Lewis Hamilton seals Formula 1 title with win at Abu Dhabi
Lewis Hamilton got his 11th win of the season Sunday at Abu Dhabi and clinched the 2014 Formula 1 championship.
The points leader entering the race, Hamilton needed to finish second if teammate Nico Rosberg won the race to clinch the title. But as the race unfolded, Rosberg faded from the front and Hamilton would have been the champion had he cruised home in fifth or pushed for the win.
He pushed for the win.
Rosberg, who started on the pole, had a terrible start and it allowed Hamilton, who started second, to sprint away into the first corner with the lead. Rosberg never got close again, and a brake issue derailed any chances he had of finishing the race in the points. As Rosberg’s car slowed over the last half of the race, he ended up 14th and a lap behind Hamilton.
After Rosberg’s issues, Hamilton was told to conserve the car as he could coast to the finish ahead of Rosberg to guarantee the title. He did so for a bit, briefly giving up the lead to Felipe Massa after a pit stop. But before Massa pitted for the final time, Hamilton ran his fastest laps of the race. The cushion he built with the fast laps and the time Massa lost on the stop was enough to hold off the Williams driver for the win.
The title is Hamilton’s second of his career. He won his first in 2008 in a driving rainstorm at Brazil, snatching positions at the end to finish fifth and a point ahead of Massa, the race winner, in the season standings.
Mercedes won 16 of the season’s 19 races as Rosberg had five victories. Daniel Ricciardo, in his first season at Red Bull Renault, won the other three. Mercedes also won 18 of the season’s 19 poles. The only one team Mercedes didn’t win was at Austria, where Massa, in a Mercedes-powered car, got the top starting spot.
Sunday’s race was also the last for some stars of Formula 1 at their current teams. Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel is moving from Red Bull Renault to Ferrari for 2015 to be teammates with Kimi Raikkonen. Two-time champion Fernando Alonso is leaving Ferrari and likely headed to McLaren, where he’ll drive for the team as it switches to Honda from Mercedes power. It’s currently unknown whether his teammate will be Kevin Magnusson or 2009 champion Jenson Button, who both drove for McLaren this season.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
