The final chapter of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship will be written this weekend in Abu Dhabi,
where one of four men will be crowned World Champion: Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso; Red Bull Racing’s,
Sebastian Vettel or Mark Webber; or McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. Alonso leads the chase with 246 points,
followed by Webber on 238, Vettel on 231 and Hamilton on 222.
The Constructors‘title has already been decided, with Red Bull Racing taking the title last weekend in Brazil after a 1-2 finish that put the team out of reach of their rivals on 469 points. The venue for what promises to be an epic showdown finale to a classic Formula One season is the purpose-built Yas Marina circuit, some 30km from central Abu Dhabi. Built for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2009, this harbour circuit was envisioned as a ‘Monaco of the Middle East‘ and the track’s layout retains some of the street-circuit feel familiar from Monte Carlo, with 21 turns – 12 left, nine right – three chicanes, six 90-degree corners and a hairpin leading to the back straight. As last year, the Abu Dhabi race will be a ‘twilight’ grand prix, with a local start time of 5pm. It will begin in daylight, but finish after sunset, allowing TV cameras to capture the spectacle of the spectacularly lit Yas Island facilities.
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