Vettel takes titleposted in F114 | 11 | 2010
NINE MONTHS to the day the 2010 Formula One season got underway in Bahrain, Sebastian Vettel became the sport's youngest ever world championship when he dominated the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
The Red Bull driver, who qualified on pole, led from start to finish to seal the championship as the performance and strategies of the other three title rivals unravelled around him.
Vettel start the race seven points behind his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, and 15 behind the Ferrari of championship leader Fernando Alonso. His only other threat in the title race, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was 24 behind Alonso.
But whatever plans and strategies the teams had pencilled ahead of the race start were immediately thrown out the window; the safety car was deployed after Michael Schumacher spun his Mercedes before it was rammed by the Force India of Tonio Liuzzi.
That allowed fellow Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg and Renault's Vitaly Petrov to pit and switch to the hard compound Bridgestone tyres. Their move, especially Petrov's was to play a pivotal role in deciding not only the race, but the championship.
At the head of the field, Vettel lead from Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Webber and Massa. On lap 13, as the tyres on his Red Bull began to fade, Webber pitted. A lap later Massa followed and two laps later Alonso did likewise.
Disastrously for Alonso and Webber, they rejoined behind the Renault of Petrov and, despite everything the Spaniard could throw at the young Russian, he held the duo at bay until the end of the race 40 laps later.
Meanhwile, the soft-compound tyres on the leading three cars of Vettel, Hamilton and Button came back to the drivers and all three were able to up the pace again and pull away from the field.
Out front, Hamilton was the first to blink pitting but rejoining behind the Renault of Robert Kubica. Frustratingly for the McLaren driver, the Pole had started on the hard compound tyres and was doing a long first stint.
On lap 25 Vettel pitted and, to the dismay of Hamilton — who had to win the race to have any slim chance of collecting his second world championship — the young German rejoined ahead of Kubica and the Englishman.
That essentially, given no reliability issues, was race over. Vettel cruised to his fifth victory of the season, with Hamilton and Button completing the podium places. Alonso, who needed to finish no lower than fourth to clinch the championship if Vettel won the race, could only manage seventh, one place ahead of Webber.
The result meant Vettel, who had notched 10 pole positions throughout the season, led the championship for the first time this year to clinch the title by four points from Alonso, with Webber third, a further 10 adrift and Hamilton two points further back in fourth.
But as he took the chequered flag at the end of the race, Vettel didn't realise he was the new Formula One World Champion. His Red Bull team kept him in the dark about the scenario until the very end to make sure he concentrated on winning the race.
"To be honest I did not know anything," Vettel said. "I wondered. In the last 10 laps, my engineer Rocky (Guillaume Rocquelin])was giving me advice to help me get the car home. I wondered why he was so nervous.
"I thought we must be in a good position, then he said 'it's looking good', I didn't know what he meant. I just focused on myself, and they came on the radio and screamed that we have won the world championship.
"It is unbelievable. I went to bed and kept thinking about the race, about what might happen. I had some good imaginations and a good feeling.
"We have seen incredible fights and a tight season," he continued. "I don't know how many times we have had a different leader. Some people got written off very early and then came back, like Fernando, they came back hard. Lewiscame back and was leading all of us.
"I could write a book about the races where we could have finished in a higher position. There were retirements, all of us had ups and downs. It has been an intense and tough season, sometimes ignoring what people are saying and trying to get your own thing done. This was my approach going into the race and now it's looking good because it all worked.
"It was an incredibly tough season for all us, physically and especially mentally. I kept believing in myself and today was a special day. So I only led the championship once, when it mattered.
"For some reason it does not feel like it is happening. It's strange, but it will sink in when I finally go to sleep - but I think we will have daylight before that happens."
Alonso meanwhile, who was seen shaking his fist at Petrov on the drive back to the pits after the end of the race, defended the Ferrari strategy which cost him his third world championship.
"After the race it is always very easy to see the best strategy," the Spaniard said. "As I said now you need to cover from someone and if we didn't stop I think Webber probably would have overtaken us, if we stopped we cover from Webber but let Petrov and Rosberg in front so it was a very difficult call I think.
"It was obviously a tough difficult race. I lost a position at the start and then when the first safety car came out Petrov and Rosberg came in so... We saw some problems with the soft tyres, Webber pitted and then we tried to cover from him.
"When you cover someone probably you give something away to the others. So it was then a choice between covering Vettel or racing Petrov and Rosberg, so we covered Webber and then it was difficult to overtake Petrov. The Renault is very quick on the top speed so it was a frustrating race behind him. But this is a sport, this is motor racing. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Congratulations to Red Bull and Sebastian but next year we will try again.
"I tried to pass Petrov once and he protected like it was the last lap, in the last race in the championship, fighting both for the championship, so he was very aggressive.
"But he drove very well, he made no mistakes. I think next year we will try again."
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Jim McGill