial, the race, serving as the final race of the season, will award double points to all point scorers – meaning the race winner will score 50 points. Considering the closeness of the title battle between Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, this could dramatically affect the title battle.

Caterham, having been in an administration, have announced that they can attend the race. They had missed the previous two races, and had started up a crowdfunding effort to raise £2.35m (US$3.70m, €2.95m, AU$4.23m), which hadn't reached its target as the announcement was made, though the team proceded to make 230 staff members redundant to help save more costs. Kamui Kobayashi will return to the team alongside Marussia test driver Will Stevens, who replaced Marcus Ericsson, the Swede leaving the team with immediate effect before Caterham confirmed that they would compete in the race. Rubens Barrichello was reported to have signed a deal to drive in the last three races, but nothing came of it; Alice Powell attempted to raise funds for a free practice drive but failed to obtain the drive; and Caterham's reserve driver Roberto Merhi unluckily missed out. Stevens will drive the #46 car, since André Lotterer had previously used the other Caterham spare number of #45.

On the other hand, Marussia had folded during the Brazilian Grand Prix, and despite no longer existing, they still attempted to attend to the race, only failing due to a lack of funds.

Romain Grosjean was confirmed to be continuing to drive for Lotus in 2015 in the days preceding the race.

Jules Bianchi's parents released a statement prior to race stating that Bianchi, in his recovery from his accident at the Japanese Grand Prix, was out of a coma, breathing unaided and had been transferred to a hospital in Nice, France.

Free practice drivers

Esteban Ocon, winner of the 2014 European Formula 3 Championship, will drive a Lotus in FP1. Hong Kong driver Adderley Fong will drive a Sauber. Both drivers will be making their first appearances in an F1 car.

Title permutations

The Drivers' Championship will be decided at this race, with Lewis Hamilton seventeen points clear of Nico Rosberg:

• For Hamilton to win his second title:
  • If he finishes ahead of Rosberg, he will win the title
  • If Rosberg wins, Hamilton must finish second
  • If Rosberg finishes second, Hamilton must finish fifth or better
  • If Rosberg finishes third, Hamilton must finish sixth or better
  • If Rosberg finishes fourth, Hamilton must finish eighth or better
  • If Rosberg finishes fifth, Hamilton must finish ninth or better
  • If Rosberg finishes sixth or lower, Hamilton will win the title with any result
• For Rosberg to win his first title:
  • If Rosberg wins, Hamilton must finish third or worst
  • If Rosberg finishes second, Hamilton must finish sixth or worst
  • If Rosberg finishes third, Hamilton must finish seventh or worst
  • If Rosberg finishes fourth, Hamilton must finish ninth or worst
  • If Rosberg finishes fifth, Hamilton must finish tenth or worst
  • If Hamilton fails to score, Rosberg must finish at least fifth

Practice Overview

Practice Results

No	Driver	Team	FP1		FP2		FP3
			Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time	Pos
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:45.334	4	1:42.959	4	1:42.679	5
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1:45.361	5	1:43.183	6	1:42.773	7
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:43.609	2	1:42.196	2	1:41.424	1
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:46.131	12	1:43.489	7	1:43.038	10
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	DNP	21 !	1:44.986	17	1:43.778	17
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:47.971	18	1:45.505	18	1:45.044	19
11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:45.983	9	1:43.746	11	1:43.360	13
13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:46.711	15	1:44.005	12	1:43.718	16
14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:45.184	3	No Time	20	1:42.653	4
19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:46.549	13	1:43.558	10	1:42.429	3
20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:46.049	11	1:42.895	3	1:43.112	11
21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:46.556	14	1:44.316	15	1:43.643	15
22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:47.235	17	1:43.503	8	1:42.768	6
25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:45.718	6	1:44.157	14	1:43.352	12
26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:45.835	7	1:43.546	9	1:42.809	9
27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:46.030	10	1:44.068	13	1:43.501	14
31	Esteban Ocon	Lotus-Renault	1:47.066	16	DNP	21 !	DNP	21 !
37	Adderly Fong	Sauber-Ferrari	1:48.269	19	DNP	22 !	DNP	22 !
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:43.476	1	1:42.113	1	1:41.793	2
46	Will Stevens	Caterham-Renault	1:50.684	20	1:47.057	19	1:45.959	20
77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1:45.913	8	1:43.070	5	1:42.794	8
99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	DNP	21 !	1:44.763	16	1:44.022	18

Qualifying

Qualifying Results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos	Time		Pos	Time		Pos	Time
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes			1:41.308			1:41.459		1	1:40.480	1
2	44	Lewis Hamilton				1:41.207			1:40.920		2	1:40.866	2
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault			1:42.346			1:41.376		3	1:41.025	3
4	19	Felipe Massa				1:41.475			1:41.144		4	1:41.119	4
DSQ	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault			1:42.204			1:41.692		5	1:41.267	20*
DSQ	1	Sebastian Vettel				1:42.495			1:42.147		6	1:41.893	19^
7	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault			1:42.302			1:42.082		7	1:41.908	5
8	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes			1:42.137			1:41.875		8	1:41.964	6
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari			1:42.439			1:42.168		9	1:42.236	7
10	14	Fernando Alonso				1:42.467			1:41.940		10	1:42.866	8
11	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes			1:42.104		11	1:42.198				9
12	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault			1:42.413		12	1:42.207				10
13	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes			1:42.654		13	1:42.239				11
14	27	Nico Hülkenberg				1:42.444		14	1:42.384				12
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari			1:42.746		15	1:43.074				13
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault		16	1:42.768							18†
17	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari		17	1:42.819							14
18	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault		18	1:42.860							15
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault		19	1:44.540							16
20	46	Will Stevens			20	1:45.095							17

Notes:

• * Daniel Ricciardo was excluded for illegal front wing
• ^ Sebastian Vettel was excluded for illegal front wing
• ^† Romain Grosjean has 20-place grid penalty for power unit changes and incurs an in-race drive-through penalty in lieu of undropped places

Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
		______________
Row 1	______________	1
	2	Nico Rosberg
	Lewis Hamilton	______________
Row 2	______________	3
	4	Valtteri Bottas
	Felipe Massa	______________
Row 3	______________	5
	6	Daniil Kvyat
	Jenson Button	______________
Row 4	______________	7
	8	Kimi Räikkönen
	Fernando Alonso	______________
Row 5	______________	9
	10	Kevin Magnussen
	Jean-Éric Vergne	______________
Row 6	______________	11
	12	Sergio Pérez
	Nico Hülkenberg	______________
Row 7	______________	13
	14	Adrian Sutil
	Esteban Gutiérrez	______________
Row 8	______________	15
	16	Pastor Maldonado
	Kamui Kobayashi	______________
Row 9	______________	17
	18	Will Stevens
	Romain Grosjean†	______________
Row 10	______________	19
	20	Sebastian Vettel^
	Daniel Ricciardo*	______________

Notes:

• * Daniel Ricciardo was excluded for illegal front wing
• ^ Sebastian Vettel was excluded for illegal front wing
• ^† Romain Grosjean has 20-place grid penalty for power unit changes and incurs an in-race drive-through penalty in lieu of undropped places

Milestones

• The first Grand Prix event to be worth double points toward the World Championship
• Last race for the McLaren-Mercedes partnership.
• Last races for Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull and for Fernando Alonso at Ferrari.

Notes

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