Today, the 2010 F1 season heads to Abu Dhabi for it's season finale, with 4 drivers in title contention. Red Bull had officially won the 2010 constructor's championship in the previous Brazillian Grand Prix.
During the practices, all 4 title contenders' lap time were not bad, but Sebastian Vettel was more consistent than the other 3 drivers, where he finished at the first spot during 2 practices out of 3 practices. Actually, Vettel and Fernando Alonso were the real title contenders, as the points adrift between them were only 15 points. In this case, Vettel needs to finish the race and hope Alonso finish at the sixth position or more than that. Whereas for Hamilton and Webber, they need Vettel and Alonso not to finish the race, which is something that is not quite possible to happen. Vettel grabbed the pole position during the qualifying session, with Hamilton and Alonso in second and third respectively. On the other hand, Webber was in fifth position.
As if the ending race was not excited enough from the battles of these 4 drivers, accident happened halfway through the starting lap where Michael Schumacher spins and then an unavoidable Vitantonio Liuzzi drove over him, missing his head by inches. Safety car was then immediately deployed. Both drivers walked away unscathed. Safety car was deployed for 5 laps. When the safety car was in in lap 6, Vettel leads the field with Hamilton, Jenson Button, Alonso, Webber, Felipe Massa, Rubens Barrichello, Kamui Kobayshi, Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil. There were no more incidents after that, only the normal overtaking and recorded the fastest laps in the race. Here, the title contenders needs a good pit stopping strategy. You wouldn't want to pit too early or too late, as you wouldn't want to stuck in a heavy traffic, wedged in the midfield. You need a 'just nice' pit stop.
As Vettel and Alonso looked like they were on the right track, Hamilton and Webber were out of the title contender. For most of the race, Hamilton was behind Vettel, whereas title contender Alonso was wedged in the midfield after a poor tactical petting decision by the Ferrari team. To be precise, Alonso was wedged behind Vitaly Petrov who defended his position as much as he can, for the whole race.
Hence, this situation continued until the end of the race, where Vettel clinched his maiden Championship here in Abu Dhabi at the age of 23 years and 135 days, becoming the youngest world champion, 4 points ahead of Alonso.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Sebastian Vettel!
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