Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Preview

As the NASCAR, Indycar, and Lemans championship series races have wrapped up for the season, the Formula One World Championship finishes one of the most dominating series for a while as the grid heads to Abu Dhabi this weekend for a race that will decide the title between two drivers.

Both on the same team.

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are only 17 points from one another as the Briton holds the advantage with this final round consisting of double points. But the season which has seen both drivers win their share of races only managed to not triumph in three: Canada, Hungary and Belgium, where the two Mercedes drivers touched at Les Combes, ruining Hamilton’s chance to extend his lead.

Now that Hamilton has the lead, it will be interesting to see how the race will end, or for that matter, the season. This grand prix track has only been around for a couple of years, but it is one of the only races of the year which starts at dusk and goes into finishing into the early hours of the night.

So whoever wins the title will be celebrating it at night, with the other contestant walking away into the evening away from the world’s press.

Abu Dhabi has had plenty of excitement over the last few years. Fernando Alonso had a chance to beat Sebastian Vettel a couple of years ago, but Renault driver Vitaly Petrov would not let the Spaniard pass him, losing him the championship. Last season, it was the coy comment by then Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, who ended up winning the race, by telling his engineer basically that “He knew what he was doing.”

Either way, the race draws plenty of excitement, and this weekend is no exception. The atmosphere here is fantastic, with glittering lights everywhere and even the circuit can remind you of the opening race in Melbourne, which might give an advantage to Rosberg, as he won the opener there. But all Hamilton has to do is finish second here and the second title for him is done, no matter what Rosberg does.

So with the race coming this weekend, there are plenty of stories to come around even with the series over Sunday. But the duel between the two Mercedes drivers might make this long time friendship between the two falter, but regardless of the fact, it will be a great finish for a season that certain needs to improve more by the next round of formula one.

Mark Gero

Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.

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