Designed as an Arabian version of Monaco, the twenty-one corners twists through the man made island off the Abu Dhabi coast, passing by the marina, through the Yas Hotel and winding its way through sand dunes, with several long straights and tight corners.
The circuit has a few potential overtaking spots, the pit straight down to turn 1 is a good one, from turns 2, 3, 4 down to 5 will be a good place as a car which has good speed out of Turn 4 could get beside a fellow driver and outbrake them. After turn 7 the longest straight on the Formula One calendar is ended with a heavy braking chicane at turn 8. Finally the long curve down to turn 11 as the potential for overtaking especially for a kers car.
To be mentioned the pit exit of circuit that runs under the actual track through a tunnel and also part of the track that runs through the spectacular Yas Hotel (see photo).
QUALIFYING RESULTS
New track at the end of the season so not everybody is willing to learn it, only 2 drivers from our side Juan Fran and Walter976, 19 drivers qualified.Juan Fran is 8th (not normal for him) and Walter976 11th with huge gap from the leader that is again Okan Kukner followed by Locutus and the new entry LulaSenna, congratulations to all but especially for Lula, what a pace!
RACE RESULTS
Only 13 partecipants for the race, Walter976 couldn’t do it so just 1 driver for Olympic team but he is Juan, the leader of the championship.The drivers in general didn’t practice much this new track and the result is that by the lap 19 only 4 of them were still on track… many accidents, mistakes, spins and one of the victim was Locutus, one of the favourite for the final win that was out on lap 10.
Our Juan was not so fast as usual this time so he drove safely without being aggressive as normal arriving in 2nd position thanks to all the DNFs. An easy win for Okan, always very reliable and fast, 2nd win in a row for him, 3rd position for Kostas, 4th for Bogdanis, congratulations for all.
Well, we can announce without any doubt that the Formula 1 2009 champion is JUAN FRAN, he really deserved the title showing to everybody that he was the fastes driver around on many occasions, more than ever is our top driver, well done mate!!!
Unexpectedly we have gained points on the team championship agains LRT though it will be extremly hard to overtake them with just one last GP to do.
We are now going to recover one of the best F1 circuit, SPA in Belgium, it will be the last event for this championship, many of us are already looking forward for the coming winter league but is not the time yet, let’s finish in the best way this F1 season, see you in Belgium!