Sunday, November 14, 2010

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - New Champion

There we have it, a new Formula 1 World Champion: Sebastian Vettel! He finally clinched the title in a pretty boring race where all the top contenders were affected somewhat by the early safety car stint when Liuzzi crashed Schumi out of the race.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is really something quite amazing. The track doesn't seem to bring out much of a interesting race, but the way the place looks is just superb. It's one of those modern circuits created under the reigns of Bernie Ecclestone. The investment is quite tremendous and you actually have a massive hotel that hangs over the entire circuit. Definitely a move away from traditional circuits.

Schumi was nudged by team mate Rosberg in the opening few corners and ended up pointing in the wrong direction. Most of the mid-pack drivers managed to miss him but Liuzzi had nowhere to go and ended up on top and scraping Schumi's head through the cockpit. Quite a scary moment echoed by Martin Brundle during the replays.

After that incident, the safety car was sent out for about five or six laps, during which most of the mid-pack drivers took advantage and went for their mandatory stops. This eventually had a compound affect when Webber and Alonso went for their new tyres. They ended up behind "back markers" like Petrov's Renault and Alguersuari's Torro Rosso. Sadly for them, they stayed there which ruled them out of the championship race entirely.

The race ended up to be pretty boring after all the hype. Last weekend's race in Brazil was much more interesting and stirs up the blood a lot more. What a shame then, a great track but yielding not much for the entertainment aspect. The older tracks apparently shouldn't be ruled out after all. They are still really superb.

Big pity for Ferrari who were in the best position to win the Drivers' Championship this year. I'm not the world's biggest Red Bull fan, but they have done a sterling job to take both Championships in 2010.

That's it for Formula 1 this year. Once again I'll go into a few months of complete boredom... Boooooo!

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