Abu Dhabi GP / Qualifying: The newly crowned world champion was beaten by his team-mate!

It felt somehow odd that this weekend it was also time for some Formula 1 action - only week after the both world championship titles had been secured by Red Bull Racing. But even the thought of the Abu Dhabi GP weekend is always mesmerising: the venue is so glamorous and beautiful. In the dark night of Abu Dhabi and under the artificial lights the Formula 1 cars are definitely at their very best!

When Q1 got underway the sun was still shining. In Q1 the first runs were made on the medium tyres. The Red Bull drivers didn´t come out until there were only 7 minutes left in the clock and both Webber and Vettel had the soft tyres on. Williams had brought a new exhaust system for the Abu Dhabi GP weekend and on the basis what we had seen in the free practice sessions Williams had really taken a leap forward. Actually Maldonado was 4th fastest in the first session, which was pretty impressive. Bottas qualified in P15 and also made his way in to Q2. Sauber´s Gutierrez was the first man to be knocked out of the second session.

Q2 was driven at sunset which looked amazing even on TV. I wish I had a chance to witness that live one day! There´s something absolutely romantic about the sight of the huge orange-coloured sun setting and the night becoming darker and darker. In this romantic-looking venue the Mercedes drivers were the fastest men on track, which was a bit surprising. Rosberg topped the time sheets and his team-mate Hamilton was right behind the German. There was also another surprise in terms of Q2. Alonso in his Ferrari didn´t make it among the top ten but was the first man to be eliminated from Q3! His team-mate Massa made it barely in to the final session by being 10th fastest. Perez in his McLaren made it among the ten fastest whilst his team-mate Button was only 12th fastest and his qualifying was over. In spite of Williams´s good looking pace in the first session Maldonado didn´t manage to make it higher than P15 and was followed by his team-mate Bottas in P16.

The darkness had fallen when the final and decisive session started. Under the artificial lights of the Yas Marina Circuit it was time to fight for pole. After the first runs Sebastian had a grasp on the provisional pole. But this time the first fastest lap wasn´t enough. Webber managed to pull out a perfect lap and conquered the pole with only a tenth of a second separating him and the newly crowned world champion Sebastian Vettel! Hamilton spun on his last attempt and was beaten by his team-mate Rosberg, who qualified 3rd. The pecking order was clear: Red Bull conquered the front row and Mercedes got a second row lock-out. This time Kimi also made two runs in Q3 and the Iceman managed to snatch P5 today and beat his team-mate Grosjean. Hulkenberg in his Sauber made an excellent job by being 6th fastest. Grosjean was 7th, Massa 8th, Perez 9th and Ricciardo 10th.

Tomorrow´s race will be interesting indeed. Kimi won at the Yas Marina Circuit last year and the Finn has every opportunity to make it on the podium tomorrow! I really hope from the bottom of my heart that Kimi will get a superb result in the race as the Iceman has faced so many setbacks in terms of his relationship with the team. Only a few days ago it was still uncertain if Kimi would even show up in Abu Dhabi. Kimi told in the interview yesterday that he still hasn´t been paid by the team! Lotus owes him something like 15 million euros, which means that Kimi has paid for all the travelling himself. There is a risk that Kimi won´t participate in the two remaining races after Abu Dhabi if he doesn´t get the payments. Which is more than understandable, you have to draw the line somewhere! There isn´t a question about Kimi´s desire and passion for racing as he has been racing the whole season without getting paid for his job! I do hope that Lotus will fix this as I really want to see Kimi in the USA and Brazil as well! And the clash with Alan Permane at India certainly didn´t help! If you don´t get paid for the job and in addition to that you´re treated in a disgraceful way it´s a lousy combination.

Although I hope to see Sebastian winning the race tomorrow I do hope that Mark won´t face any reliability issues with his RB9. The Australian has faced so many setbacks in terms of the reliability of his car that he really deserves to get a decent result. Lotus´s race pace looks promising so I trust that Kimi will be up there to challenge the Red Bulls for the victory!

There has become a tradition that I bake a cake for my colleagues every time Sebastian Vettel wins the world championship in F1 so this is already my 4th consecutive championship cake! Some people say I´m nuts ;) Crazy about Formula 1 indeed!