Starting from second place, Lewis Hamilton's McLaren challenged Vettel for the lead into the first corner. The young Red Bull driver defended bravely, and went on to lead most of the race. Hamilton's sister McLaren, driven by Jenson Button, also got away well, and stole third place from Fernando Alonso. Heading backwards, Alonso had to pull something out of the bag to put his title challenge back on track; should he finish lower that 4th, and Vettel win, Vettel would take the title.
First, though, there was another twist in the tale.
Rosberg and Petrov Gamble under Safety Car
On the very first lap, the once Ferrari-faithful Schumacher span and was hit by Liuzzi's Force India, bringing out the safety car. Petrov and Rosberg both pitted to get their mandatory tyre change out of the way, and would run until the chequered flag on their current set of hard tyres. Because of this, Petrov was to be caught in a vicious fight for position later in the race.
Vettel Commands Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Once he'd fought off Hamilton, Vettel seemed completely in control of proceedings. He barely put a tyre of out place, and had an answer to any other driver's speed. For the first half of the race, he led Hamilton and Button with less than 5 seconds separating them. As Webber, followed by Alonso, pitted for hard tyres, Vettel, Hamilton, and Button opted to stay out. This decision proved crucial; the soft tyres held their performance for a while after Webber and Alonso had pitted, allowing the 3 still on the softer compound to stay ahead of Petrov and Rosberg.
After the pit stops, a seething Alonso found himself trapped behind Petrov and Rosberg, while Vettel, Hamilton, and Button cruised comfortably ahead. With still more than half of the race still to go, Alonso had to get back in-touch with the leaders.
Alonso Scraps with Petrov
Fighting for a drive with Renault next season, Vitaly Petrov set out in Abu Dhabi looking for a strong performance. When Alonso rejoined behind him after the stops he was presented with a huge challenge: keep his place ahead of Alonso for the rest of the race. Initially he succeeded, but as the race went on, and Alonso felt his title hopes dwindling, he became more and more desperate. Still, Petrov hung on, and showed the world of Formula 1 just how good a driver he really is. At the end, he had Alonso shaking his fist in fury.
Vettel Holds his Breath at the Front
While Alonso’s drama was playing out further back, Vettel led the race in blissful ignorance of what was behind him; he didn’t know the race standings, choosing instead to focus on the job at hand.
Once he had taken the chequered flag, his race engineer told him over the radio that he had won the World Championship. “Thank you, I love you,” he sobbed in reply.
Vettel took 10 of 19 pole-positions this season, and won the title in spite of several mechanical failures and numerous racing incidents. He managed to beat a vastly improved Mark Webber, and 4 former world champions to the crown. His blisteringly quick RB6 helped greatly this season, so what does 2011 have in store?
If it's anywhere near as exciting as 2010, It'll undoubtedly prove worth watching.
Richard Owen - Richard is an MSc student at the University of Birmingham, UK, studying Advanced Computer Science. He greatly enjoys writing because of ...
