Hamilton champion as car problem strikes Rosberg

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix summary

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Lewis Hamilton clinched the 2014 drivers’ championship title in style by taking his 11th victory of the season.

He took the lead of the race immediately after the start, passing pole sitter Nico Rosberg as they sprinted to turn one. After that Rosberg slipped slowly backwards from his team mate.

As they reached the halfway point Rosberg appeared to make a mistake, running wide in the final sector, but it soon transpired he was coping with a problem on his Mercedes. The ERS had failed, and as he struggled with his car’s gradual loss of performance a string of rivals pushed him down the order.

Rosberg turned his attention to trying to cling to the fifth place which could still make him champion if Hamilton retired, but even that proved impossible. By the end of the race Mercedes wanted to retire his car but Rosberg chose to solider on, eventually finishing 14th.

Felipe Massa gave chase of Hamilton at the end of the race but had to settle for second ahead of team mate Valtteri Bottas, who recovered from a poor start.

Daniel Ricciardo climbed to fourth place after starting from the pits behind team mate Sebastian Vettel, who took eighth on his last outing for Red Bull. The pair were separated by Jenson Button and the two Force Indias.

The Ferrari pair claimed the final points places, the departing Fernando Alonso having passed Kimi Raikkonen in the opening laps.

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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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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18 comments on “Hamilton champion as car problem strikes Rosberg”

  1. Not a race of the calibre of Interlagos 2008 to end this great season. But for Abu Dhabi, it proved to be a solid race.

    Great drive from Rosberg, kudos to want to take the flag, even if in 14th, oh, and for being among the first to congratulate Hamilton on the title.
    And we actually had a pretty decent podium interview too.

  2. Great job by Lewis. He did everything he needed to do. Guttered for Rosberg, though. Such a shame unreliability struck at the worst possible time.

  3. congrats To Hamilton, he’s been better than Nico.

    1. Wouldn’t most pole positions usually indicate the faster driver?

      1. Or alternatively, wouldn’t the most wins usually indicate the more consistent driver?

  4. Congratulations and well deserved to Lewis. What a season, what a way to come back from the devastating early reliability problems he faced. Nico isn’t grinning like the cat that swallowed the canary anymore. He took plenty satisfaction and was showing that toothy grin when he had the points lead as Hamilton was having issue after issue early to mid season. Not so much grinning when the reliability issues began to strike back at his side of the garage. Lewis has to be the favorite for next season now with that Merc power. He will be absolutely full of confidence. I’m sure Rosberg will put up a fight, but this will sting him for a long time.

    1. Think nico might do it next season. He seems to be as fast, certainly smarter, but allowed himself to get psyched out by Lewis’s baby tantrums.

      1. If he’s “certainly smarter” why did he allow himself to be “psyched out by Lewis’s baby tantrums” (whatever they are). What’s undoubtedly true is that twice during the season (Monaco and Belgium) Nico deliberately attempted to curtail Lewis’s point scoring potential.

      2. Yeah i mean Hamilton was in the wrong for Monaco and Spa lol. In future maybe Hamilton should congratulate Nico for it lol… Ros had everything going for him this year and i mean everything. The guy could not even win races on the bounce led the WC for 4 races in a a row as Hamilton had to win and keep on winning. If Merc have bulletproff reliability Ham will win again. 11 wins to 5 ill say no more. Rosberg won a whopping 2 more raes than Ric.

  5. Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!! so happy

  6. Mark in Florida
    23rd November 2014, 15:26

    What Toto really meant was I hope Rosberg doesn’t have reliability problems. Congrats to Lewis he did what it took to win and I think that the racer who wins the most races should be the champion. However it would have been better if it had of been a straight fight to the end. The conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this one though.

    1. I don’t think so.. It was obvious, that conspiracy theorists would have had something to say if bad luck had hit Hamilton. In Rosberg’s case, no one will care. I have to say, I would have wanted Rosberg to win the title, but Hamilton deserved it very much.. Also, Rosberg admitted after the race he messed up the start and that he would not have won.. professional to summarize the race in such a way.

  7. Congrats to Lewis on the title. Great from Nico to want to finish the race. Special mentions to Massa, Ricciardo, Button and Stevens for finishing his first race.

  8. But didnt lewis also suffer an ERS problem?? The team told him it would “reset” itself, after has asked what he had to do to bring it home safely. Can someone confirm this?

    1. I don’t think it actually failed, but he was very cautious for several laps, and Mercedes ‘detuned’ the car to make sure the engine didn’t suffer the same fate as Nico’s.

  9. Good thing Hamilton got past him at the start or it would have been one for the conspiracists.

  10. We will be celebrating this victory for the longest time.

  11. Breaking news. Lewis wins 2nd title with best car again. How does he do it?

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