F1: Vettel wins Championship as season returns to a procession

In Melbourne, where we were treated to a great race by some of the field and a dire procession by the others, we wrote "here the Bahrain problems manifested themselves: just as Alonso had clearly not been able to get close enough to Massa, so Hamilton could not get close enough to Alonso. For lap after lap, he sat just outside the turbulent air, making the odd dive. "

That summarises 53 of the 55 laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The party atmosphere in Abu Dhabi was expectant: the four contenders were in the top six slots. "Brazil was where I won the championship last year, this year was where I lost it," Button was amongst them.

As the lights went out, Button outgunned Alonso into the first corner, slotting in behind his team-mate. Vettel hared off with Hamilton in hot pursuit. For the first three corners, it looked as if we were in for a treat.

Then Michael Schumacher fell off, spun, parked in the middle of the track and Sutil drove up the front of his car, parking on the airbox of the Mercedes. Less than three seconds later, the safety car was scrambled.

And that was the end of the race.

Sure, there was excitement from time to time - largely due to Alonso's frequent off track excursions (what happened to the "no all-four-wheels-off-the-track" rule?) but the race was more intellectual than adrenelin-producing.

Engineers screamed or cajoled their drivers to pass the car in front as championship hopes bled away. Drivers fought with the dirty air from the car in front for lap after lap after lap.

Right in the middle were the two Renaults. Petrov - like a number of mid-field runners - changed tyres under the safety car and kept the new hard set for the rest of the race. Kubica kept his harder "prime" tyres until six laps from the end.

It was the two Renaults who decided the race and the World Championship.

The permutations for who could win the title and how were mindboggling. If Vettel won, Alonso would have had to be third, if he was second, then Alonso could be fourth. At least, that's what we think: frankly, it got too confusing and time consuming to try to work out. All that really mattered was that we had a flat-out-to-the-flag race.

We didn't.

Renault and McLaren both had their "F Duct" working properly. So despite the McLarens' power advantage down the straights, the Renault of Kubica held back both Hamilton and Button who slipped in behind his team-mate after a late pit stop. At least Button - by sheer perseverance -managed to lead the race for several laps as his soft tyres see-sawed between grip and graining.

Alonso and Webber's pit stop dropped them behind Petrov where they stayed, despite the odd dive without result, until the end. Alonso was furious with Petrov who kept him back for about half the race. Alonso was wrong to do that: he should have congratulated the young driver, in his first season in F1, for excellent work.

The pit stops had dropped the leaders back into the middle of the pack. They struggled to pass anyone who didn't stop for tyres.

And that, essentially, was the story of the race: the cars following each other around, passing only lapped cars and trees. Oh, wait. There are no trees at the Mas Marina track.

The best thing that can be said is that Alonso did not get to win the Championship by less than seven points, thereby bringing the sport into more disrepute; Button knew his place for the last race and kept station just far enough behind his team mate to protect him had it become necessary (it didn't and his last lap was quick enough to make sure they crossed the line together not far behind Vettel.

Webber didn't get to fight for his title - although there remain nagging doubts that it was taken away from him in the middle of the season.

Vettel, who had never been in the Championship lead until he crossed the line in Abu Dhabi deserves the title. He has had some mad moments and although one's heart wanted Webber to win, the fact is that Vettel did as good a job and in the one race that mattered most, his particular skills of snatching pole and disappearing up the empty road were exactly what counted. .

And he performance on an empty track gave him the time to get into the pits, out again and effectively preserve his lead.

One cloud remains: behind the safety car, Vettel was playing silly games, almost bringing the field to a standstill and hanging back many car-lengths behind the safety car. What happened to the 10-car-length rule that he was penalised under earlier in the season?

Vettel's championship was not won by default - but it was lost by design.

And although there are some modifications to the design rules for next year, the big question is whether they will promote racing.

For this season, most of the best racing has been when the weather has intervened - but not so much as to stop racing altogether.