Kimi Raikkonen secured a first win
since 1987 for the Lotus team with a
sensational performance at the Abu
Dhabi Grand Prix.
Raikkonen, winning himself for the first
time since 2009, took the lead when
Lewis Hamilton retired on lap 20 and
held off a charging Fernando Alonso in
one of the best races of the season.
Sebastian Vettel passed Jenson Button
late on to claim third and cap a superb
drive that started in the pit-lane and
included an extra stop for a damaged
front wing.
Hamilton stormed away from pole
position and looked to be in cruise
control despite being pegged back by
the field when the safety car came out
following a nasty crash involving Nico
Rosberg and Narain Karthikeyan.
But his McLaren, not for the first time
in recent races, suffered an electronic
failure and he was left to clamber out
of the cockpit with his chances of
winning the 2012 title over.
Raikkonen built a big advantage in the
middle of the race with Vettel
recovering from a couple of scrapes
with back-markers to make progress
on his third set of tyres.
He was able to close right up when a
second safety car came out in the
wake of a crash that cost Romain
Grosjean and Mark Webber the chance
of points, a four-car dice also involving
Paul di Resta and Sergio Perez ending
in carnage.
Raikkonen again moved clear, but this
time Alonso had some pace left in his
Ferrari tyres and he closed within a
couple of seconds.
However he could not get close
enough to launch a challenge on the
Finn and Raikkonen punched the air as
he took the chequered flag for the first
time since Belgium more than three
years ago.
Vettel took third from Button with a
brilliant pass four laps from the finish
and he leads Alonso by 10 points
heading into the final two races of the
season in Austin, Texas, and Brazil.
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