It’s all over now, as the 2010 Formula One season is complete and we have a new, first time, world champion in Sebastian Vettel, as he took the race in Abu Dhabi.
The young Red Bull driver started the day in third in the table, but managed to lead from pole for nearly the entire race, becoming the youngest driver to win the title.
Fernando Alonso, who led coming into the weekend, came seventh, with Mark Webber right behind him in eighth.
Lewis Hamilton, who was still mathematically in the title hunt, came second, while his McLaren teammate Jenson Button came third.
The final race of the season that took place under the setting of the Middle Eastern sun was a great finale to what could have been the first season in F1 history, not to mention the best ever season for Red Bull, who took the constructors title last weekend.
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The 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix may have been the race where Red Bull won the season’s Constructor’s Championship, but the weekend was also marred by a number of scary incidents involving armed attacks directed at some Formula One personalities, including reigning World Champion and McLaren driver Jenson Button.
According to the Press Association, Button, along with his father, trainer, and manager were headed back to their hotel after the qualifying session on Saturday when six armed attackers with machine guns attacked the armored vehicle. Button didn’t say anything about shots being fired at the car, but fortunately, their driver possessed extensive training in avoidance driving, which proved to be extremely useful during the incident as he was able to drive away from the scene by, according to Button, ‘bouncing off about five cars’.
Later on, it was also learned that three engineers from Sauber Motorsports were also given an unfortunate reality check on the rampant number of crimes in Sao Paulo after it was reported that they were robbed after leaving the Interlagos circuit after the qualifying session. This time around, the group was driving in a minivan when, during a stop light, the vehicle was surrounded by five robbers, with one of them wielding an automatic weapon. The robbers ended up stealing a number of items from the Sauber engineers, including two backpacks that had one of the engineer’s passports in it.
Talk about not feeling welcome.
Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull Racing teammate, Mark Webber, came one-two in this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix to save off Fernando Alonso’s world championship celebration.
Alonso managed third palace, but he is now only eight points ahead of Webber in the championship race.
Lewis Hamilton came fourth, all but ending his title hopes, as it would now take some sort of miracle for him to win his second championship. Mind you, at least he has some hope, as his McLaren teammate Jenson Button is now completely out of the running.
"It was an incredible day, not easy to start with. I was on the dirty side but got a good start and I saw Nico [Hulkenberg] had wheelspin. He didn’t give me a lot of room but then it was OK. I could cruise into the distance and control the pace. It’s an incredible effort from the team. It has not been an easy season, but this was the perfect answer after what happened in Korea,” Vettel said to the BBC.
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With so many people stating that Fernando Alonso doesn’t deserve the 2010 Formula One driver’s championship, Emerson Fittipaldi has come out in defense of the Spaniard.
Alonso is leading the championship by 11 points heading into Brazil, but many see seven of those points as undeserved due to the Hockenheim team orders incident.
Yet, Fittipaldi thinks otherwise, as he feels that Alonso will deserve the title if he manages to lock it up either this weekend or in Abu Dhabi.
"If he wins it will be because he is the best," the 63-year-old said at Interlagos.
"There have always been team games that are played," he told the Spanish sports newspaper Marca.
"I see Alonso as the best driver of the day; with the best temperament and the best able to react to problems. He will be a great triple champion in his own right," added Fittipaldi.
Currently, Mark Webber sits in second place, with Lewis Hamilton close behind in third.
While most of us have let the incident in Germany between Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa die off, some are still sour over the event. Today, Nick Heidfeld said that it would be a shame if the team orders incident influenced the outcome of the F1 Championship.
Currently, Alonso sits on top of the driver’s table by 11 points and seven of those points were earned at Hockenheim, where Massa was told to move aside to let Alonso pass.
"If Alonso wins the championship with a margin less than the 7 points, it would devalue the championship — that’s a personal view," said former FIA president Max Mosley.
Mosley isn’t the only one who feels this way, as the Red Bull team boss agrees, stating that it would be frustrating if the Spanish driver took the title.
Ferrari has already fined $100,000 for the move, as team orders in F1 are banned at the moment.
