A1GP’s death throes continued with the cancellation of the next two rounds, China and Malaysia, after the opening round in Australia was cancelled last month.

The administrator appointed to run A1GP is seeking to sell all the chassis to anyone interested in continuing the series, while key series personnel have left the company and the A1GP’s equipment has been put into storage after the lease on its Silverstone hanger expired at the end of October.

The next scheduled race for A1GP would now be in South Africa on 28 February 2010, if it can be salvaged.

And so the Chase arrives at the unique challenge of Talladega – there’s no other circuit quite like this one, it’s the only restrictor plate race of the Chase, and it’s delivered some quite spectacular racing and accidents over the years. Would 2009 continue the run? Moreover, would polesitter Jimmie Johnson use it to extend his already formidable lead?

Unfortunately, it looked as though the entertainment of Talladega was sabotaged before it even started – by NASCAR itself. A new rule had been rushed in by NASCAR for Talladega forbidding cars from bump drafting in corners. “We want to see sunshine between the cars,” said NASCAR president Mike Helton, “All of the way through Turns 1 and 2, and all of the way through Turns 3 and 4, you will not be allowed to push someone, to bump-draft them or to shove them through the turns,” Helton said. “Remember the aggressive driving will still be watched very closely on the front stretches and through the tri-oval. But we have seen the progress, particularly at Talladega, of two cars hooking up and basically locked up all the way around for a lap. You will not be allowed to do that in the turns. That’s from the green flag all the way through to the checkered flag. So even on the last lap, coming through 3 and 4, you’re not going to be able to push a guy hooked up in a two-car tandem.”

With such a late change to common practice, the drivers were distinctly nervous as proceedings got underway and maintaining a clear distance in the opening laps – to the detriment of close racing. It almost looked like industrial action on the part of the drivers to protest NASCAR’s edict.

Mark Martin got a great start and beat Johnson to the first led lap of the day, but he and Johnson then both got bumped out of the running order and fell back to the middle of the pack leaving Kurt Busch in the lead ahead of Carl Edwards as the yellow flag came out on lap 5 when Paul Menard cut a tyre, turned into the wall and trapped Joe Nemechek against it as he did so, the two of them locked together, grinding along the wall for a quarter of a lap before finally coming to a halt.

Once the racing got underway again, the cars took up a nerve-racking three-wide formation and started putting the draft racing to full effect. David Reutimann took over the lead spot on lap 11, then challenged by Jeff Gordon before both of them were passed by new leader Casey Mears on lap 22 as the field finally stretched out into a single file. No one was pushing, and the effects of the “no draft bumping” decree were making themselves felt as everyone played safe, unwilling to be the guinea pig who got slapped down first.

With the race going caution-free for a lengthy period, the first full round of pit stops starting on lap 40 took place under green flag conditions. Clint Bowyer came in a little too hot and ran into the back of AJ Allmendinger as they slowed down for the pit lane speed limit, tipping the 44 into a spin, but it wasn’t until nearly all the pit stops were done that Kurt Busch went for a fast and wild spin through the infield grass after a tyre went down on him on lap 50 to bring out the second caution of the afternoon. The last remaining cars to pit now did so, and some that had already pitted came in for a quick fuel top-up; the worst hit were a small group of cars that were about to hit, and were too close to pit lane to pull out when the track went yellow and the pit lane closed. Among those caught out and put to the back of the lead lap were Casey Mears (who also got a pit lane speeding penalty) and a disgruntled Jimmie Johnson.

At the restart on lap 55, Elliott Sadler led Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, David Ragan and Greg Biffle; Kenseth briefly took the lead before a huge cheer went up on lap 60 as the 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr sprang forward to lead a couple of laps, before Denny Hamlin then took up the lead spot for a lap and then Kevin Harvick popped up to take over. Bump drafting briefly picked up, before the drivers thought better of it and the field once again stretched out to a single file procession; boredom was setting in, with Harvick overheard asking for cruise control next time; his crew chief Gil Martin dryly responded with a promise of fitting an iPod into the drink holder instead.

As the race passed lap 90 of 188 it was time for some more green flag pit stops to begin, albeit rather strung out because of the different approaches to pitting under previous cautions – the majority of the leaders came in a gaggle on lap 98, Casey Mears and Jeff Gordon making contact at the pit entrance as they vied for their pit boxes.

A third caution came out on lap 105 for debris (a fender brace in turn 4 and a large piece of tear-off in turn 3.) Even though it has been just a few laps since their last stop, the leaders didn’t hesitate to come in again for a stop under caution. At the restart, it was Hamlin leading Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Robby Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The lead fluctuated as drivers caught the draft and were propelled to the front and then dropped back through the pack. Robby Gordon, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and David Stremme all took their turns at the front of the pack. Brad Keselowski had just taken up the lead on lap 136 making it 23 different leaders with 43 lead changes, when suddenly Hamlin pulled down below the double yellow line belching smoke from a terminally suicidal engine, bringing out the fourth yellow of the afternoon by leaving a streak of oil through turns 1 and 2.

With 50 laps to go we were still just outside the pit window to get all the way to the chequered – unless anyone could seriously stretch it, or there was a sudden abundance of yellows along the way. As the caution extended 6 laps, cars came in again for a quick top-up before the green on lap 144, when Keselowski led Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Stremme and Martin Truex Jr. up to speed.

Jeff Gordon quickly took the lead back for himself, then Harvick, then Kasey Kahne, then Sadler, then Montoya, then Jeff Burton, then Jamie McMurray, then Burton again before Marcos Ambrose and then David Stremme took over – it was changing faster than a slot machine, a car leading one minute then plummeting to the back of the field next when they lost the draft. One notable absentee throughout all this was Jimmie Johnson, who was staying resolutely back in 33rd position – seemingly by choice, trying to stay out of trouble, but he was leaving that late surge very late indeed if it was to come.

The field once again stretched out to a single file line, allowing McMurray to claim the lead for a more settled period ahead of Kenseth, Montoya, Mears, Ambrose and Burton. Remarkably only two of the top ten were Chase contenders – Montoya, and Mark Martin in 10th place. Johnson continued to circulate back in 31st position showing little sign of life.

Then with 20 to go, the configuration changed and two- and three-wide racing was back as the drivers picked their dance partners for the final push. Earnhardt Jr briefly ousted McMurray as the leader, then Ragan did a brief turn in front, then Stremme – but it kept coming back to McMurray. Further back, Johnson was still having little joy making any progress, and Kurt Busch had to drop out with a tyre problem. But with five laps to go, it looked as though for once Talladega had been pretty much wreck free.

Ahhh. Not quite. It might not have been the “Big One” in terms of numbers, but what happened on lap 183 certainly ranked as “big” in the spectacular stakes. Marcos Ambrose bumped Ryan Newman, which caused team mates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman to then collided with each other turning Stewart into the wall resulting in front end damage and possible problems with the brake lines, forcing him into the pits.

But for Newman it was a different matter. He was turned around one eighty degrees by the collisions, and once the car was facing the wrong way around the aerodynamics took over and lifted the back end of the car into the air, flipping it into a somersault that caused the back of the car to come crunching down onto the hood of Harvick’s car; Ambrose and Elliott Sadler also spun and made contact with the wall as they tried to avoid the wreck.

Newman’s wild ride wasn’t over. Now on its roof, it slid across the track to make contact with the outside wall, which caused it to bounce back spinning like a top toward the infield grass, where the front left quarter dug into the grass and flipped the car back into the air in a vicious little sting in the tail that ripped the rest of the car to pieces. Finally it came to a stop, still upside down, the roof collapsed in and fears that Ryan Newman would be trapped and injured inside; the recovery crew carefully righted the car and cut the roof off, allowing Newman to spring out seemingly unhurt but clearly furious, blaming NASCAR’s rules and restrictor plates for leading up to this incident.

While Newman was being extracted, the race went to a red flag before being readied for a green-white chequered finish. This played havoc with the field, however, who were at breaking point on fuel: some cars had to dive in for emergency splash-and-dash stops, while Jeff Gordon and Juan Montoya both ran out of gas and limped – or were pushed – back to the pits for agonisingly slow refuelling stops.

Finally the race got back to green, Jamie McMurray leading them away. But back in the midfield, the real Big One was underway as the 09 of Brad Keselowski tipped Kurt Busch into a spin that sent him skewing across the track. He impacted Mark Martin heavily, tipping the 5 car into a nasty but brief barrel-roll, and behind all this a dozen cars in total were caught up in the wreck to a greater or lesser degree. The race ended with the cars that were still running picking their way through the debris to take the yellow-and-chequered, with McMurray ecstatic at taking the win.

But the biggest winner? Jimmie Johnson had indeed managed to stay out of all the late race trouble by hanging towards the back, and emerged unscathed in the top ten. Best of all, with Martin wrecked, Stewart running several laps down because of the earlier collision with Newman, and Montoya and Gordon’s campaigns badly pit by running out of gas, it meant that all his chief rivals were absolutely no where. Johnson had turned around an afternoon that looked like damage limitation into an early Christmas present and a surely unassailable championship lead.

The Sprint Cup effectively ended here today at Talladega, folks. All hail the luckiest driver in NASCAR, Jimmie Johnson, the new champion. Of course, in motorsport you make your own luck – and the 48 team made it in spades just by striving to stay out of trouble, so brains as well as speed have delivered another trophy to the Johnson family.

Race result

FIN ST  CAR DRIVER                MAKE        PTS/BNS  LAPS  STATUS
1   22  26  Jamie McMurray        Ford        195/10   191
2   11  9   Kasey Kahne           Dodge       175/5    191
3   20  20  Joey Logano *         Toyota      170/5    191
4   8   16  Greg Biffle           Ford        160/0    191
5   18  31  Jeff Burton           Chevrolet   160/5    191
6   1   48  Jimmie Johnson        Chevrolet   150/0    191
7   33  55  Michael Waltrip       Toyota      151/5    191
8   36  09  Brad Keselowski       Chevrolet   147/5    191
9   26  19  Elliott Sadler        Ford        143/5    191
10  37  171 Bobby Labonte         Chevrolet   134/0    191
11  24  88  Dale Earnhardt Jr.    Chevrolet   135/5    191
12  15  33  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet   127/0    191
13  12  83  Brian Vickers         Toyota      129/5    191
14  10  99  Carl Edwards          Ford        126/5    191
15  13  18  Kyle Busch            Toyota      123/5    191
16  29  43  Reed Sorenson         Dodge       115/0    191
17  28  6   David Ragan           Ford        112/0    191
18  41  36  Robert Richardson Jr. Toyota      109/0    191
19  5   42  Juan Montoya          Chevrolet   111/5    191
20  3   24  Jeff Gordon           Chevrolet   108/5    191
21  21  29  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet   105/5    191
22  30  12  David Stremme         Dodge       102/5    191
23  35  34  John Andretti         Chevrolet   99/5     191
24  14  17  Matt Kenseth          Ford        91/0     191
25  19  07  Casey Mears           Chevrolet   93/5     191
26  16  00  David Reutimann       Toyota      90/5     191
27  38  82  Scott Speed *         Toyota      82/0     190   Accident
28  2   5   Mark Martin           Chevrolet   84/5     190   Accident
29  42  113 Max Papis *           Toyota      76/0     190
30  6   2   Kurt Busch            Dodge       78/5     189   Accident
31  23  1   Martin Truex Jr.      Chevrolet   75/5     189   Accident
32  34  7   Robby Gordon          Toyota      72/5     189   Accident
33  25  44  A.J. Allmendinger     Dodge       64/0     189
34  17  47  Marcos Ambrose        Toyota      66/5     188
35  4   14  Tony Stewart          Chevrolet   63/5     183   Accident
36  7   39  Ryan Newman           Chevrolet   60/5     183   Accident
37  31  96  Erik Darnell          Ford        52/0     167
38  9   11  Denny Hamlin          Toyota      54/5     137   Engine
39  43  78  Regan Smith           Chevrolet   46/0     99    Engine
40  27  77  Sam Hornish Jr.       Dodge       43/0     44    Engine
41  40  66  Dave Blaney           Toyota      40/0     12    Vibration
42  32  98  Paul Menard           Ford        37/0     4     Accident
43  39  187 Joe Nemechek          Toyota      34/0     4     Accident

(Final positions subject to review by NASCAR of the video tapes of the running order when the final yellow came out.)

Sprint Cup standings

    +/- DRIVER              PTS     BEHIND  ST  P   W   T5  T10
1   --  Jimmie Johnson      6248    Leader  33  3   6   14  22
2   --  Mark Martin         6064    -184    33  7   5   12  19
3   --  Jeff Gordon         6056    -192    33  0   1   16  23
4   +1  Juan Montoya        6009    -239    33  2   0   7   17
5   -1  Tony Stewart        5969    -279    33  0   4   15  22
6   --  Kurt Busch          5936    -312    33  0   1   8   18
7   +1  Greg Biffle         5908    -340    33  0   0   10  15
8   -1  Ryan Newman         5846    -402    33  2   0   5   15
9   +2  Kasey Kahne         5834    -414    33  0   2   7   14
10  --  Carl Edwards        5811    -437    33  0   0   7   13
11  -2  Denny Hamlin        5800    -448    33  1   3   12  17
12  --  Brian Vickers       5697    -551    33  6   1   4   13
======= CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS ========
13  --  Kyle Busch          4043    -2205   33  1   4   9   12
14  --  Matt Kenseth        3986    -2262   33  1   2   6   11
15  --  Clint Bowyer        3932    -2316   33  0   0   4   14
16  --  David Reutimann     3854    -2394   33  2   1   5   9
17  +1  Jeff Burton 3539    -2709   33  0   0   3   7
18  -1  Marcos Ambrose      3519    -2729   33  0   0   4   7
19  +1  Joey Logano*        3494    -2754   33  0   1   3   7
20  -1  Casey Mears         3471    -2777   33  0   0   0   4
21  --  Kevin Harvick       3380    -2868   33  0   0   3   7
22  --  Jamie McMurray      3286    -2962   33  0   1   1   5
23  +1  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  3197    -3051   33  0   0   2   5
24  -1  Martin Truex Jr.    3139    -3109   33  2   0   0   4
25  +1  Elliott Sadler      3134    -3114   33  0   0   1   5
26  -1  A.J. Allmendinger   3084    -3164   33  0   0   1   4
27  +1  David Ragan         2985    -3263   33  0   0   0   2
28  +1  Reed Sorenson       2964    -3284   33  0   0   0   1
29  -2  Sam Hornish Jr.     2948    -3300   33  0   0   2   7
30  +1  Bobby Labonte       2942    -3306   33  0   0   1   2
31  -1  David Stremme       2919    -3329   33  0   0   0   0
32  --  Paul Menard         2742    -3506   33  0   0   0   0
33  --  Michael Waltrip     2612    -3636   31  0   0   0   2
34  --  Robby Gordon        2474    -3774   32  0   0   1   1
35  --  Scott Speed*        2435    -3813   32  0   0   1   1
36  --  John Andretti       2381    -3867   31  0   0   0   0
37  --  David Gilliland     1700    -4548   28  0   0   0   0
38  +2  Brad Keselowski     1330    -4918   12  0   1   1   4
39  -1  Regan Smith         1306    -4942   16  0   0   0   0
40  -1  Joe Nemechek        1262    -4986   28  0   0   0   0

And so we arrive at the end of the 2009 F1 season. The titles decided, all that remained was one exhibition race – at the visually astounding new Yas Marina circuit. But would the racing match the location? And how would the drivers and teams – Button and Brawn especially – fare now that the pressure of the championships was over?

After dominating practice and qualifying, all the money was on Lewis Hamilton to win. And even more than that, to disappear into the distance and never be seen again. Well, that dream was quickly dispelled, since Hamilton – despite getting a good start – quickly realised that he was unable to pull away from Sebastian Vettel in second despite his faster pace, KERS and lighter fuel load. If he couldn’t pull out a gap before his early pit stop then Vettel would jump him for the lead.

Hamilton put everything he could into the effort, dragging out the odd tenth here or there, but Vettel was making it hard work indeed. And then on lap 12 the McLaren locked up and ran wide at turn 17 losing the outgoing world champion some 0.8s and putting him right back in Vettel’s clutches. Sure enough, come the pit stops, Hamilton emerged from the unique pit tunnel exit to find himself demoted to second, but at least he’s done enough to hold off third placed Mark Webber.

But then a couple of laps after his pit stop, Hamilton received dread news from the team: they were picking up a right rear brake problem. It explained much about his performance thus far, but the news was even worse than that: with the diagnostics indicating imminent brake failure, the team could not risk the driver, car and bystanders with an uncontrolled 200mph failure and crash. They had no choice but to clear a spot in the garage and call Hamilton in to the pits to retire, which he did on lap 21.

With Hamilton out of the way there was no risk to Vettel in the lead, and Mark Webber looked secure in third place. Behind them were the two Brawns, going well enough but not startlingly and no apparent threat. Rubens Barrichello had started ahead of his team mate, but in the opening corner of the race he has been cut off by Mark Webber who clipped the edge of Barrichello’s wing. The end plates flew off – one of them landing on Button’s cockpit – and Barrichello’s pace seemed initially affected and it allowed Button to get past for position in the ensuing corners and pull away. But Barrichello was soon matching the race leaders for pace and starting to reduce the gap again, and when the pit stops came around there was no move to change the front wing on the Brawn GP, so all was well. Webber also was fearing some sort of damage or puncture, but here too all seemed okay.

Coming up to that first round of pit stops, Button was told to push or risk falling behind Kamui Kobayashi who was having a brilliant drive making the most of a one-stop strategy. Button did manage to emerge from the pit tunnel in front, but Kobayashi was in a lighter car on hot yres and he pressed Button for all he could, finally making Button run off line onto the dust and then outbrake himself into the chicane. Kobayashi needed no second chance, passed the Brawn and scampered off into the distance on his way to an eventual 6th place after his own pit stop, by far the best of the single stoppers in the afternoon despite labouring under heavy fuel tanks and half a race on the soft option tyres. Assuming Toyota do appear on the grid in 2010, it’s impossible not to believe that Kobayashi hasn’t secured his seat in one of the cars next season with this drive and the equally eye-catching one in Brazil.

Frankly, the race settled into a bit of a lull in the middle part of proceedings; as feared, the track was simply too scientific and clinical to match the exuberance of a circuit such as Interlagos, at least when the championships are not at stake, and things became rather processional.

However, excitement sparked back into the race in the closing dozen laps as it became clear that Button was scything through Webber’s huge lead at the rate of three-quarters of a second per lap. What had appeared a safe run to the podium now became a fraught all-out fight between the two, as Weber struggled on the softer tyres but Button’s smooth drving style suited them to a tee. Webber’s “body language” showed that he was clearly rattled, struggling to limit mistakes that presented Button with any opportunities, and it was nail biting stuff with Button coming within inches of pulling it off on the final lap. Ultimately however it was another demonstration of how it might be easy to catch someone, but another thing altogether to pass them – and Webber held on by the skin of his teeth to claim second and make it a Red Bull one-two. Webber and Button was talking excitedly all the way up to the podium about the battle, and it seemed like the best fun either of them had enjoyed all year.

Overtaking moves that we did see pulled off included Robert Kubica staging a key move on the heavier car of Jarno Trulli early on, but the Pole faded badly as the race wore, fighting with one-stopping Heikki Kovalainen after his own pit stop and then clashing with Sebastien Buemi which ended with contact sending him into a spin, dumping him out of the points in 10th place. Adrian Sutil proved intermittently pacey, including one great battle through the chicane with Romain Grosjean, but nonetheless finished a lap off the pace; and Giancarlo Fisichella made up lots of positions early in the race by opting to take the soft tyres at the start, but who struggled later in the race and found his race mortally wounded by a speeding drive-thru penalty after his first stop.

Other than Hamilton, the only retiree of the evening was Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari. Suffering from a gearbox problem, Alguersuari came into the pits before the crew was out to receive him on lap 18; however, the Red Bull crew were all deployed for the race leader Vettel. Making the same mistake that commentators and spectators had been making all season long, Alguersuari confused the Red Bull livery with the Toro Rosso one and pulled in to Vettel’s box, only to find himself quickly ejected and thrown back out by the gesticulating crew. By the time he was back on track and worked out what had happened, the car was in its death throes and he came to a halt out on track.

In the end it was a curiously uneven race: thrilling in parts, dull in others, visually stunning but somehow missing something underneath, and yet managing to provide at the very end an amazing flourish and celebration of wheel-to-wheel, edge-of-the-seat racing together with an excellent win for Sebastian Vettel who was flawless today, surely a world champion in waiting.

There are far worse ways to see out the end of the season and send us into winter hibernation, and for a début/inaugural outing, Abu Dhabi overall delivered the goods.

And now all eyes turn to Bahrain in 133 days or 19 weeks. What will happen in 2010? Will Red Bull carry on the momentum they enjoyed at the end of 2009 where they chalked up a hat-trick of consecutive wins? Will Brawn successfully defend their world titles? Will McLaren and Ferrari be resurgent? Will there be another astonishing upset with a no-hope team suddenly smashing all expectations?

At this point we don’t even know all of the teams that will line up on that starting grid, and as for the driver line-up – amazingly, only six seats have been confirmed. Even Jenson Button is still a free agent. That’s likely to change pretty quickly in the next few days and weeks but it’s surely surprising that so much is still up in the air this late in the year. Although Abu Dhabi is the last on-track action of the year, it feels very much as though we’re still in the middle of the story and that the fade-out on the weekend’s coverage should end with a “To Be Continued” caption.

Watch this space!

Race results

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault        1h34:03.314
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault        +    17.857
 3.  Button        Brawn-Mercedes          +    18.467
 4.  Barrichello   Brawn-Mercedes          +    22.735
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber              +    26.253
 6.  Kobayashi     Toyota                  +    28.343
 7.  Trulli        Toyota                  +    34.366
 8.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari      +    41.294
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota         +    45.941
10.  Kubica        BMW Sauber              +    48.180
11.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes        +    52.798
12.  Raikkonen     Ferrari                 +    54.317
13.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota         +    59.839
14.  Alonso        Renault                 +  1:09.687
15.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes    +  1:34.450
16.  Grosjean      Renault                 +     1 lap
17.  Fisichella    Ferrari                 +     1 lap
18.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes    +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:40.279

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                    On lap
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes        21
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari      19

World Championship standings after round 17

Button’s strong third place emphasised the amount he finally won the 2009 world title by, while a deflated Rubens Barrichello was usurped for the runners-up slot by Sebastian Vettel – not that the number two position meant all that much to either driver, and Vettel will be far happier with the GP win than the academic matter of world championship standings.

Given that the constructors’ championship decides pit lane positions, car numbers and most of all money, there was far more riding on this side of things than on the drivers. Brawn and Red Bull were safe in first and second before Abu Dhabi, of course, but the race result meant that McLaren held off Ferrari by a single point for third place “best of the rest” standing. BMW were able to finish in 6th in their final F1 appearance, just holding off Williams.

Drivers:                    Constructors:
 1.  Button        95        1.  Brawn-Mercedes        172
 2.  Vettel        84        2.  Red Bull-Renault      153.5
 3.  Barrichello   77        3.  McLaren-Mercedes       71
 4.  Webber        69.5      4.  Ferrari                70
 5.  Hamilton      49        5.  Toyota                 59.5
 6.  Raikkonen     48        6.  BMW Sauber             36
 7.  Rosberg       34.5      7.  Williams-Toyota        34.5
 8.  Trulli        32.5      8.  Renault                26
 9.  Alonso        26        9.  Force India-Mercedes   13
10.  Glock         24       10.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      8
11.  Kovalainen    22
12.  Massa         22
13.  Heidfeld      19
14.  Kubica        17
15.  Fisichella     8
16.  Buemi          6
17.  Sutil          5
18.  Kobayashi      3
19.  Bourdais       2

Feature race

Davide Valsecchi opened the GP2 Asia season with a hard-earned victory over fellow GP2 veteran Luca Filippi at the feature race in Abu Dhabi.

Valsecchi recovered from a sluggish start to retake the lead from ART’s impressive rookie Sam Bird down the incredibly long backstraight on lap 1, but Filippi was able to take the lead by running longer before his mandatory pit stop.

Racing was interrupted shortly afterward when Luiz Razia lost his front wing in a collision with Christian Vietoris which left debris on the track. Valsecchi then had to put Filippi under pressure from the restart, finally taking the lead again in the closing stages after a very close side by side dice through the Turn 11, 12, 13 and 14 complex. Valsecchi retained the lead even after a second safety car period prompted by a spin by Trident’s Plamen Kralev.

Sam Bird had been on course for an impressive 4th place when he suffered brake problems, took to an escape road at the chicane, and then retired a few corners later on the penultimate lap as the problem proved insurmountable. That put his British compatriot Oliver Turvey into 8th place and hence into pole position for the sprint race tomorrow under reverse grid rules.

Result

Pos  Driver              Team        Time/Gap
 1.  Davide Valsecchi    iSport      1h07m49.810s
 2.  Luca Filippi        Meritus     + 4.881s
 3.  James Jakes         Super Nova  + 6.174s
 4.  Alexander Rossi     Ocean       + 7.182s
 5.  Josef Kral          Super Nova  + 8.220s
 6.  Christian Vietoris  DAMS        + 13.300s
 7.  Johnny Cecotto      Trident     + 15.460s
 8.  Oliver Turvey       iSport      + 16.223s
 9.  Edoardo Piscopo     DAMS        + 16.715s
10.  Roldan Rodriguez    Coloni      + 16.879s
11.  Marcus Ericsson     ART         + 21.686s
12.  Will Bratt          Coloni      + 22.539s
13.  Michael Herck       DPR         + 22.881s
14.  Rodolfo Gonzalez    Arden       + 23.403s
15.  Daniel Zampieri     Piquet      + 23.786s
16.  Max Chilton         Addax       + 25.131s
17.  Fabio Leimer        Ocean       + 30.019s
18.  Sam Bird            ART         + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Charles Pic         Arden       28 laps
     Vlado Arabadjiev    Piquet      25 laps
     Plamen Kralev       Trident     24 laps
     Luiz Razia          Addax       12 laps
     Giacomo Ricci       DPR         8 laps
     Diego Nunes         Meritus     0 laps

Sprint race

Christian Vietoris won the spring race, but it was once again Davide Valsecchi who caught the eye and impressed the most as he battled his way impressively up the order from eighth on the grid to take second and complete a very satisfactory open weekend in GP2 Asia.

Polesitter Oliver Turvey had a mediocre start but crucially failed to defend his line going into the first turn, allowing first Vietoris and then Josef Kral and Alexander Rossi to stream past him on the inside line. Turvey would also get taken with similar ease by Valsecchi with 8 laps remaining, but at least he did better than his fellow front row driver Johnny Cecotto who got a miserable start and was then squeezed back to 8th behind Luca Fillipi and Valsecchi.

Valsecchi took a fair while to come to life, but as the race reached is concluding third he suddenly sprang to life, elbowed Filippi aside and then passed Turvey – again, the Brit made it far too easy for him and failed to defend against his iSport team mate, unlike Rossi who blocked Valsecchi to within an inch of the rules before finally being forced to concede as Valsecchi took the third place. With one lap remaining, Valsecchi then hunted down Kral for the second place spot and managed a great move down the inside into a chicane that left Kral no option but to let him past for the runner-up position.

Behind them, Turvey finally managed to get on competitive form with a nice move on Rossi to take fourth. Filippi, meanwhile, having lost the shoot-out with Valsecchi then managed to spin while side-by-side defending his position from Cecotto. He recovered but was out of the points in eighth.

Valsecchi had been helped by a safety car on lap 14 caused by Fabio Leimer’s ca failing to brake going into a sharp left hander, sending him skidding off into the new safer barriers introduced to F1 here at Abu Dhabi, collecting Will Bratt along the way. That closed up the field and had left Valsecchi right on the back of Rossi at the critical moment with enough laps left to take advantage of the situation.

Even so, it was somewhat startling to see Valsecchi in such top form. He’s been something of a GP2 journeyman till now, having been on the series since its inception without ever really catching the eye or having much success. But the excellent results here in what it only a four-weekend series sets him up nicely for walking away with the off-season title.

Another driver showing signs of top form was ART’s Sam Bird, but for all his strong showing he walks away with zero points from this weekend. Starting from 18th after his brake failure in the feature race, he was spun by light contact in the first lap and then worked his way up through the order with moves including a side-by-side battle with Rodolfo Gonzalez that saw them both bounce over and through a chicane. But Bird then spun later in the race and got dumped down to the back of the running order once again, all that hard work for nought.

Result

Pos  Driver              Team        Time/Gap
 1.  Christian Vietoris  DAMS        43m18.814s
 2.  Davide Valsecchi    iSport      + 2.447s
 3.  Josef Kral          Super Nova  + 3.195s
 4.  Oliver Turvey       iSport      + 6.616s
 5.  Alexander Rossi     Ocean       + 7.420s
 6.  Johnny Cecotto      Trident     + 7.711s
 7.  Edoardo Piscopo     DAMS        + 8.237s
 8.  Luca Filippi        Meritus     + 10.136s
 9.  Michael Herck       DPR         + 10.730s
10.  James Jakes         Super Nova  + 11.643s
11.  Luiz Razia          Addax       + 11.881s
12.  Marcus Ericsson     ART         + 12.315s
13.  Diego Nunes         Meritus     + 12.893s
14.  Roldan Rodriguez    Coloni      + 13.303s
15.  Charles Pic         Arden       + 13.777s
16.  Rodolfo Gonzalez    Arden       + 14.431s
17.  Max Chilton         Addax       + 19.485s
18.  Sam Bird            ART         + 21.421s

Retirements:

     Vlado Arabadjiev    Piquet      17 laps
     Fabio Leimer        Ocean       14 laps
     Will Bratt          Coloni      14 laps
     Daniel Zampieri     Piquet      5 laps
     Giacomo Ricci       DPR         1 lap
     Plamen Kralev       Trident     0 laps

GP2 Asia championship after round 2

Drivers championship:

Pos Driver              Pts
1   Davide Valsecchi    19
2   Christian Vietoris   9
3   Luca Filippi         8
4   Josef Kral           8
5   Alexander Rossi      7
6   James Jakes          6
7   Oliver Turvey        4
8   Johnny Cecotto Jr.   3

Teams championship:

Pos Team                    Pts
1   iSport International    23
2   Super Nova Racing       14
3   DAMS                     9
4   Malaysia Qi-Meritus.Com  8
5   Ocean Racing Technology  7
6   Trident Racing           3

Lewis Hamilton was in peerless form and dominated the first-ever qualification session in Abu Dhabi to take pole position, while the fortunes of his rivals ebbed and flowed as the sun set on the virgin circuit.

In Q1, it was Jenson Button who skipped up to join Hamilton on the front row of the grid proving that the new world champion’s form was much improved now he had secured the title. But while his team mate topped the timesheets, Heikki Kovalainen struggled to get the second McLaren into the next stage, a late running finally boosting him to safety.

It was Force India and Renault who had the worst Q1, the teams losing both cars in the first round of qualifying – the most shocking being Fernando Alonso who missed out on Q2 by one spot, blaming a total lack of grip and professing himself unsurprised not to get through.

Giancarlo Fisichella will also not have been surprised to be eliminated, although starting the race dead last can’t be anything other than an embarrassing disappointment. And to make matters worse for Ferrari (Luca di Montezemolo , Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa were all watching on with pained expressions on the pit wall) Kimi Raikkonen was among the fallers in the second round of qualifying.

Kovalainen was also eliminated in Q2, but this time it was transmission failure that did for his hopes of progressing – he stopped out on track during the session. Meanwhile Lewis was on top of the timesheets again – and once more was the only driver to break the 100s lap time. But in Q2 it was the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber who were suddenly in form, shooting up to 2nd and fourth sandwiching a still-strong Button in 3rd.

With fuel loaded on and the skies now completely dark, Q3 seemed to cause some variation in form, with Jenson Button in particular falling back and reporting a nasty vibration on the steering wheel under braking which meant that he never competed for the front row and was probably lucky to secure 5th on the grid.

The Red Bulls both seemed to be coming to their peak and threatened a lock out of the front row over the two Brawns on the second, as Lewis Hamilton faltered – making a mistake on his first flying lap and running wide, and then struggling to find the same sort of pace he’d enjoyed for the entire day up till then. But then a final flying lap shattered the times of his rivals and put him on pole by an astonishing 0.7s, suggesting that he might be running very light: but if he can use pole position, KERS and his inherent pace to good effect in the early laps then he’ll have a country mile in which to get in and pit early in the race and still come up in the lead.

In fact the worrying prospect we’re left with it: will Lewis Hamilton disappear into the literal sunset tomorrow and never be seen again?

Qualification times

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2       Q3
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes        1:39.873  1:39.695 1:40.948
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault        1:40.666  1:39.984 1:41.615
 3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault        1:40.667  1:40.272 1:41.726
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes          1:40.574  1:40.421 1:41.786
 5.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes          1:40.378  1:40.148 1:41.892
 6.  Trulli       Toyota                  1:40.517  1:40.373 1:41.897
 7.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber              1:40.520  1:40.545 1:41.992
 8.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber              1:40.558  1:40.635 1:42.343
 9.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota         1:40.842  1:40.661 1:42.583
10.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:40.908  1:40.430 1:42.713
11.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                 1:41.100  1:40.726
12.  Kobayashi    Toyota                  1:41.035  1:40.777
13.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes        1:40.808  1:40.983
14.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota         1:41.096  1:41.148
15.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:41.503  1:41.689
16.  Alonso       Renault                 1:41.667
17.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes    1:41.701
18.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes    1:41.863
19.  Grosjean     Renault                 1:41.950
20.  Fisichella   Ferrari                 1:42.184

After a rain-beset build-up, the drivers came to the tight half mile oval at Martinsville with a degree of trepidation: on such a tight, claustrophobic circuit anything can happen – Martinsville is the shortest circuit on the Sprint Cup calendar. Small mistakes can become big ones, and Chase hopes can turn to ashes, so for Jimmie Johnson the aim was to finish and maintain momentum, not necessarily to win.

Since all the rain had washed the circuit on Saturday, a competition caution had been arranged for lap 50, but the race didn’t make anything like that distance before the first real caution came out on lap 7 when Matt Kenseth got loose in turn 4 and moved up into Marcos Ambrose, spinning the 47 into a collision with his own car and the two of them collecting Robby Gordon in the process.

Ryan Newman led from pole for the first 22 laps before getting usurped by seven-time winner Jeff Gordon, and Newman then started to get shuffled back through the order. On the way up and recovering from poor qualifying positions were Jimmie Johnson and Juan Montoya, but it was less cheerful news for Chase contenders Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne who were still stuck around 30th position in heavy traffic and showing little sign of life.

The race was still six laps shy of the official competition caution when Michael Waltrip spun with a flat left rear tyre to bring out the second caution of the day. NASCAR decided it was close enough the declared it the competition yellow after all, meaning that for the first time the cars could come in for proper fuel and tyre stops. With almost everyone still on the lead lap, it was very tight in the crowded pit lane, with Jeff Gordon notably almost exiting right into the path of Bobby Labonte. Fortunately no harm was done and Gordon resumed in the lead after taking only two tyres – unusually for the leaders who mainly went for four. The big gainer was Jamie McMurray, up 11 spots into 4th on a two-tyre stop.

But two tyres was quickly exposed as a mistake; McMurray started to fall back almost at once, and shortly afterwards Gordon started to lose positions too, ceding the lead to Jimmie Johnson on lap 59. Gordon seemed unable to keep the car down low on the track and was repeatedly beaten by cars diving down the inside line. Montoya was once again a man in a hurry and when it was his turn to pass he was impatient, catching Gordon on the left rear and nearly tipping the 24 into a spin before Gordon caught it.

Gordon was relieved when a blown tyre on the 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr gave him and the other leaders a chance to pit once again on lap 89. At the restart, Johnson led Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Juan Montoya and Jeff Gordon to the green; at the other end, Kasey Kahne’s day went from bad to worse with a pit lane speeding penalty.

Montoya and Gordon were once again side-by-side vying for track position, and once again Montoya got physical in doing it – Gordon was not amused to be pushed out of the way a second time in one afternoon by the 42.

This green flag went untroubled for some time, a yellow only coming out again on lap 128 – once again for Earnhardt, who got into the wall on lap 128. It was good timing for everyone and the pit lane was once again frenetically busy, Johnson returning back out in the lead with Montoya, Newman, Gordon and Martin making up the rest of the top five. Montoya was quick to challenge for the lead, and on lap 141 he recorded his first lap in front as he put Johnson back into second place.

Debris on the start/finish straight brought out the fifth caution on lap 157 but the leaders mainly stayed out, Denny Hamlin the highest car to pit from sixth place; the next caution wa lap 176 after David Stremme and Sam Hornish Jr tangled.

This time around the pit stops showed diverging strategy, and the top five at the restart were Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Kyle and Kurt Busch, and Bobby Labonte in fifth. Hamlin was quick to take the lead away from Burton after he restart on lap 182, while further back Johnson was shown in 14th, Montoya 17 and Gordon all the way back in 25th.

Sam Hornish Jr was the cause for the seventh caution of the afternoon when he spun on th front stretch and backed into a crunching impact against the wall; he crawled back to the garage area streaming smoke from the damaged bodywork as he went, looking very much out of the running for the rest of the afternoon. Burton and Kurt Busch were among those to pit, and now the restart had Hamlin leading Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Labonte and Carl Edwards.

Kasey Kahne’s miserable day now saw his left front tyre blow on lap 210, spinning him around so that the back of the 9 car thudded into the wall bringing out the eighth caution of the afternoon. Hamlin still held the lead after Kyle Busch had briefly got his nose in front to get points for leading a lap, and the two of them were now ahead of Johnson and Harvick, with Montoya creeping up to sixth behind Labonte.

As the race hit the halfway point, a series of collisions between AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano inevitably resulted in Logano hitting the rear of the 44 hard enough to send it into a spin and a heavy contact with the wall: Allmendinger’s car was extensively beaten up and was the first car not able to limp back to the pits afterwards, and was collected by the tow-truck instead as the remainder of the field came in for their long-awaited pit stops.

Showing some canny knowledge of where the pit lane speed check equipment was deployed and where it was safe to gas it up just a little bit more, Johnson beat Denny Hamlin, Mark Marin, Juan Montoya, Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch out of pit lane – Hamlin and Busch now back on the same strategy having consolidated their position gain. But Greg Biffle was alone in staying out, and took up the lead for the restart; but the advantage of fresh rubber and a better car saw Johnson fly past for the lead within half a lap, and five laps later he was out of the top five altogether.

A clash with Kasey Kahne left John Andretti spun across the path of Sterling Marlin on lap 275 bringing out the tenth caution of the day, and at the restart battle was joined between Johnson and Montoya for the lead. Johnson kept the top spot, but Montoya was not shy in giving the back of the 48 more than a few not-so-gentle taps to try and press his claim.

The battle between the two was still going on when the race hit the 300 lap mark and the 11th caution came out for Kasey Kahne, whose right front tyre let go sending the already-battered 9 car straight into the wall. Montoya had a sluggish stop and lost position on Johnson during the ensuing pit stops, but in any case the top five now consisted of cars that hadn’t come in at all – David Reutimann, Tony Stewart, Elliot Sadler, Matt Kenseth and John Andretti. Stewart had a poor restart and was soon caught and past by Johnson, but Reutimann wasn’t passed for the lead until 15 laps later on lap 321.

Further back down the field, Martin Truex Jr and David Stremme were having a spat which ended inevitably with Stremme thumping Truex into a smoky spin, but Truex was able to gather it up without hitting anything and get the car going in the right direction again before NASCAR threw a caution.

But Johnson was back in the lead: no matter the type of track or where he qualifies, it seems that Johnson can simply work his way to the front everytime – and win. The only car that had looked a real threat during this race had been Montoya, but his aggressive style and heavy-on-the-brakes driving suggested the car wouldn’t last in one piece or at least at this level of performance to the end. So it was a relief to see a new threat to a Johnson win emerge in the shape of Denny Hamlin, who seemed to grow stronger and faster as the green flag stint wore on to that by lap 363 the 11 and the 48 were side-by-side, trading the lead until finally Hamlin broke through and claimed the outright lead.

The green flag stint had survived Sterling Marlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr both losing tyres but not bring out a caution, even when Earnhardt slid the 88 into a long scrape against the wall. It meant that the green lasted remarkably well over a hundred laps, and soon the cars were forced into pitting under green for their final stop for fuel, starting from around lap 420: Montoya was in on lap 433, Johnson one lap later (with a bad delay on the right rear tyre) and Hamlin in from the lead a lap longer still.

Ironically, once the stops had cycled through the 12th caution of the afternoon was quick to follow after Elliott Sadler gave John Andretti a tap on the rear and sent the 34 into a spin. At the restart, Hamlin, Johnson and Montoya headed the field with Brian Vickers 4th, Jeff Gordon 5th and Mark Martin ever-present near in the lead in 6th.

As the race drew to its climax, the car got up close and personal, jostling each other up and down the running order. At the front, Jimmie Johnson made his intention to bump Denny Hamlin very clear, while further back Mark Martin was tapped by Carl Edwards which cost him position. At least Jeff Gordon – now back near the front after divergent pit stop strategies had seen him back in the midfield for much of the afternoon – passed Juan Montoya cleanly for third place.

A 13th caution for debris allowed Mark Martin, Brian Vickers, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and Jamie McMurray to roll the dice on pitting for fresh rubber, and the race went green again on lap 488 with twelve to go. Once again Hamlin got a great start and pulled away from the danger of Jimmie Johnson, and once again his hopes of a clear run to the chequered were dashed when the 14th caution came out on lap 14: Scott Speed went into turn 1 far too fast, lost the back end and wrecked it against the wall, scattering debris over the track and making a yellow unavoidable.

That left a two lap sprint to the finish, and once again Hamlin excelled at the restart: this time, it seemed, Jimmie Johnson had met his match and wouldn’t be able to take the victory. Not that it would do his Sprint Cup campaign any harm, as all the main rivals were safely behind him and this result would only extend his considerable lead still further.

The race finished under green – somewhat incredibly, as John Andretti had spun at the end of the penultimate lap and then stalled the car perpendicular on the start-finish line. Despite this huge hazard, NASCAR failed to throw the yellow in order to allow the race to finish, but more than a few cars on the inside line were startled to find a stationary car in the middle of the track ahead of them and no warning yellows in sight. Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus looked astonished at NASCAR’s call, which appeared incredibly dangerous and only luck and skilful reactions avoided a disastrous end to proceedings.

But as controversial as that incident might prove to be, there was no question as to the winner – a great run by Hamlin to lead the final 139 laps and hold off Johnson, and Montoya did indeed make it to the end of the race in one piece in an impressive 3rd. Arguably the best run of the day, however, belonged to Kyle Busch who finished 4th after starting 41st on the grid, ahead of Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray.

Race result

FIN ST  CAR  DRIVER             MAKE       PTS/BNS LAPS
1   17  11   Denny Hamlin       Toyota     195/10  501
2   15  48   Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  175/5   501
3   21  42   Juan Montoya       Chevrolet  170/5   501
4   41  18   Kyle Busch         Toyota     165/5   501
5   2   24   Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet  160/5   501
6   23  26   Jamie McMurray     Ford       150/0   501
7   1   39   Ryan Newman        Chevrolet  151/5   501
8   4   5    Mark Martin        Chevrolet  147/5   501
9   10  29   Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  138/0   501
10  13  14   Tony Stewart       Chevrolet  134/0   501
11  24  83   Brian Vickers      Toyota     130/0   501
12  7   20   Joey Logano *      Toyota     127/0   501
13  8   96   Bobby Labonte      Ford       124/0   501
14  32  17   Matt Kenseth       Ford       121/0   501
15  22  31   Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  123/5   501
16  37  2    Kurt Busch         Dodge      115/0   501
17  5   00   David Reutimann    Toyota     117/5   501
18  6   07   Casey Mears        Chevrolet  109/0   501
19  19  33   Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  106/0   501
20  29  99   Carl Edwards       Ford       103/0   501
21  40  19   Elliott Sadler     Dodge      100/0   501
22  14  6    David Ragan        Ford       97/0    501
23  30  98   Paul Menard        Ford       94/0    501
24  9   43   Reed Sorenson      Dodge      91/0    501
25  20  16   Greg Biffle        Ford       93/5    501
26  27  34   John Andretti      Chevrolet  90/5    499
27  34  47   Marcos Ambrose     Toyota     82/0    499
28  3   1    Martin Truex Jr.   Chevrolet  79/0    499
29  12  88   Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet  76/0    499
30  36  55   Michael Waltrip    Toyota     73/0    497
31  18  82   Scott Speed *      Toyota     70/0    495
32  26  9    Kasey Kahne        Dodge      67/0    494
33  11  12   David Stremme      Dodge      64/0    439
34  16  44   A.J. Allmendinger  Dodge      61/0    414
35  38  09   Sterling Marlin    Dodge      58/0    355
36  31  77   Sam Hornish Jr.    Dodge      55/0    248
37  33  7    Robby Gordon       Toyota     52/0    130
38  28  187  Joe Nemechek       Toyota     49/0    52
39  35  171  David Gilliland    Chevrolet  51/5    48
40  39  66   Dave Blaney        Toyota     43/0    38
41  42  36   Michael McDowell   Toyota     40/0    36
42  43  64   Derrike Cope       Toyota     37/0    31
43  25  37   Travis Kvapil      Dodge      34/0    30

Sprint Cup standings

Johnson’s lead is extended by 28pts and the top four are unchanged, but Montoya’s aggressive drive to third place gives him a boost after last week’s disappointment.

Kyle Busch’s fourth place finish puts him back into “best of the rest” position in 13th.

    +/- DRIVER              PTS     BEHIND  ST  P   W   T5  T10
1   --  Jimmie Johnson      6098    Leader  32  3   6   14  21
2   --  Mark Martin         5980    -118    32  7   5   12  19
3   --  Jeff Gordon         5948    -150    32  0   1   16  23
4   --  Tony Stewart        5902    -196    32  0   4   15  22
5   +1  Juan Montoya        5898    -200    32  2   0   7   17
6   -1  Kurt Busch          5861    -237    32  0   1   8   18
7   +1  Ryan Newman         5786    -312    32  2   0   5   15
8   -1  Greg Biffle         5748    -350    32  0   0   9   14
9   +2  Denny Hamlin        5746    -352    32  1   3   12  17
10  --  Carl Edwards        5685    -413    32  0   0   7   13
11  -2  Kasey Kahne         5659    -439    32  0   2   6   13
12  --  Brian Vickers       5568    -530    32  6   1   4   13
======= CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS ========
13  +1  Kyle Busch          3920    -2178   32  1   4   9   12
14  -1  Matt Kenseth        3895    -2203   32  1   2   6   11
15  --  Clint Bowyer        3805    -2293   32  0   0   4   14
16  --  David Reutimann     3761    -2337   32  2   1   5   9
17  --  Marcos Ambrose      3453    -2645   32  0   0   4   7
18  +1  Jeff Burton         3379    -2719   32  0   0   2   6
19  -1  Casey Mears         3378    -2720   32  0   0   0   4
20  --  Joey Logano*        3324    -2774   32  0   1   2   6
21  --  Kevin Harvick       3279    -2819   32  0   0   3   7
22  +3  Jamie McMurray      3091    -3007   32  0   0   0   4
23  --  Martin Truex Jr.    3064    -3034   32  2   0   0   4
24  -2  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  3062    -3036   32  0   0   2   5
25  -1  A.J. Allmendinger   3020    -3078   32  0   0   1   4
26  --  Elliott Sadler      2991    -3107   32  0   0   1   4
27  --  Sam Hornish Jr.     2905    -3193   32  0   0   2   7
28  --  David Ragan         2873    -3225   32  0   0   0   2
29  --  Reed Sorenson       2849    -3249   32  0   0   0   1
30  --  David Stremme       2817    -3281   32  0   0   0   0
31  --  Bobby Labonte       2808    -3290   32  0   0   1   1
32  --  Paul Menard         2705    -3393   32  0   0   0   0
33  --  Michael Waltrip     2461    -3637   30  0   0   0   1
34  --  Robby Gordon        2402    -3696   31  0   0   1   1
35  --  Scott Speed*        2353    -3745   31  0   0   1   1
36  --  John Andretti       2282    -3816   30  0   0   0   0
37  --  David Gilliland     1700    -4398   28  0   0   0   0
38  --  Regan Smith         1260    -4838   15  0   0   0   0
39  +1  Joe Nemechek        1228    -4870   27  0   0   0   0
40  -1  Brad Keselowski     1183    -4915   11  0   1   1   3

Valentino Rossi wrapped up the 2009 MotoGP world championship – his seventh MotoGP and ninth world title – on schedule at Sepang, but it was about the only thing that did go to plan on Sunday afternoon.

After hot, humid but dry conditions up to race day, a sudden tropical downpour 20 minutes before the planned start of the race, just after the 125cc and 250cc support races had concluded, completely flooded the circuit and forced a forty minute delay to proceedings as everyone took shelter. The race would be a very wet one, but at least the torrential downpours had stopped by the time the riders had to make it out of their pit stalls.

Then, as the drivers emerged on the formation lap to take up their grid positions, there was more drama – Jorge Lorenzo was having some sort of technical problem that had the mechanics feaverishly working on the machine. But they failed to get the situation resolved before the pit lane was closed, and he had to switch to the back-up bike: Lorenzo had lost his opportunity to take up his second place slot. He would have to start from the pit lane, and surely that was the end of his title bid for the year.

All Rossi had to do was not make any mistakes, and he leapt away at the start of the race leaving the rest of the field dead, save for Loris Capirossi. Loris was starting from the second row of the grid but benefitted from the empty grid spot in front of him where Lorenzo should have been, although that advantage was quickly played out and he soon started falling back through the running order as the race wore on.

But being first into the first corner of the first run in wet conditions has its disadvantages, as Rossi found out: the traction he’d anticipated simply wasn’t there and he was forced to tiptoe through a very wide line to make it round, and while he did that the rest of the field were streaming past on the inside. He emerged from turn 2 in eighth place; and to his shock, Jorge Lorenzo was right behind him despite starting from the pit lane in last place.

The pressure was still on Lorenzo, of course, who had to go all-out for the win while Rossi had a comfortable margin and didn’t need to gamble. So when Lorenzo passed him, Rossi didn’t put up much of a fight, but instead opted to slot in behind him and shadow him for much of the race: simply finishing right behind Lorenzo would give him the points advantage needed to wrap up the title here rather than at Valencia in a fortnight. So when Lorenzo eventually overtook Marco Melandri for 7th after several attempts, Rossi followed him through a few corners later. Again when the Yamaha duo saw off Loris Capirossi, Nicky Hayden (a particularly hard target) and Tony Elias: Rossi was right behind him, just sitting back and watching. And waiting.

FInally, the racing computer that is Rossi’s brain had absorbed all the data on the race conditions, processed, analysed and programmed them into memory, and suddenly Rossi switched levels and sailed past Lorenzo for 4th place on lap 8, although he had a scary bobble a few corners later than must have had his heart in his mouth and Lorenzo momentarily believing that perhaps not all was lost after all. But Rossi controlled the bike and eventually he dropped Lorenzo completely as he set about hunting down the leaders. Lorenzo appeared spent, the tyres maybe cooked by all the work he’d asked of them in the opening laps, and he had nothing left. Through the clear visor, the TV cameras picked up a disappointed but resigned face.

Up front, Casey Stoner had once again been absolutely peerless and in a different world for much of the race, the wet conditions not so much affecting him as energising him to new heights. He was between one and two seconds a lap faster than second-placed Dani Pedrosa, who never likes the rain all that much and who was 17s behind Stoner at one point in the race – an astonishing and almost unprecedented lead in MotoGP.

Dani’s discomfort was underlined by his Honda team mate Andrea Dovizioso who was cutting the distance between 2nd and 3rd place runners with every lap – until lap 14, when suddenly Dovizioso’s bike simply folded under him into turn 5 leaving both man and machine to slide into the grass. The only other retiree of the day had been Randy de Puniet on the second lap, the LCR Honda snapping into a vicious high side that launched de Puniet into the air and returning him to earth with crunching force that fortunately left no lasting injuries.

The Tech 3 Yamahas were struggling here – something clearly wrong with James Toseland’s machine to put him 5s a lap off the lead pace for much of the race, but his team mate Colin Edwards faring little better to struggle to finish ahead of Gabor Talmacsi in 13th. But it was a good day for Chris Vermeulen, who hates being called a “rainmeister” but who nonetheless seems to shine everytime the rain comes down and who finished in a strong 6th place.

Dovizioso’s crash meant that Rossi finished in third place and was able to celebrate his title from the podium after all. Before that, he savoured the moment by stopping out on the track to celebrate with fans, don a “Rossi world champion” T-shirt – and, bizarrely, pose with a chicken that has been wrapped up in a similar T-shirt. The fun and spontaneity of the FOM premier title contrasts with the poe-faced solemnity of the FIA F1 series where any expression of joy (such as, God forbid, donuts) is frowned upon and subject to harsh penalty.

Lorenzo was among the first to congratulate Rossi on the warm-down lap, and a helmet means you can hide the gritted teeth and forced smile rather better. There’s no doubt that Rossi deserved the title this year – he was more consistent, less accident prone, and more able to keep his head and calculate the right strategy where Lorenzo would simply charge in and take the consequences. But Lorenzo has made a quantum leap in 2009 compared with the very scrappy 2008, and certainly shows the skill and speed to win races and MotoGP titles. So at the back of Rossi’s mind must be the thought: if Lorenzo makes similar strides between this season and next, and Casey Stoner is now over his mystery illness once and for all, will this seventh title be the last that Rossi will be able to claim? Is the torch about to be handed to a new era and generation of riders? Are these victory celebrations also a requiem for the passing of the hugely successful era of the beloved “Greatest Of All Time”?

These thoughts are for another day. Today there are the celebrations and the moment of triumph. 2010 is months away – even if the build-up and planning starts tomorrow.

Race result

Pos  Rider            Bike                Time/Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner     Ducati            47m24.834s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa     Honda              + 14.666s
 3.  Valentino Rossi  Yamaha             + 19.385s
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo    Yamaha             + 25.850s
 5.  Nicky Hayden     Ducati             + 38.705s
 6.  Chris Vermeulen  Suzuki             + 41.061s
 7.  Toni Elias       Gresini Honda      + 48.555s
 8.  Marco Melandri   Hayate Kawasaki    + 55.557s
 9.  Loris Capirossi  Suzuki           + 1m00.303s
10.  Mika Kallio      Pramac Ducati    + 1m00.440s
11.  Aleix Espargaro  Pramac Ducati    + 1m01.655s
12.  Alex de Angelis  Gresini Honda    + 1m01.847s
13.  Colin Edwards    Tech 3 Yamaha    + 1m10.778s
14.  Gabor Talmacsi   Scot Honda       + 1m15.851s
15.  James Toseland   Tech 3 Yamaha    + 1m50.672s

Retirements:

     Andrea Dovizioso Honda            14 laps
     Randy de Puniet  LCR Honda        1 lap

MotoGP world championship standings after round 16

While Rossi scored only 3pts more than Lorenzo this weekend, that puts him 41pts ahead in the championship with only a maximum of 25pts left at the final remaining race at Valencia. The title is therefore decided.

Lorenzo should be safe as the runner-up from Casey Stoner, who seems to have a pretty safe lock on 3rd place from Dani Pedrosa, accicents notwithstanding. It’s sobering to see Stoner’s points tally considering this was done in three races less than anyone else; if he’d ridden in those three races and achieved nothing more than an average of third place then he would be easily ahead of Lorenzo and the championship would be coming down to the wire at Valencia instead.

Roll on the 2010 season and a three-way battle for the championship. Maybe even four-way if Dabi Pedrosa can just find someway to make that last breakthrough on pace and get himself out of the “best of the rest” leagues.

Pos Driver           Points
1   Valentino Rossi     286
2   Jorge Lorenzo       245
3   Casey Stoner        220
4   Daniel Pedrosa      209
5   Andrea Dovizioso    152
6   Colin Edwards       148
7   Marco Melandri      108
8   Loris Capirossi     108
9   Alex de Angelis     105
10  Toni Elias          105
11  Chris Vermeulen     105
12  Randy de Puniet     101
13  Nicky Hayden         93
14  James Toseland       88
15  Mika Kallio          64
16  Niccolo Canepa       38
17  Gabor Talmacsi       19
18  Aleix Espargaro      13
19  Sete Gibernau        12
20  Yuki Takahashi        9

Pos Constructor Points
1   Yamaha      366
2   Honda       272
3   Ducati      261
4   Suzuki      131
5   Kawasaki    108

After a deeply disappointing qualifying session on Saturday, the prospects for Jenson Button winning the world championship today seemed bleak. His team mate and chief rival was on pole, and he himself was back in 14th on the grid. What hope pulling something out of the bag here?

A little over 90 minutes later and we had the answer. And we had a new world champion in both the drivers’ and constructors’ categories. Somehow, Jenson Button had pulled it off, a mixture of pure dumb luck and some brilliant, aggressive driving had taken him beyond reach of his rivals, and he had avoided the dreaded sudden death climax in Abu Dhabi.

How did it happen?

It began with an incident-packed first lap: Interlagos’ first corners are renowned for sparking all manner of chaos and they didn’t disappoint, Rubens Barrichello was safely away in front, but Mark Webber had to tread heavily on Kimi Raikkonen’s front wing to protect his second position allowing Robert Kubica to take third place from the Ferrari.

Right behind, there was heavy contact between Adrian Sutil and Jarno Trulli: Sutil was being held up by the wounded Ferrari of Raikkonen, which was struggling for handling without its front wing, and Trulli tried to sweep around the outside of turn 5. Sutil gave him no room – and probably never even saw him – and Trulli went onto the grass and spun, clipping the back of the Force India and sending them both out of control. Trulli was slammed into the Armco barrier and slid the full length of it before coming to a halt; while Sutil’s car careered over the grass, came back onto the track – and clipped the Renault of the hapless Fernando Alonso who had no where to go. Alonso kept well clear as Trulli stormed over to Sutil in the gravel trap, remonstrating and nearly coming to blow with the Force India driver who was doing a more controlled job of trying to explain what had happened.

And for good measure, we also had a collision toward the back of the field when Sebastian Vettel clipped the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen into a spin which then collected Giancarlo Fisichella. The good news here was that all three cars were able to regroup and able to carry on with the race, Raikkonen and Kovalainen quickly heading for the pits for running repairs as a safety car was deployed. McLaren also opted to top up Heikki’s fuel and put new tyres on him, but something then went horribly wrong and he sped away from the pit box with the fuel hose still engaged. It ripped the hose off the refuelling rig, and the (small) amount of fuel still in the hose was sprayed over the pit lane – and over Kimi Raikkonen who was exiting right behind. The hot exhaust of the Ferrari then ignited the fuel and there was a flash fire, which while heart-stopping and dramatic (not least because it was right by the pit wall where the teams were working in shirt sleeves rather than fire retardant clothing) it was quickly out seemingly without major repercussions. Down the end of the pit lane, the Brawn team even helpfully extracted the fuel hose from Heikki’s car for him, so that Kovalainen was able to rejoin behind the safety car without any serious loss of time.

Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, appeared bemused by his own team’s strategy. He had been called into the pits as well despite not being caught up in any of the incidents, and having no damage. The team duly peeled off his soft option tyres and topped him up with fuel, but as Lewis radioed in for an explanation you could feel the scepticism oozing from under the helmet: he was now fuelled for one more stop, and had the tricky soft tyres over and done with whereas the other one-stop cars still had to try and make them work for half a race. McLaren were in good shape, Lewis was assured. Hmmm, you could feel him thinking.

All of this mayhem was exactly what Brawn had feared when Button qualified 14th: it’s all too easy to get caught up in someone else’s accident when you’re in the midfield, as Alonso had just painfully found out. But somehow Button had survived the opening lap and moreover thrived, lining up for the restart in 9th place having benefited to the tune of five places already. But this was just the start, the first act – it was still by no means enough.

Button knew it, and he went on a charge as the track went green. On the first lap around, Jenson pulled off a move of beauty on Romain Grosjean through turn 1, who defended far more robustly than anyone would have expected of a rookie. The next lap around and Jenson nailed Kazuki Nakajima in even more emphatic fashion. And then he came up close on Toyota’s rookie driver Kamui Kobayashi – and any hope that the new boy would meekly allow him past were quickly dispelled. He defended for all his might, showing serious form on his début F1 race to the point of absurdity, moving around so much to block Button that he was at the very edge of legality as the two fought it out over the next 16 laps, Button getting more and more frustrated as the leaders ahead started to race off into the distance. Button was appealing for his team to complain to the stewards, but before that could happen Jenson took the matter into his own hands and finally slipped past Kobayashi through turn 1 again on lap 25, really risking it all as he dummied the Toyota into protecting the outside line before diving through on the inside, the two nearly touching and Button struggling to hold on to the Brawn out of the corner but just about pulling it off. And immediately he was away, pulling out a 3s lap over Kobayashi within the next couple of laps. But had the long delay wrecked Button’s chances?

Up ahead, Rubens Barrichello had already pitted from the lead on lap 22, and it did not go well for him: he emerged in traffic and was immediately held up, so that not only did Mark Webber manage to come out from his own stop on lap 27 well in front of Rubens, but the Brawn was even leapfrogged by Kubica, putting Rubens down in 3rd place and making it very, very difficult to score the points he needed to keep the title fight alive.

After this breathless and frankly spectacular opening act of the race, things had to settle down – and they did, falling into a pattern but losing none of the tension as the various pit strategies played out and fortunes ebbed and flowed. Rubens, for example, was finding none of the pace on the new tyres that he had enjoyed in the earlier laps, howling “What’s happened to the car?” over the cockpit radio as he started to fall back from Webber and Kubica who were now far in the lead and never to be seen again.

Now his attention had to be on protecting his third place; not finishing on the podium would make it just too easy for Button to wrap up the title. And Rubens was finding his position under threat from Lewis Hamilton, who – just as McLaren had forecast and planned – was now finding the race coming to him. He was on the prime tyres and had only one stop to make, and soon found himself in fourth and closing fast on Barrichello. On lap 62, Lewis made his move out of the final corner: Rubens tried to pinch Lewis against the pit wall to block him, and while he took care to leave enough room for it not end in an accident, the move had come so late that the end plate of Hamilton’s front wing came into contact with Barrichello’s left rear tyre. McLaren held their breath, but the wing held, handling didn’t appear to suffer, and Hamilton completed the move to take third place away from Barrichello.

But it was all falling apart for Rubens, and the day had one final kick left to give him: the contact with Hamilton’s end plate had punctured Rubens tyre. He would have to pit for an emergency tyre change, and that would drop him down to 8th place; critically it would put him behind his team mate who was now running up in 5th place after all the mayhem, strategy and overtaking. It was game over for the title as far as Rubens was concerned.

What about Vettel, the only other person left in the title fight? With Button in 5th place there was no chance for the Red Bull driver to keep his title hopes alive either. He had managed to survive his first lap clash with Kovalainen unscathed, and had made good progress up the field thanks to a genuine one-stop strategy from the start after his own dismal qualifying performance. But fourth wasn’t nearly good enough: even if Button had failed to score a point, Vettel needed 1st or 2nd today and he was no where near it as Webber and Kubica had those positions sealed up. Vettel’s world title dream, too, was toast.

The laps ticked down; surely there could be no final sting in the tale to turn everything on its head? After last year’s frankly unbelievable end to the Brazilian GP that had flipped the title to Hamilton on the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season, no one was prepared to assume anything was in the bag. There was nervous talk of a late shower, but none arrived; the only other retirements were already out of the way (Nick Heidfeld ran out of fuel after the refuelling rig failed to do what it said on the tin and inject any fuel into the BMW during the pit stop; Williams’ Nico Rosberg retired with gearbox failure; and Kazuki Nakajima crashed out after Kobayashi’s overly-belligerent blocking style finally resulted in a collision). The race was spent, and everyone (drivers, crews and viewers alike) was exhausted and just desperately wanted it to end and free the pent-up tension.

As Felipe Massa waved the chequered flag from the pit wall, the deed was done and the realisation set in: the world titles were decided. Jenson Button said it for everyone: “We are the champions!” he sang (badly, to be honest, but it’s F1 not the X-Factor) proclaiming both his own and his team’s astonishing triumph against all odds.

Almost unnoticed was Mark Webber cruising to his second Grand Prix victory of the year: with all the drama of the world title he’d hardly been on screen once jumping Rubens at the first pit stop. His drive had been perfect and flawless – “no worries, mate!” – and deserved far more attention, but the podium celebrations were overshadowed by bedlam in the paddock as Jenson Button arrived and ran about like a mad man, high-fiving and hugging everyone who wasn’t nailed down.

After qualifying yesterday I suggested that “Button’s timidity, and Barrichello’s heroic gamble, may end up defining the 2009 Formula 1 champion.” Ironically, Button’s bitter depression after qualifying yesterday was the making of him: it was he who came out on race day with a fierce burning desire to salvage the situation and win the title here and now, while Barrichello ended up trying to be the more cautious driver trying to protect his pole position, and it fell apart in his hands.

It meant that once again the title was decided at Sao Paulo; and for a second year, it involved a Brit beating a Brazilian to the title. And to make matters worse, Lewis Hamilton had once again played a significant role in denying a local hero a key win. Lewis will need to be smuggled out of Brazil in hand luggage tonight to avoid the local fans! How he came away with a podium from this is astounding – possibly the story of the day if it hadn’t all been about the title race – and he owes his team strategist a huge thank you.

But let’s not forget what we said at the start of the season, about what a fairy tale that first Brawn victory – and the second, and the third – had been for Brawn GP, a team that had one foot in the grave at the start of the season and which surely had no right to be winning races let alone competing for a title. I wonder what the mood at Honda is tonight as they watch the title that could have been theirs …

So here we are at the end of the year, and the fairy tale has an even better ending than anyone could have dared hope. Brawn GP – and Ross Brawn in particular – thoroughly deserve their stunning moment in the spotlight as world champions. And in Jenson Button – who stayed with the team even when all appeared lost – they have an equally worthy world champion driver. It’s a shame for Rubens, who is immensely likeable, but to his credit he was among the first to congratulate his team mate in a sincerely and fulsome style.

This is, therefore, the first time in 40 years we’ve had consecutive British world champions in Formula 1. Jenson and Lewis should be proud of the bit of history they have mutually created. The rest of us can go lie down and take our blood pressure meds, and just be relieved that we don’t have to go through all this again in two weeks time for the final event of the season, which becomes a de facto exhibition race and celebration of the 2009 Brawn GP triumph.

Race result

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time
 1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      1h32:23.081
 2.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            +     7.626
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      +    18.944
 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      +    19.652
 5.  Button        Brawn-Mercedes        +    29.005
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               +    33.340
 7.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    +    35.991
 8.  Barrichello   Brawn-Mercedes        +    45.454
 9.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      +    48.499
10.  Kobayashi     Toyota                +  1:03.324
11.  Fisichella    Ferrari               +  1:10.665
12.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes  +  1:11.388
13.  Grosjean      Renault               +  1 lap
14.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    +  1 lap

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:13.733

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Nakajima      Williams-Toyota           31
Rosberg       Williams-Toyota           28
Heidfeld      BMW Sauber                22
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes      1
Trulli        Toyota                    1
Alonso        Renault                   1

World Championship standings after round 16

Drivers:                    Constructors:
 1.  Button        89        1.  Brawn-Mercedes        161
 2.  Vettel        74        2.  Red Bull-Renault      135.5
 3.  Barrichello   72        3.  McLaren-Mercedes       71
 4.  Webber        61.5      4.  Ferrari                70
 5.  Hamilton      49        5.  Toyota                 54.5
 6.  Raikkonen     48        6.  Williams-Toyota        34.5
 7.  Rosberg       34.5      7.  BMW Sauber             32
 8.  Trulli        30.5      8.  Renault                26
 9.  Alonso        26        9.  Force India-Mercedes   13
10.  Glock         24       10.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      7
11.  Kovalainen    22
12.  Massa         22
13.  Kubica        17
14.  Heidfeld      15
15.  Fisichella     8
16.  Sutil          5
17.  Buemi          5
18.  Bourdais       2

Going into Lowe’s for this week’s race, the question on everyone’s lips had to be: “Could anyone stop the Jimmie Johnson steamroller?” He had dominated qualifying and practice, and the only solace his rivals had was the historical stat that the polesitter had not won here in 27 years. Surely Johnson couldn’t beat the tide of history as well as the rest of the field?

Johnson has a slight stutter at the start of the race when he lost the initiative to his team mate Mark Martin, who got the better run around the outside and led the first lap. A quick yellow for a wild spin by Sam Hornish Jr coming off turn 2 on lap 3 gave Johnson a second chance at Martin and he seized it, racing away with the lead while Martin found himself wheel-to-wheel with Kasey Kahne.

Hornish was also the cause of the second caution on lap 9 when he spun again, this time coming out of lap 4. Clearly there was something horribly wrong with the 77, not helped by the hard hit his right rear had taken in his first spin of the day.

After the Hornish cautions there was a decent stint of some 20 laps of green flag running. Kyle Busch – returning after illness last week – was looking very fast and quickly took up the third spot behind Johnson and Martin as the three of them eased away from the rest of the field. When the caution came out again, on lap 34, it was for weather – sprinkles of rain had hit one end of the track, and NASCAR quite rightly took a safety-first approach.

It was early for pit stops (50-60 lap stints had been anticipated) but no one was passing up the opportunity to come in for a stop under yellow and have some fine tuning on their handling. Matt Kenseth went for a two-tyre gambit and moved up seven positions into the lead as a result; while Joey Logano – who had been working his way up nicely into the top five – overshot his pit box and had to back up, losing him a huge number of positions and dumping him back to 38th. But at least Logano’s race pace was still quick, and he was able to start working his way up through the field again. Having a far less fun time were Tony Stewart (who was dropping back lap after lap), Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr., both of whom were having handling problems that had left them way off the pace and right at the back of the running order.

The rain cleared quickly and the track went green again on lap 42 ahead of Johnson, Martin, Busch and Denny Hamlin. Johnson quickly went side-by-side with Hamlin, but it was hard work: Johnson started to get loose, fell back again into the clutches of Martin, and it was not until lap 52 that Johnson was finally able to reclaim the lead. But now Hamlin was coming on strong and charging for the lead, and by lap 71 he was past Johnson, Kenseth and Busch to surge past Johnson for the top spot. With Juan Montoya now consistently the fastest man on track, the 42 also broke through into the top five, ejecting Martin and leaving Hamlin ahead of Kenseth, Montoya, Johnson and Busch as green flag pit stops commenced on lap 89.

Despite still being in the top five, Johnson seemed out of sorts, angry and frustrated, snapping at his pit chief Chad Knaus even before another sluggish pit stop with problems on the left rear tyre enabled Casey Mears to edge him out of the pit lane for position – temporarily. Johnson seemed to like the changes the team made during the stop, though, describing the car as “edgy” and adding “I like it” – clearly the handling was coming back to him. And at least his sluggish pit stop had been better than Ryan Newman’s, which dragged on an agonising 21s and haemorrhaged positions all the while.

The race continued green through to lap 119, and it was Kyle Busch who brought out the caution when the 18 simply snapped sideways out of turn 4 for no discernible reason, leaving Kyle driving at right angles down the straight-away and narrowly avoiding hitting Scott Speed on the inside line as he brought the car back under control. The field duly used the opportunity for some pit stops and much needed adjustments – Montoya in particular was complaining that the 42 was as loose as he would ever want to have to drive it. A few drivers opted for a two tyre strategy, which meant that Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman gained around a dozen spots to leap into the top three positions in front of Hamlin and Kenseth, with Tony Stewart up to 6th ahead of Johnson and Jeff Burton, who was also up twelve spots on tyre strategy.

It was a very different field, then, that came to the green flag, and it was a rough restart for several drivers. Dale Earnhardt Jr was extremely slow and had to pit with transmission issues and unable to stay in fourth gear, finally being redirected into the garage area for lengthy diagnosis and repairs that put him some 29 laps down. Further forward, the field seemed to bunch up and jostle with lots of minor impacts: Vickers ended up with bodywork damage that rubbed his front right tear, forcing him into the pits for some field repairs; and Montoya went into the back of Clint Bowyer without too much harm done, but Mark Martin gave Montoya a more emphatic kick up the backside that damaged the 42’s rear fender and seriously affected Montoya’s handling. After losing a bunch of positions, the handling degenerated to the point where Montoya was drifting alarmingly on almost every corner and he finally lost the car altogether exiting turn 4 on lap 163, putting him two laps down to the leaders after such a promising, strong start and serious affecting his Chase campaign. The crew managed to find a replacement quarter panel, albeit coloured the 42’s usual red instead of this week’s blue livery which made for a rather striking junkyard patchwork effect. Martin also suffered: although his handling wasn’t too bad, the subsequent repairs to his hole in the nose of his race car would put him down to 24th position.

Montoya’s woes at least allowed the rest of the field the relative luxury of a round of pit stops under caution. Hamlin was able to take the lead after the pit stops but Gordon quickly passed him at the restart, with Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle continuing to fill out the rest of the top five as the race passed half distance. Montoya was also the cause of the sixth caution of the day – this time by virtue of his depositing a large, clearly recognisable piece of red metalwork on the track with a conspicuous Target logo on it.

This was on lap 188, and with only 20 laps or so having been run since the last round of pit stops almost everyone opted for the two tyre strategy this time – with Kasey Kahne going even further and opting for fuel only which put him up into 5th spot behind Kenseth, Johnson, Kurt Busch and Gordon at the restart. Unfortunately for Denny Hamlin, who had been strong all evening, his car had developed engine problems: it was audibly misfiring and seemed to have lost a valve, putting him into the garage, his race wrecked. With his second consecutive DNF (after his error last week while among the leaders at Fontana), his Chase campaign has been badly derailed.

It was Kasey Kahne who was flying in the next stint, surging past the top four (including Johnson, who was distracted trying to get some debris off his front grill before it caused his engine to overheat) to take the lead from Kenseth on lap 223. He held on to the lead through to the green flag pit stops that commenced around lap 242, despite a heart-stopping moment for him when his ignition failed as he tried to get back up to speed out of the pit lane and he had to quickly switch to a backup system. Once the stops cycled through, Kahne was nonetheless still back in charge ahead of Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon; Kahne’s lead over Johnson was up to 6.5s and on lap 288 he lapped Mark Martin who had struggled his way back to 18th position after the 5’s earlier handling problems from bodywork damage.

The seventh caution was for the death of Max Papis’ engine on lap 290, and Johnson beat Kahne out of the pits by the narrowest possible margin to assume the lead with Gordon 3rd, Kenseth 4th and Bowyer 5th. The green flag didn’t last long before David Gilliland got loose and hit the wall hard on lap 299, which at least allowed Mark Martin to get the free pass and get back on the lead lap once more.

Once established, the stop-start staccato rhythm became frustratingly embedded in proceedings: the next restart on lap 303 came to a swift yellow when Carl Edwards blew up and left a trail of fluid behind him; the next restart on lap 307 fared little better, coming to the tenth yellow of the afternoon on lap 312 when David Stremme hit the wall, bounced into slight contact with Greg Biffle which in turn caused Biffle to make further light contact with Ryan Newman who was running on the inside which was the last straw, tipping Biffle into a wild spin across the track and the grassy infield, narrowly avoiding collecting Mike Bliss along the way.

But once the race restarted on lap 317, it ran the remaining 17 laps to the end without further interruptions. Johnson led Gordon, Kahne, Kenseth and Mears to the green, and Johnson had a battle royal with his Hendrick Motorsports team mate Jeff Gordon to keep the top spot, but once Johnson got a good run on the low-side to edge Gordon on lap 321, Gordon dropped back to fourth and the 48 was able to build an unassailable lead.

Sure enough, Johnson took the chequered flag. So much for the stats: if anyone can overturn a 27-year precedent then it’s Jimmie Johnson. And with Mark Martin and Juan Montoya having poor weeks, his lead in the Sprint Cup standings was starting to look very, very healthy indeed.

Race result

Pos  Driver             Car        Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  334
 2.  Matt Kenseth       Ford       334
 3.  Kasey Kahne        Dodge      334
 4.  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet  334
 5.  Joey Logano        Toyota     334
 6.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  334
 7.  Casey Mears        Chevrolet  334
 8.  Kyle Busch         Toyota     334
 9.  Martin Truex Jr    Chevrolet  334
10.  Kurt Busch         Dodge      334
11.  Ryan Newman        Chevrolet  334
12.  Brad Keselowski    Chevrolet  334
13.  Tony Stewart       Chevrolet  334
14.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  334
15.  David Reutimann    Toyota     334
16.  Greg Biffle        Ford       334
17.  Mark Martin        Chevrolet  334
18.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  334
19.  David Stremme      Dodge      334
20.  David Ragan        Ford       334
21.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      334
22.  Marcos Ambrose     Toyota     333
23.  AJ Allmendinger    Dodge      333
24.  Mike Bliss         Chevrolet  333
25.  David Gilliland    Toyota     333
26.  Elliott Sadler     Dodge      332
27.  Paul Menard        Ford       332
28.  Scott Speed        Toyota     332
29.  Bill Elliott       Ford       332
30.  Robby Gordon       Toyota     332
31.  Bobby Labonte      Ford       331
32.  Michael Waltrip    Toyota     331
33.  Jamie McMurray     Ford       331
34.  Brian Vickers      Toyota     330
35.  Juan Montoya       Chevrolet  330
36.  John Andretti      Chevrolet  330
37.  Terry Labonte      Toyota     329
38.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet  304
39.  Carl Edwards       Ford       299
40.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dodge      298
41.  Max Papis          Toyota     286
42.  Denny Hamlin       Toyota     192
43.  Joe Nemechek       Toyota      26

Sprint Cup standings

    +/- DRIVER              PTS     BEHIND  ST  P   W   T5  T10
1   --  Jimmie Johnson      5923    Leader  31  3   6   13  20
2   --  Mark Martin         5833      -90   31  7   5   12  18
3   +2  Jeff Gordon         5788     -135   31  0   1   15  22
4   --  Tony Stewart        5768     -155   31  0   4   15  21
5   +1  Kurt Busch          5746     -177   31  0   1   8   18
6   -3  Juan Montoya        5728     -195   31  2   0   6   16
7   --  Greg Biffle         5655     -268   31  0   0   9   14
8   +2  Ryan Newman         5635     -288   31  1   0   5   14
9   +2  Kasey Kahne         5592     -331   31  0   2   6   13
10  -2  Carl Edwards        5582     -341   31  0   0   7   13
11  -2  Denny Hamlin        5551     -372   31  1   2   11  16
12  --  Brian Vickers       5438     -485   31  6   1   4   13
======= CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS ========
13  +1  Matt Kenseth        3774    -2149   31  1   2   6   11
14  -1  Kyle Busch          3755    -2168   31  1   4   8   11
15  --  Clint Bowyer        3699    -2224   31  0   0   4   14
16  --  David Reutimann     3644    -2279   31  2   1   5   9
17  --  Marcos Ambrose      3371    -2552   31  0   0   4   7
18  +1  Casey Mears         3269    -2654   31  0   0   0   4
19  -1  Jeff Burton         3256    -2667   31  0   0   2   6
20  --  Joey Logano*        3197    -2726   31  0   1   2   6
21  --  Kevin Harvick       3141    -2782   31  0   0   3   6
22  --  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  2986    -2937   31  0   0   2   5
23  +2  Martin Truex Jr.    2985    -2938   31  2   0   0   4
24  --  A.J. Allmendinger   2959    -2964   31  0   0   1   4
25  -2  Jamie McMurray      2941    -2982   31  0   0   0   3
26  +1  Elliott Sadler      2891    -3032   31  0   0   1   4
27  -1  Sam Hornish Jr.     2850    -3073   31  0   0   2   7
28  --  David Ragan         2776    -3147   31  0   0   0   2
29  --  Reed Sorenson       2758    -3165   31  0   0   0   1
30  --  David Stremme       2753    -3170   31  0   0   0   0
31  --  Bobby Labonte       2684    -3239   31  0   0   1   1
32  --  Paul Menard         2611    -3312   31  0   0   0   0
33  --  Michael Waltrip     2388    -3535   29  0   0   0   1
34  --  Robby Gordon        2350    -3573   30  0   0   1   1
35  --  Scott Speed*        2283    -3640   30  0   0   1   1
36  --  John Andretti       2192    -3731   29  0   0   0   0
37  --  David Gilliland     1649    -4274   27  0   0   0   0
38  --  Regan Smith         1260    -4663   15  0   0   0   0
39  +2  Brad Keselowski     1183    -4740   11  0   1   1   3
40  -1  Joe Nemechek        1179    -4744   26  0   0   0   0

Anyone hoping for a thrilling end to the year’s MotoGP championship and a fight to the finish between Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo will have been dismayed by the start of the Australian MotoGP, where a collision between a Yamaha and a Ducati effectively sealed the 2009 title two races before the end of the season.

Lorenzo had been off-colour and off the pace (by his standards) for much of the weekend and was on the second row of the grid for the first time in his MotoGP career. He is also not the best of starters, and found himself swamped off the line by Nicky Hayden (from 7th) on the outside and Mika Kallio (from 9th) on the inside. But as they headed into the first turn, Lorenzo’s late braking caused him to run up unexpectedly fast into the back of the unusually cautious Nicky Hayden and the two collided.

Lorenzo struggled to keep the Yamaha upright, and appeared to have managed to do so before the bike then gave one last judder and threw itself to the ground. Lorenzo was left skidding after the bike into the gravel track, and as the dust settled he lay motionless for a few seconds – more from shock and the emotional realisation that the championship was now gone for another year, than for any physical damage – he sustained only minor grazes to his right hand and to his face from a helmet full of gravel.

Up front, Dani Pedrosa had got off to a more subdued start than usual but enough to take second from Rossi before the first turn, and then a couple of corners later he was past Stoner as well. But it was quickly clear that Pedrosa didn’t have the pace to stay ahead let alone pull away, and next time around Stoner took advantage of a shaky moment for Dani to retake the lead; Rossi swiftly cut his way past the Honda a few corners later, and the two soon pulled away to leave Dani in a very lonely but completely safe third place for the rest of the afternoon.

With Lorenzo gone, Stoner and Rossi were in a league of their own. Rossi was able to match Stoner every lap and stayed close: the Ducati had the raw pace and pulled away down the start/finish straight, but the Yamaha was more agile and closed up under braking, a familiar story from years past. But now Lorenzo was out, Rossi had no need to risk anything to take the race victory and so he was happy to hang back, put the pressure on Stoner in the vague hope of pressuring the Aussie into a mistake, but otherwise settle for second – which is exactly how it played out.

Back through the field, the riders were unusually stretched out with most of them running isolated by the end of the race. The best battle was an early seven-bike battle for 5th which involved Kallio, Colin Edwards, Andrea Dovizioso, Marco Melandri, Randy de Puniet, Toni Elias and James Toseland, but this was eventually decisively won by Edwards by the midpoint of the race and then even this group was stretched out, with only de Puniet and Melandri left in a fierce and entertaining battle for what ended up being 7th place in the latter stages of the race, from which Marco emerged victorious.

Toseland was eliminated from the fight by a drive-thru penalty for a jump start (after coming perilously close to missing the pit board notice and incurring another black flag as happened in July at Laguna Seca). That put him right at the back of the race, save for Nicky Hayden who had managed to rejoin after his first corner collision with Lorenzo that had seem him ride all the way through and around the gravel trap, and then have to nurse damage to the Ducati that had put him well off the pace for the rest of the afternoon.

As the crowds flooded onto the track to celebrate their local hero’s victory, Casey Stoner bounced up to the top step of the podium looking completely fresh and fit, not a hint of the mystery fatigue-inducing illness that has seen him practically carried off the bike at previous races before this three-race sabbatical. It was good to see him back, and to see him locked in battle with Rossi once more, and it bodes well for a titanic three-way title battle in 2010 – or even four-way if Honda can pull something out of the bag for Dani Pedrosa and give him that last extra bit of speed he needs to be a genuine contender himself.

But as for 2009 – Lorenzo’s altercation into the first turn leaves Rossi a convincing 38pts ahead with only two races (and 50pts) still on offer. Rossi’s made errors this year – throwing away the win at Laguna Seca being the most shocking – but it’s hard to see him failing to decisively win the championship from here. The season is, effectively, done – and indeed should be wrapped up, signed and sealed at next week’s race at the F1 circuit of Sepang in Malaysia.

Race result

Pos  Rider             Bike               Time/Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             40m56.651s
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha            +    1.935s
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda             +   22.618s
 4.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda     +   32.702s
 5.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha     +   35.885s
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda             +   38.482s
 7.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki   +   44.451s
 8.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda         +   44.941s
 9.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati     +   54.345s
10.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda     + 1m01.205s
11.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki            + 1m05.417s
12.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki            + 1m05.950s
13.  Gabor Talmacsi    Scot Honda        + 1m17.951s
14.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha     + 1m17.985s
15.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati            + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha            0 laps

MotoGP championship standings

Pos Driver           Points
1   Valentino Rossi     270
2   Jorge Lorenzo       232
3   Casey Stoner        195
4   Daniel Pedrosa      189
5   Andrea Dovizioso    152
6   Colin Edwards       145
7   Alex de Angelis     101
8   Randy de Puniet     101
9   Loris Capirossi     101
10  Marco Melandri      100
11  Toni Elias           96
12  Chris Vermeulen      95
13  James Toseland       87
14  Nicky Hayden         82
15  Mika Kallio          58
16  Niccolo Canepa       38
17  Gabor Talmacsi       17
18  Sete Gibernau        12
19  Yuki Takahashi        9
20  Aleix Espargaro       8

Pos Constructor Points
1   Yamaha      350
2   Honda       252
3   Ducati      236
4   Suzuki      121
5   Kawasaki    100