Formula One
It is Mercedes vs. Mercedes at the Formula One season finale from the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Lewis Hamilton enters with a 17-point lead over his teammate Nico Rosberg. The German took seven points out of Hamilton's lead by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix a fortnight ago. It was his fifth victory of the season.
Hamilton has won ten races this season, including five of the last six. The Brit has held the points lead ever since winning the Singapore Grand Prix while Rosberg retired due to electrical issues. Hamilton has 15 podiums this season and every race he has been running at the finish has ended on the podium. He has retired from three races this season (Australia, Canada, Belgium).
Rosberg has half the amount of victories as Hamilton but just as many podiums. Rosberg's lone finish off the podium was a fourth at Hungary while his only other retirement beside Singapore was at Silverstone because of a gearbox failure. Rosberg has ten pole positions, the most in Formula One this season but only three of his victories have come from pole position. Hamilton has won from six of his seven poles with the lone exception being the season opener from Australia were the Brit retired.
Hamilton won the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and has finishes of second and seventh at Yas Marina. He has retired from twice in five Abu Dhabi Grands Prix including retiring from pole position in the inaugural running of the race in 2009. Rosberg has never won at Yas Marina but scored his first podium at the track last year with a third place finish. He also has finishes of fourth, sixth and ninth to his name with his lone retirement coming in the 2012 race. Rosberg has never started on the front row at Yas Marina with his best starting being coming last year when he started third.
This year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is worth double points with a victory paying 50 points, second paying 36 points and third paying 30 points The remaining positions will pay as follows: 24-20-16-12-8-4-2.
Hear are clinch scenarios:
If Nico Rosberg wins at Abu Dhabi, Lewis Hamilton needs to finish second to clinch the world title. If Rosberg finishes second, Hamilton needs to finish fifth.
If Rosberg finishes third, Hamilton needs to finish sixth.
If Rosberg finishes fourth, Hamilton needs to finish eighth.
If Rosberg finishes fifth, Hamilton needs to finish ninth.
Rosberg can not win the world title if he finishes outside the top five.
NBCSN's Will Buxton has written two excellent pieces on each of the championship contenders, Hamilton and Rosberg, that I highly recommend.
Hamilton was fastest in FP1 with a lap of 1:43.476 seconds, 0.133 second over Rosberg in second. Fernando Alonso was third, 1.708 seconds back of Hamilton in what appears to be the Spaniards final race for Ferrari. In fourth was Sebastian Vettel, who will be making his final start for Red Bull at Abu Dhabi. The German signed a three-year deal with Ferrari starting next season. He was 1.858 seconds back with his teammate Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top five, trailing the lead Mercedes by 1.885 seconds.
Jean-Éric Vergne was sixth with his Toro Rosso teammate Daniil Kvyat in seventh. The Frenchman was 2.242 seconds back and 0.117 seconds ahead of his teammate and future Red Bull driver. Valtteri Bottas just under 2.5 seconds back in eight. The Force Indias of Sergio Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg rounded out the top ten with 2.554 seconds covering the top ten cars.
Kevin Magnussen was 11th followed by Kimi Räikkönen. Felipe Massa was 3.073 seconds back in 13th. Esteban Gutiérrez was 0.007 seconds back of Massa with Pastor Maldonado rounding out the top fifteen. European Formula Three champion, Frenchman Esteban Ocon got the FP1 drive for Lotus in place of Romain Grosjean and was 16th, 0.355 seconds back of Maldonado.
Jenson Button was 3.759 seconds back of Hamilton but ran 8 laps. Only Felipe Massa ran fewer laps in the session. Caterham has made it to Abu Dhabi and Kamui Kobayashi was 18th, 4.495 seconds back. Adrian Sutil was 19th, 4.792 seconds back. Will Stevens will make his Formula One debut this weekend in the second Caterham. He rounded out first practice in 20th.
NBCSN's Will Buxton has written two excellent pieces on each of the championship contenders, Hamilton and Rosberg, that I highly recommend.
Hamilton was fastest in FP1 with a lap of 1:43.476 seconds, 0.133 second over Rosberg in second. Fernando Alonso was third, 1.708 seconds back of Hamilton in what appears to be the Spaniards final race for Ferrari. In fourth was Sebastian Vettel, who will be making his final start for Red Bull at Abu Dhabi. The German signed a three-year deal with Ferrari starting next season. He was 1.858 seconds back with his teammate Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top five, trailing the lead Mercedes by 1.885 seconds.
Jean-Éric Vergne was sixth with his Toro Rosso teammate Daniil Kvyat in seventh. The Frenchman was 2.242 seconds back and 0.117 seconds ahead of his teammate and future Red Bull driver. Valtteri Bottas just under 2.5 seconds back in eight. The Force Indias of Sergio Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg rounded out the top ten with 2.554 seconds covering the top ten cars.
Kevin Magnussen was 11th followed by Kimi Räikkönen. Felipe Massa was 3.073 seconds back in 13th. Esteban Gutiérrez was 0.007 seconds back of Massa with Pastor Maldonado rounding out the top fifteen. European Formula Three champion, Frenchman Esteban Ocon got the FP1 drive for Lotus in place of Romain Grosjean and was 16th, 0.355 seconds back of Maldonado.
Jenson Button was 3.759 seconds back of Hamilton but ran 8 laps. Only Felipe Massa ran fewer laps in the session. Caterham has made it to Abu Dhabi and Kamui Kobayashi was 18th, 4.495 seconds back. Adrian Sutil was 19th, 4.792 seconds back. Will Stevens will make his Formula One debut this weekend in the second Caterham. He rounded out first practice in 20th.
GP2
The 2014 GP2 championship was clinched at Sochi by Jolyon Palmer. The British driver has won four of twenty races and finished on the podium on 11 occasions for DAMS. Palmer is 56 points clear of Carlin driver, future Sauber F1 driver and current Williams F1 test driver Felipe Nasr. The Brazilian also has four victories but has nine podiums and finished outside the points three times while Palmer has finished outside the points only once and has been at the running of every race this season.
Eight points behind Nasr is ART Grand Prix and McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne. The Belgian has three wins but has finished outside the points eight times. RT Russian Time's Mitch Evans is fourth in the championship with Trident's Johnny Cecotto, Jr. rounding out the top five. Racing Engineering's Stefano Coletti is thirteen points back of the Venezuelan with Campos Racing's Arthur Pic five points behind Coletti. Coletti's teammate Raffaele Marciello is eighth, four points ahead of Julián Leal of Carlin and Stéphane Richelmi of DAMS nine points behind Marciello and rounding out the top ten.
Conor Daly returns for Venezuela GP Lazarus in the season finale. Daly missed the last two rounds at Monza and Sochi. His lone points came at Hungary when he finished seventh in the sprint race.
Alexander Rossi and James Calado won last year's GP2 round at Yas Marina.
GP3
Alex Lynn has clinched the 2014 GP3 championship and we have yet to start race one. The Carlin driver clinched the title as second in the championship, Dean Stoneman failed to get pole position. Stoneman needed to score maximum points to have a shot at the title. Stoneman started at Marussia Manor Racing but after the team failed to make it to Sochi, Stoneman moved to Koiranen GP. Stoneman has won four races to Lynn's three.
ART Grand Prix driver German Marvin Kirchhöfer is third in the championship and won pole position for the first race from Abu Dhabi. He entered a point behind Stoneman in the championship but jumps the Brit as pole position pays four points. Swede Jimmy Eriksson is fourth, 11 points behind his Koiranen GP teammate Stoneman. Richie Stanaway rounds out the top five driving for Status Grand Prix.
Sixth through ninth in the championship are all British drivers. Lynn's teammate Emil Bernstorff is sixth with 112 points. Four points back is Status GP's Nick Yelloly. ART's Dino Zamparelli has 101 points and sits eighth with Arden driver Jann Mardenborough in ninth. Following the four Brits are three Swiss drivers with Mardenborough's teammate Patric Niederhauser rounding out the top ten followed by ART's Alex Fontana and Jenzer Motorsport's Mathéo Tuscher.
Last year, Daniil Kvyat and Tio Ellinas won at Abu Dhabi.
Formula E
After 70 days off, Formula E returns for their second round in Putrajaya, Malaysia. After a thrilling finish at the premiere race in Beijing, China, Lucas di Grassi leads the championship after taking a surprise victory. Di Grassi was the benefactor of a final corner collision between Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld as the Brazilian slid by to make history as he gave Audi Sport ABT the victory. Andretti Autosport's Franck Montagny finished second with Virgin Racing's Sam Bird coming home third.
Charlie Pic finished fourth with Mahindra Racing's Karun Chandok rounding out the top five. Dragon Racing's Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Oriol Servià finished sixth and seventh. China Racing's Nelson Piquet, Jr. came home in eighth with Venturi Grand Prix's Stéphane Sarrazin in ninth and Daniel Abt in tenth. Abt had finished third but was penalized 57 seconds for exceeding allowed battery usage limit of 28kW.
Despite the final corner collision, Nicolas Prost is ninth in the championship because three points are awarded for pole position. Takuma Sato also finished outside the points but is tied for tenth with Sarrazin because the driver who scores the fastest lap gets two points. Sato will not be at Putrajaya as António Félix da Costa will run for Super Aguri. Da Costa was announced as Aguri's full-time driver but had to miss Beijing due to his DTM commitments.
Other than the addition of da Costa, the only other driver change will occur at Andretti Autosport as Charles Pic will be replaced by American Matthew Brabham. The 20-year old ran Indy Lights in 2014 and won one race on the IMS road course. Katherine Legge will be da Costa's teammate at Super Aguri. Jaime Alguersuari runs his second race in three years for Virgin. Ho-Pin Tung will drive for China Racing despite it initially being announced Corvette factory driver Antonio García was going to replace him. Tung was going to have Asian Le Mans Series duty, however, the ALMS round from Thailand was cancelled, allowing Tung to run Putrajaya.
Sébastien Buemi is fresh off clinching the World Endurance Drivers' Championship at Bahrain for Toyota and he will be looking for his first points in Malaysia. The e.dams driver failed to score points in three Formula One starts and two GP2 starts in Malaysia however that was on the Sepang International Circuit. Bruno Senna's day ended after two corners at Beijing. He is looking to complete his first lap in Formula E competition as is Jarno Trulli who failed to get off the grid. Trulli's teammate Michele Cerutti finished a lap down at Beijing. Trulli GP is the only team yet to score in Formula E.
Coverage
NBCSN will broadcast the final round of the 2014 Formula One season with pre-race beginning at 7:00 a.m. ET and the race at 8:00 a.m. ET Sunday.
Fox Sports 2 will show the Formula E Putrajaya ePrix live at 1:00 a.m. ET Saturday. Fox Sports 1 will rebroadcast the race at 4:00 a.m. ET. The race will be broadcast on Fox after NFL games this weekend. Check local listing for when the your local Fox affiliate will be airing the race.
Coverage
NBCSN will broadcast the final round of the 2014 Formula One season with pre-race beginning at 7:00 a.m. ET and the race at 8:00 a.m. ET Sunday.
Fox Sports 2 will show the Formula E Putrajaya ePrix live at 1:00 a.m. ET Saturday. Fox Sports 1 will rebroadcast the race at 4:00 a.m. ET. The race will be broadcast on Fox after NFL games this weekend. Check local listing for when the your local Fox affiliate will be airing the race.
Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 14.5 cars finishing on the lead lap in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
2. Over or Under: 0.5 points scored by Conor Daly this weekend?
3. Over or Under: 3.5 podiums for British drivers in GP3?
4. Over or Under: 62.75 MPH average speed of the Putrajaya race? Beijing was 61.2 MPH.
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Under: Zero cautions involved a Chase driver at Homestead.
2. Under: There were zero green-white-checker attempts in the Truck race.
3. Under: One Lexus RC F finished in the top five at Motegi.
4. Under: There were no red flags during he WTCC weekend at Macau.
5. Over: Four Fords were in the points in Wales Rally GB.
Last Week's Over/Unders from Thursday
1. Under: Seven nationalities were represented across the four class winners at Bahrain.
2. Over: Volvo and Holden each won at Phillip Island.
3. Under: Eight drivers are eligible for the Stock Car Brasil title entering their season finale.
Predictions
1. Lewis Hamilton wins his second world championship.
2. Jolyon Palmer and/or Stefano Coletti score a fastest lap at Abu Dhabi.
3. Someone gets their first victory of the GP3 season in the season finale.
4. We see some rain in the Formula E race.
Last Week's Predictions
1. Ryan Newman wins the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship (Wrong).
2. Matt Crafton wins the Truck series title (Correct).
3. James Rossiter holds on to take the GT500 title (Wrong).
4. Sébastien Loeb gets at least one podium at Macau (Wrong).
5. Andreas Mikkelsen will finish ahead of one of his Volkswagen teammates in Wales Rally GB (Wrong as Mikkelsen retired).
Last Week's Predictions from Thursday
1. There will be a new LMP2 championship leader after Bahrain (Correct).
2. Jamie Whincup clinches the title at Phillip Island (Correct).
3. Cacá Bueno gets his first victory of the season at Salvador (Wrong).
Overall: 3/8. Running Tally: 28.5/53
