The event was the fifth running of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. For the race, Pirelli supplied the yellow-banded soft compound as the "option" tyre and the white-banded medium compound as the "prime" tyre. During the race, a partial solar eclipse occurred between 17:22 and 17:39 local time, which was visible during the live broadcast shortly before sunset.
Practice sessions were led by Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton in the first session, while Red Bull drivers dominated the second and third sessions. Sebastian Vettel finished the final practice two-tenths of a second ahead of Mark Webber.
In qualifying, Mark Webber secured pole position, outqualifying his teammate Vettel. The second row was occupied by Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso, the highest-placed driver in the championship standings among those in the session, failed to reach the final round of qualifying.
Grid penalties affected the starting order prior to the race. Jules Bianchi received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. Following the session, Kimi Räikkönen was excluded from qualifying and relegated to the back of the grid after his car failed a floor deflection test.
At the start, Vettel overtook Webber into the first corner to take the lead. Nico Rosberg moved into second place, while Kimi Räikkönen retired immediately following contact with Giedo van der Garde that broke his front-right suspension. Romain Grosjean improved from sixth to fourth in the opening exchanges.
During the first round of pit stops, Nico Hülkenberg was issued a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release. In the first half of the race, Felipe Massa led his teammate Alonso until the latter stages. After his second pit stop, Alonso exited the pit lane and moved around Jean-Éric Vergne; the maneuver resulted in Alonso leaving the track with all four wheels and forced Massa to run wide into turn five. Alonso was later sent for medical checks after a 25g impact with a kerb during the race.
Vettel maintained his lead throughout the 55 laps, finishing 30.8 seconds ahead of Webber. Rosberg finished in third place. During the cool-down lap, both Red Bull drivers performed doughnuts; unlike the previous round in India, the stewards issued no penalty to Vettel for the display.
The race marked Red Bull Racing's 100th podium finish in Formula One. The event also saw the final World Championship points scored by both Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta.
Following the race, the championship standings confirmed Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel as the 2013 champions. Vettel’s victory consolidated his position at the top of the standings with 347 points, followed by Fernando Alonso with 217 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull led with 513 points, followed by Mercedes with 334 points and Ferrari with 323 points.
Gallery · 2 related images
