2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Fabulous Sebastian clinches maiden title

SEBASTIAN Vettel became the youngest ever Formula 1 world drivers’ champion, after a copybook driver to victory today in Abu Dhabi.  Under the twilight in the desert, Vettel led from pole to overhaul his nearest rivals, Spain’s Fernando Alonso, team-mate Mark Webber and Britain’s Lewis Hamilton in F1’s first four-way title showdown.

SPIN: Schumacher facing the wrong way before Liuzzi's impact

Vettel made a clean start and showed a lot of confidence to chop an advancing Hamilton into turn one, who had made a slightly better start.  Alonso, who started eight points clear at the start of the race, lost third place to Jenson Button’s fast-starting McLaren and his day slowly disintegrated into one of frustration.  Whilst the leaders safely got around the first few bends, Michael Schumacher’s nightmare comeback season came to a premature end, in dramatic circumstances.  Blocked by Rubens Barrichello’s defensive Williams, Schumacher got on the power out of turn four too quickly and spun his Mercedes wildly in the middle of the pack.  Caught between Sebastian Buemi and Nico Hulkenberg, Vitantonio Liuzzi had nowhere to go and used the Mercedes as a launch pad.  The luckless Italian crashed into the German and landed almost on top of Schumacher’s helmet.  Luckily, both drivers escaped a potentially disastrous outcome unhurt, but the Safety Car had to come out to clear the mess up.

CRUCIAL: This pitstop cost Alonso a third title

During the pace car procedure, Nico Rosberg, Vitaly Petrov and Jaime Alguesuari all elected to pit and remove the weaker race tyre, and this would play a significant factor in the final outcome.  After five laps under yellows, racing resumed and it became clear that Webber’s fading challenge was all but over.  Under pressure from the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa, he clouted a guardrail and headed for the pits.  He then got trapped behind the slower Toro Rosso of Alguesuari and with it, Australia’s hopes of a third world champion in history went away.  Strangely, Ferrari still saw Webber as a threat and elected to get rid of their blistering soft tyres and pit both Massa and more crucially, Alonso.  However, although they kept Alonso ahead of Webber, the Spaniard emerged behind both Rosberg and Petrov, both not needing to pit again.  Despite getting behind Petrov down the backstraight, the Renault’s excellent traction and outstanding f-duct meant that the Russian had little trouble in keeping the championship leader behind him.

With Alonso and Webber floundering in the midfield, this was Vettel’s chance and as the graining stage of his tyres disappeared, he went faster and faster.  His only threat for the win came from Hamilton and when the young German emerged from the pits ahead of Hamilton, separated by Kamur Kobayashi and Robert Kubica, the title was all but his.  Despite some concerns over his radio, he seemed untroubled and coasted to an easy win, his fifth of the season.  Hamilton and Button finished nose-to-tail to complete the rostrum and wrap up second spot for McLaren in the constructors championship.  Now, Vettel had to wait and see if he had done enough.

He had, as Rosberg finished an excellent fourth for Mercedes and Kubica’s strategy to start on the harder of the two tyre compounds paid off massively, as he managed to wind up in fifth, after only lining up 11^th on the grid.  His rookie team-mate Petrov backed the Pole up with sixth, a drive that might well have saved his F1 career.  Seventh place for Alonso was never going to be enough, and his childish behaviour at blaming Petrov by gesturing furiously towards the blameless Russian on the slowing down lap couldn’t have been missed.  Webber wound up a disappointing eighth, simply not quick enough to merit the championship, whilst Alguesuari held off Massa all afternoon to finish an excellent ninth for Toro Rosso, his first points since Barcelona in May.

CELEBRATION: Vettel celebrates a historic achievement

However, the day and the season have belonged to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing.  Many congratulations to Sebastian on achieving history and there is bound to be more titles to come in the future.  However, aside from the team orders controversy at Hockenheim, the real winner this year has been Formula 1.  It has been a sensational season, quite possibly the best yet in its 60-year era and we only have to wait sixteen weeks until it all happens again.

Roll on Bahrain and Sunday 13^th March 2011!