Sport

YOUNGEST CHAMPION

November 17 - 23, 2010

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Germany's Sebastian Vettel sobbed with joy at becoming Formula One's youngest champion and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso shook his fist as his title hopes disappeared into the desert on Sunday, writes Alan Baldwin.

The 23-year-old Red Bull driver led from pole to chequered flag under the Yas Marina floodlights to chalk up his fifth win of the season.

Alonso, the pre-race favourite for a third title, struggled home seventh after his team made the wrong call on strategy and left him following Renault's Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov for 40 agonising laps.

Vettel, adding the drivers' crown to the constructors' championship his team won the previous weekend in Brazil, finished with 256 points to Alonso's 252 after winning in Abu Dhabi for the second year in a row.

"We have only led this championship once, but it was when it mattered. I am speechless," said the youngster.

He had started the day 15 points behind Alonso, with much of the build-up dominated by speculation about whether he would allow team mate Mark Webber to pass for the title.

In the end, Webber finished eighth and was third overall.

"Thank you boys, unbelievable," gasped Vettel over the team radio, the tears flowing behind the visor after he took the chequered flag.

Team principal Christian Horner and owner Dietrich Mateschitz, was bursting with pride and spared the young champion no emotion.

"You are the world champion. Enjoy it. You are the man," Horner bellowed from the pit wall.

"I love you," answered Vettel.

Alonso paid the price for an early pitstop that dropped him to 13th.

"Afterwards it was really clear it was a huge mistake," said Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali, without saying who had made the call.

"What I feel inside is a lot of pain ... it was the worst race of the year for us and that's why it hits you very hard in the head."

Vettel, asked jokingly whether he might be Petrov's main sponsor next year, thanked the Russian, whose future in the sport remains uncertain.

Webber had been the first of the contenders to pit, triggering Alonso's fateful decision to follow him in - to keep him covered, and he also became bogged down in traffic.

"He's down really, to be honest with you," Webber's father Alan said, watching from a distance as team members partied away.

"He fired the arrow, aiming at a target that was way up there and he missed it, that's why it's taking a long time to come back down to earth."

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, the previous youngest champion who had to win in Abu Dhabi to have any hope of a second title, finished second on the night with team mate and outgoing world champion Jenson Button coming third.

While Vettel celebrated, seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher's comeback season ended with a smash on the opening lap when his Mercedes spun and was speared by Force India's Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi.

The great, who last stood on the podium as a Ferrari driver in 2006 (and is the only other driver to have won the title for Germany), was fortunate to escape serious injury as the car ploughed into the stationary Mercedes and rode up over the airbox just behind Schumacher's head.

The safety car was then deployed for four laps.

Team by team analysis (listed in championship order)

RED BULL (Sebastian Vettel 1, Mark Webber 8): Vettel's fifth win of the season, from his 10th pole in 19 races, made him the youngest ever world champion at 23. He repeated his Yas Marina win from last year. Red Bull won both titles.

MCLAREN (Lewis Hamilton 2, Jenson Button 3): Hamilton finished in the same position that he started with. Button was fourth on the grid. Hamilton also set the fastest lap and McLaren scored more than any team on the day.

FERRARI (Fernando Alonso 7, Felipe Massa 10): Ferrari plucked defeat from the jaws of victory with a strategic mistake that cost Alonso the title.

MERCEDES (Nico Rosberg 4, Michael Schumacher retired): Schumacher's comeback season ended with a crash on the opening lap. Rosberg had pitted while the safety car was deployed and moved up six places from where he started.

RENAULT (Robert Kubica 5, Vitaly Petrov 6): Kubica had a clutch problem at the start and was 14th after turn two, having started 11th. Petrov pitted when the safety car was deployed and then kept Alonso behind him.

WILLIAMS (Rubens Barrichello 12, Nico Hulkenberg 16): Williams pipped Force India to sixth place by a single point, which was their main goal.

FORCE INDIA (Adrian Sutil 13, Vitantonio Liuzzi retired): Force India lost out to Williams but still recorded their best championship position. Their 68 points compares to 13 last year and none in 2008.

SAUBER (Nick Heidfeld 11, Kamui Kobayashi 14): Heidfeld leaves the team for an uncertain future. Kobayashi's strategy did not work out.

TORO ROSSO (Jaime Alguersuari 9, Sebastien Buemi 15): Alguersuari pitted during the safety car period. Buemi stayed out. Toro Rosso celebrated their former driver Vettel's success.

LOTUS RACING (Heikki Kovalainen 17, Jarno Trulli 21): Lotus ended the season as the best of the new teams. Trulli's race ended on lap 51 after a rear wing failure with three laps to go.

HRT (Bruno Senna 19, Christian Klien 20): The team's ninth double finish and fourth in a row.

VIRGIN RACING (Lucas di Grassi 18, Timo Glock retired): Di Grassi pitted while the safety car was deployed while Glock retired on lap 43.

Final standings

1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull 256 points,

2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 252,

3. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 242,

4. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 240,

5. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 214,

6. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 144,

7. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes GP 142,

8. Robert Kubica (Poland) Renault 136,

9. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes GP 72,