The curtain came down on the Formula 1 stage as the drivers headed for their final race of the season in beautiful Abu Dhabi. With four possible contenders still, mathematically, in with a chance of securing the Drivers' Championship everyone knew qualifying would play a crucial part. Vettel came out on top as he qualified for yet another Red Bull pole with Hamilton keeping his dreams alive in second. Championship leader Alonso was third with his biggest rival Webber stuck behind Button in fifth.
Crucially Vettel got a clean start in the race and kept his position whereas Alonso had moved down to fourth, which would have been enough to win him the Championship. Schumacher was made to spin by team mate Rosberg and Liuzzi crashed over the top of him to force the Safety Car. Many of the 'mid-fielders' took this opportunity to take their mandatory tyre change and it played a pivotal role in deciding the Championship winner. Racing resumed after six laps with the contenders all keeping their positions.
In a bid to unnerve Vettel, Webber blinked first and pitted around the twelfth lap. With Ferrari believing Webber was Alonso's biggest title threat they retorted and pitted Alonso a few laps later to emerge ahead of him. What Alonso didn't count on when re-emerging to the track in thirteenth was that he would be stuck behind a train of Petrov and Rosberg who had already pitted during the Safety Car. This blew the Championship wide open as Vettel was now suddenly looking likely to become Champion. Hamilton also failed in his pitting strategy as he became stuck behind Kubica who didn't pit until very late on. The other incidents were Glock suffering a gearbox failure that led him to crash on the 46th lap and Trulli's rear wing fell off on the penultimate lap. Alonso couldn't get past Petrov and Webber was behind Alonso which meant that Alonso couldn't accumulate enough points to win his third Drivers' Championship, meaning that Vettel lead from start to finish to become F1's youngest ever Drivers' Champion. Here's the race result in full:
1. Vettel (Red Bull), 2. Button (McLaren), 3. Hamilton (McLaren), 4. Rosberg (Mercedes), 5. Kubica (Renault), 6. Petrov (Renault), 7. Alonso (Ferrari), 8. Webber (Red Bull), 9. Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), 10. Massa (Ferrari), 11. Heidfeld (Sauber), 12. Barrichello (Williams), 13. Sutil (Force India), 14. Kobayashi (Sauber), 15. Buemi (Toro Rosso), 16. Hulkenberg (Williams), 17. Kovalainen (Lotus), 18. Di Grassi (Virgin), 19. Senna (Hispania), 20. Klien (Hispania), 21. Trulli (Lotus), Retired: Glock (Virgin), Schumacher (Mercedes), Liuzzi (Force India)
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