Bourdais Wins, Sauber Passes Williams

Qualifying:

[table “” not found /]

Report:

F1 goes on and on, no rest for the wicked: round II in Abu Dhabi is yet another chance for all teams to earn more points and achieve their goals: Caterham want to cross the infamous 1000-point border, Sauber and Williams fight over fourth place in the world championship and Peugeot are looking for major points to keep their F1 effort justified.

Two of these three goals were achieved, not a bad ratio. After another Q3 victory for Caterham, this time Kvyat with the edge, it looked good for them – yet they were the only team that failed today in their big goal, the first technical retirement for Vettel all season long ruined their chance of sealing the infamous 1000-point goal with more than four races still to be run. They will have to pray for success in Brazil.

Sauber were running well, Pastor Maldonado continues to carry the Swiss team on his broad shoulders. A great start saw him move up to second. Through strategy, he lost out to Bourdais, who went on to hunt down Kvyat for the win, and Grosjean, who scored Peugeot’s second consecutive podium, but still did enough to put Sauber ahead of Williams, as Cassidy got the bad end of a battlegroup involving him, Maldonado, Razia and Ármannsson.

Meanwhile, it seemed like Haas blew their load too early in yesterday’s race, no points today despite both cars finishing the race. Ed Jones is a noticeable success, the man from the U.A.E. was there to earn Red Bull some more money and managed to leave a good impression, beating Alonso in both races. Will Power was the only non-technical retirement after trying too hard at turn one.

Race:

[table “” not found /]

Fastest Lap:

Einar Ármannsson – 1:31.548

Infinite Improbability Drive Of The Race:

Peugeot – Most points the French team acquired in one race this season.

Reject Of The Race:

Haas-Ferrari – Going from fighting for podiums to not scoring on merit is a bad thing.