Rally Great Britain 11 - 14 Nov 10

Loeb clinches Rally GB victory

Sebastien Loeb rounded off the World Rally Car era with his eighth win of the 2010 season in the Rally of Great Britain.

The world champion defeated Petter Solberg by 19.1 seconds in the end, with Solberg also missing out on the runner-up spot in the championship as Jari-Matti Latvala took third from his Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen on the penultimate stage, giving him enough points to finish second in the standings.

Though Loeb's win was ultimately relatively comfortable, the first half of the rally had seen the Citroen driver, his team-mate Sebastien Ogier, Latvala and Solberg covered by just a few seconds in a spectacular lead battle.

Once Latvala had damaged a tyre on Friday afternoon and Ogier had crashed on Saturday morning - costing him second in the championship - it came down to just Loeb and Solberg, and despite the 2003 champion's best efforts, Loeb had the speed to pull away today and clinch the final win for the current generation of cars before next year's new rules.

"It was really tough, Petter was going very, very fast at the start of the rally," said Loeb. "He made nearly no mistakes, he's still really fast. I enjoyed it a lot."

After his Friday delay, Latvala steadily gained on Hirvonen, edging into third with one stage to go and wrapping up second in the championship - a satisfying achievement for a man who started the year as number two in his team.

Dani Sordo completed the top five for Citroen Junior, not far behind the Fords and several minutes clear of Stobart Ford's Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson.

Kimi Raikkonen (Citroen Junior) had a quiet run to eighth, with Mads Ostberg making it home ninth after another troubled weekend in the Adapta Subaru.

Andreas Mikkelsen and Ott Tanak won the S2000 and Production classes respectively as Xevi Pons and Armindo Araujo took the two titles. Both had looked comfortable for most of the weekend, with Pons' life getting easier still when main rival Jari Ketomaa rolled out of second this morning. Pons finished third behind the impressive Craig Breen.

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h14m54.0s
2. Petter Solberg Citroen + 19.1s
3. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 1m35.3s
4. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 1m53.3s
5. Dani Sordo Citroen + 2m12.2s
6. Henning Solberg Ford + 6m26.5s
7. Matthew Wilson Ford + 8m37.8s
8. Kimi Raikkonen Citroen + 10m27.9s
9. Mads Ostberg Subaru + 12m13.7s
10. Andreas Mikkelsen Skoda + 14m01.2s

By Matt Beer
http://www.autosport.com

F1 The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - November 14th 2010

Vettel wins championship and race

Sebastian Vettel became Formula 1's youngest-ever world champion by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with chief rivals Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber just seventh and eighth.

The 23-year-old German led comfortably from the front all afternoon, save a few laps before Jenson Button made his late pitstop. But it was what happened behind Vettel that changed the course of the championship.

Pre-race favourite Alonso only needed to come home in the top four to secure title, even if Vettel won, but his day - and title hopes - were ruined when he spent most of the afternoon looking at the back of Vitaly Petrov's car in the lower reaches of the top 10, thanks to an early shuffling of the race order.

Instead, Nico Rosberg and the Renaults of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov capitalised on alternative strategies offered by an early-race safety car period to finish fourth, fifth and sixth, and relegate Alonso and Webber down the order.

The vital chain of events was triggered by Webber's early pitstop to discard the first set of tyres, on which he was slipping backwards from Alonso's rear wing.

The Australian resumed on lap 13 in 16th place, behind Jaime Alguersuari's Toro Rosso. Massa had been running closely behind Webber, so Ferrari responded by pitting him to see if he could get out ahead of the Red Bull.

When he emerged behind, and Webber lapped 0.8 seconds faster than Alonso next time round, Ferrari made the decision to bring the Spaniard in to ensure he stayed in front of Webber.

He did, but that strategy failed to take into account Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov, who had pitted under a safety on the first lap. That meant that although Alonso had Webber covered off, he was nowhere near the fourth place he needed to deny Vettel the title.

Not only that, but while Alonso was stacked behind Petrov - with Rosberg another two seconds up the road - Kubica stayed out on a long first stint and jumped up the order. His Renault had started on the harder compound tyre after failing to make it through to Q3, but that allowed a late first stop.

Kubica found himself in the thick of the battle for the lead when Vettel and Hamilton rejoined after their stops. With Alonso so far down the order, Hamilton became the biggest threat to Vettel's championship. But the Briton couldn't find a way around the Renault, and by the time Kubica pitted on lap 45, Vettel was 10 seconds up the road and in control.

But in that time, Kubica had extended the gap back to Alonso's pack to 24 seconds - plenty for his pitstop. He resumed ahead of team-mate Petrov, with Alonso seventh.

Button, who was running just five seconds ahead of Alonso in the early stages, remained in third - easily clear of the Rosberg group by the time he resumed from his pitstop on lap 39.

The first-lap safety car period that later proved so pivotal to the championship was, coincidentally, partly caused by Rosberg - the driver to benefit most from it.

His Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher was delayed on the inside of the track by the defending Rubens Barrichello. Rosberg tried to drive around his team-mate into the chicane but they were squeezed together and Schumacher spun on the exit.

Just as he was trying to restart, Vitantonio Liuzzi arrived on the scene, in the middle of a pack with nowhere to go. His Force India hit and climbed up the front of the Mercedes and blocked the track. It was this that prompted Rosberg and Petrov to make their early stops.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h39m36.837s
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 10.1s
3. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 11.0s
4. Rosberg Mercedes + 30.7s
5. Kubica Renault + 39.0s
6. Petrov Renault + 43.5s
7. Alonso Ferrari + 43.7s
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 44.2s
9. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 50.2s
10. Massa Ferrari + 50.8s
11. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 51.5s
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 57.6s
13. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 58.3s
14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 59.5s
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m03.1s
16. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1m04.7s
17. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
18. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
19. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
20. Klien HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 4 laps

By Steven English
http://www.autosport.com

F1 The Brazilian Grand Prix - November 7th 2010

Vettel win sets up Abu Dhabi showdown

Sebastian Vettel ensured that the title fight will go to Abu Dhabi by beating Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso to victory at Interlagos today.

The German took the lead at the start of the race and never allowed Red Bull team-mate Webber a look in. Webber's second place clinched the constructors' title for Red Bull, but Fernando Alonso's third limited his loss in the points table.

Pole winner Nico Hulkenberg's time in the sun was short-lived, as he was out-dragged to the first corner by Vettel and then demoted to third by Webber at Turn 4.

It took Alonso another six laps to get by the Williams, thanks mainly to some skilled and spirited defence by Hulkenberg once he settled into the race. By the time Alonso had clear air he was seven seconds behind Webber, and even then lapping half a second slower.

Hamilton was next in the queue to pass Hulkenberg and was stuck there for another eight laps, unable to make a move stick, until the Williams dived into the pits on lap 15.

So Vettel and Webber were freed from the start right up until the safety car was called out when Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed at Turn 2 with 20 laps remaining. Vettel had a retained a lead of between two and four seconds over his team-mate for the duration, including their event-less pitstops.

Vettel had the lapped Robert Kubica between himself and Webber at the restart and bolted - three seconds clear after one lap, four and a half after three. From there on he had no trouble managing the gap to his team-mate.

Behind, Webber had to see off a threat from the closing Alonso in the final laps as the Spaniard shared fastest laps with the Red Bull drivers following the safety car. In the end, Alonso couldn't get close enough and settled for third and taking his championship lead to Abu Dhabi,

Hamilton was fourth and within range of Alonso at the finish, another to benefit from the late safety car. He was complaining of grip problems throughout the race and was delighted to take the opportunity of a free pitstop when the safety car came out.

But he was towards the back of the queue and had traffic to deal with before he could attempt to close on Alonso. Once freed, he was able to set a fastest laps of his own but was already eight seconds down the road and had no chance of closing in. He's now 24 points behind Alonso with 25 available in Abu Dhabi.

Button gave Hamilton some company in the closing stages, thanks to his gamble early on. He made his first tyre stop just 12 laps in, which helped him to vault up the order, passing the two Mercedes, Hulkenberg and Kubica when they made their stops.

He came back in to discard his heavily-worn tyres at the safety car, and - like Hamilton - retained his position thanks to the cars behind him that did not stop being a lap down and stuck behind the safety car.

Rosberg also stopped (twice in fact, thanks to a radio glitch-inspired confusion) and resumed his places inside the top seven alongside team-mate Michael Schumacher, with Hulkenberg and Kubica heading the train of lapped cars in eighth and ninth.

Kamui Kobayashi claimed the final point after a fraught race-long scrap for the spot that involved Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian Sutil, Sebastien Buemi and Rubens Barrichello at various stages of the race.

Rubens Barrichello was 14th after picking up a puncture while battling with Alguersuari, ahead of countryman Massa, whose already poor race was ruined early on when he had to stop twice due to a problem with a wheel nut.

Heikki Kovalainen was first of the new cars home, leading team-mate Trulli home well clear of Virgin's Timo Glock and HRT's Bruno Senna.

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h33:11.803
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 4.243
3. Alonso Ferrari + 6.807
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 14.634
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 15.593
6. Rosberg Mercedes + 35.300
7. Schumacher Mercedes + 43.400
8. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
9. Kubica Renault + 1 lap
10. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
12. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
14. Massa Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Petrov Renault + 1 lap
16. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
17. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
18. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps
19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps
20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
22. Klien HRT-Cosworth + 6 laps

By Steven English
http://www.autosport.com