Finally, the climax of the long NASCAR season and the end of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. It was all there for Jimmie Johnson to take – or all there to lose. But it was really down to him which way this was going, because he was too far ahead of his rivals for them to be able to do anything about it alone.

Of course, Johnson’s been in this situation before: three times in the last three seasons. He knows how to hold his nerve and bring home the title. And 2009 was to be no different.

Johnson used his pole position to quickly secure the five bonus points for leading the first lap, but pretty soon came under pressure from Marcos Ambrose who was hungry to take the position for himself. He did so on lap 10, but it was a short lived triumph: three laps later and the 47 snapped sideways for a second. Ambrose held on magnificently but the tail end of the car hit the wall, cutting the right rear tyre and forcing Ambrose into the pits and a lap down; he was soon back in the pits for a longer stop with battery/electrical problems playing havoc. The running repairs would put him 15 laps off the lead, and after such a promising start his day was effectively done.

Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick had meanwhile got past Mark Martin – who was struggling with his handling in the corners – to take up the second and third spots, Scott Speed (who had qualified second) having dropped like a brick from the get-go and who was soon circulating outside the top twenty. Stewart caught Johnson on lap 33 and passed him for the lead, but the long green flag opening stint was giving Mark Martin a much harder time: he was overtaken for 4th by Clint Bowyer on lap 38, and then by Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch before lap 50.

Just as Jimmie Johnson was getting caught up in lapped traffic and getting caught by Harvick and Bowyer, it was time for the first round of green flag pit stops. After the stops the running order on lap 55 was Bowyer vying with Harvick for the lead, followed by Stewart, Martin and Johnson, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. up to sixth after being one of the fastest cars on track despite running high and skimming along the wall for a heart-stopping moment.

Tony Stewart emerged in the lead on lap 63, and the race had passed the hundred mile mark when the first yellow came out on lap 81 (for a harmless spin by Marcos Ambrose at the back of the field.) That gave everyone the chance for their first yellow flag pit stop, and the top three came back out in the same order – Stewart, Harvick, Bowyer – while Martin jumped Johnson for fourth, and Kurt Busch gained four places to reach 6th spot after losing a bunch of places during the first round of pit stops under green.

That meant it was time for the first ever double file restart at Homestead, and it went badly for Stewart who went high and dropped to 6th place within a couple of laps: Harvick took up the lead just holding off Bowyer.

The light was fading and the track cooling, accounting for some of the fluctuations in fortunes: on the rise was Juan Pablo Montoya who stormed into second place on lap 91 despite being under the weather and having received IV fluids overnight to keep him going, while Jeff Burton was now surging into the top three. But Jeff Gordon was going backwards and feared a flat tyre, and Johnson, Bowyer and Martin were soon losing places and falling back to the tail end of the top ten.

The teams would have welcomed a chance to tackle their handling issues with the rapid appearance of the second caution of the day on lap 101, triggered by John Andretti hitting the wall and then having his right front tyre explode as a result, showering debris on the track and shredding he 34’s bodywork. Harvick maintained the lead ahead of Burton but Montoya dropped four places to 6th, while Carl Edwards vaulted up multiple places with a two-tyre gambit to restart in 8th. That was ill-advised, however, and he was relieved by a rapid third caution (for a long slide against the wall by the ill-starred Ambrose) which allowed him to come back into the pits for a full set after all, which put him back down in 20th.

After the restart, Harvick came under pressure from Denny Hamlin who had been having a great race after qualifying in a dismal 38th place. But again the green flag was short lived, with Juan Montoya running into the back of Tony Stewart on lap 115 leaving the 42 with major front bodywork damage; Stewart then retaliated and made sure Montoya had a trip to the wall, which left the 42 with a blown tyre that brought out the fourth yellow of the day. They just to add to the confusion, a sudden compression of cars running in the pit lane seemingly triggered by Erik Darnell which then saw Elliott Sadler slamming into the rear of Reed Sorenson in a multiple five-car chain-reaction slow-speed accident that also caught out Paul Menard and Michael Waltrip and forced NASCAR to close pit lane to sort out the problem, in particular Sadler’s disabled and motionless car.

Many cars stayed out this time: Jimmie Johnson was the highest-placed car to pit, and when the situation in pit lane sorted itself out he ended up facing the restart in a dangerous 23rd spot. The good news for Johnson was that at least Martin had been similarly caught out and was still two spots behind him and Tony Stewart was even further back, restarting in 32nd. The championship still looked entirely in hand.

So at the restart it was Harvick, Hamlin, Burton and the two Busch boys, Kurt and Kyle, making up the top five. Johnson was able to start picking his way back up the field, slowly and deliberately without taking any risks, followed by Stewart; but Mark Martin wasn’t able to go with them and remained mired in the mid twenties, struggling at times to save the car from some very loose handling and spectacular sideways slides.

Kurt Busch took the lead from Harvick for the first time today on lap 134 as the race hit the midway point and transitioned into a true night time floodlit affair. Harvick was to lose even more positions at the next pit stop on lap 156 which took place under yellow after the Stewart/Montoya grudge match flared up again: Montoya was determined to pay back Stewart and ploughed into the back of the 14, tapping Stewart into a spin that sent him down the track on the infield and light contact with the inside wall. Unsurprisingly, Montoya – already 28 laps down – got black flagged for two laps for dangerous driving and told that if he did it again, his season was done. And Kasey Kahne also got a memento of the moment, when a piece of brake duct sheered off the 42 in the collision and flew across the track to dent the top of the number 9.

This put Hamlin in front for the first time today ahead of Kurt Busch for the restart, then Jeff Burton, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon, with Jimmie Johnson back in 10th and Mark Martin in 14th. Busch pulled off a neat move to reclaim the lead on lap 181 as Hamlin started to fade in the longer run, Jeff Burton also taking second spot away from him three laps later. Kyle Busch was now threatening in fourth, but more significantly Jimmie Johnson was back in the top five after the mid race hiccup.

Just when green flag pit stops loomed, a sixth caution came out – Robby Gordon lost the car to a spin and ended up lightly hitting the wall. Denny Hamlin’s crew proved the cream of the crop at the subsequent round of pit stops and got their man out in front, while Kurt Busch dropped to 4th behind Jeff Burton and brother Kyle. Jimmie Johnson’s crew once again opted for slow-but-sure, dropping to 9th place by making extra sure every lug nut was in place. With 72 laps still to run, it was too far to make it without one final pit stop.

At the restart, Hamlin lost the lead to Jeff Burton and the Busch brothers also stormed past, Kyle for second spot and Kurt for third. Jimmie Johnson got into an uncomfortable three-wide battle with Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr. for sixth, and with so many cars still on the lead lap he had to be mindful that a wreck at this point could still lose him the title – even though Martin would have to do much better than his current 15th place.

Debris on the track on lap 216 gave the field the opportunity to come in for that final pit stop under yellow; Kurt Busch emerged in the lead, but he did so by opting to take only two tyres; given Carl Edwards’ mid-race experience with that tactic had been quickly re-thought, this seemed at the very least a brave move, and more likely a kamikaze one for the blue deuce. Kurt was ahead of his brother Kyle, with Hamlin, Burton, Bowyer and Harvick forming the rest of the top six.

Sure enough, the strange two-tyre gambit meant that Kurt fell off the lead almost at once, leaving Kyle and Denny Hamlin battling for the top spot which the 11 car finally won on lap 223. Johnson was safe enough battling Jeff Gordon for 7th, while Mark Martin was still stuck in 15th having failed even to win the bonus points for leading a lap today. The Chase was winding down, and the room for a shock ending was rapidly diminishing.

Somewhat against expectation, the race ran all the way to the chequered without further incident or caution. The longer run ill-suited Kyle Busch who started to fall back and ended up 8th; by contrast, Kurt Busch stabilised after the two-tyre gambit and ended up a strong 4th just ahead of Jimmie Johnson in 5th and Jeff Gordon in 6th. Jeff Burton had an impressive late burst of speed, but by this point Denny Hamlin had built up such a strong lead that there was no reeling him in and he won the Ford 400 for his fourth victory of the season.

But of course the real story and spotlight was on the 48: the first driver in history to win four consecutive titles; it was also the first time a pit chief in the form of Chad Knaus had achieved the feat, and a similar first for Rick Henrick in becoming the first owner to pull off a 1-2-3 in the final Cup standings (a real shame then that a family medical emergency had called him away from Miami on the night.)

It was a moment of motor sport history richly deserving of the fireworks that broke out in the Miami night sky. The Sprint Cup was over for another year: and Jimmie Johnson was once more the best of them.

Race result

FIN ST  CAR DRIVER             MAKE        PTS/BNS  LAPS
1   38  11  Denny Hamlin       Toyota      195/10   267
2   26  31  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet   175/5    267
3   6   29  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet   170/5    267
4   12  2   Kurt Busch         Dodge       165/5    267
5   1   48  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet   160/5    267
6   20  24  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet   150/0    267
7   24  99  Carl Edwards       Ford        146/0    267
8   30  18  Kyle Busch         Toyota      147/5    267
9   14  1   Martin Truex Jr.   Chevrolet   138/0    267
10  13  44  A.J. Allmendinger  Ford        134/0    267
11  10  33  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet   135/5    267
12  4   5   Mark Martin        Chevrolet   127/0    267
13  34  17  Matt Kenseth       Ford        124/0    267
14  8   16  Greg Biffle        Ford        121/0    267
15  22  00  David Reutimann    Toyota      118/0    267
16  9   21  Bill Elliott       Ford        115/0    267
17  25  9   Kasey Kahne        Dodge       112/0    267
18  11  26  Jamie McMurray     Ford        109/0    267
19  15  07  Casey Mears        Chevrolet   106/0    267
20  33  83  Brian Vickers      Toyota      103/0    267
21  29  77  Sam Hornish Jr.    Dodge       100/0    267
22  5   14  Tony Stewart       Chevrolet   102/5    267
23  7   39  Ryan Newman        Chevrolet   94/0     267
24  35  20  Joey Logano *      Toyota      91/0     267
25  27  12  Brad Keselowski    Dodge       88/0     267
26  36  98  Paul Menard        Ford        85/0     267
27  2   82  Scott Speed *      Toyota      82/0     267
28  32  88  Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet   79/0     267
29  17  202 David Gilliland    Toyota      76/0     267
30  39  55  Michael Waltrip    Toyota      78/5     267
31  19  171 Bobby Labonte      Chevrolet   70/0     267
32  16  78  Regan Smith        Chevrolet   67/0     267
33  40  34  John Andretti      Chevrolet   64/0     267
34  41  6   David Ragan        Ford        61/0     267
35  3   47  Marcos Ambrose     Toyota      63/5     251
36  31  96  Erik Darnell       Ford        55/0     247
37  28  37  Travis Kvapil      Chevrolet   52/0     243
38  23  42  Juan Montoya       Chevrolet   49/0     235
39  37  7   Robby Gordon       Toyota      46/0     227
40  42  43  Reed Sorenson      Dodge       43/0     116
41  21  19  Elliott Sadler     Dodge       40/0     116
42  43  08  Terry Labonte      Toyota      37/0     88
43  18  36  Michael McDowell   Toyota      34/0     35

Final Sprint Cup standings

    +/- DRIVER              PTS     BEHIND  ST  P   W   T5  T10
1   --  Jimmie Johnson      6652    Leader  36  4   7   16  24
2   --  Mark Martin         6511    -141    36  7   5   14  21
3   --  Jeff Gordon         6473    -179    36  1   1   16  25
4   --  Kurt Busch          6446    -206    36  0   2   10  21
5   +3  Denny Hamlin        6335    -317    36  1   4   15  20
6   -1  Tony Stewart        6309    -343    36  0   4   15  23
7   --  Greg Biffle         6292    -360    36  0   0   10  16
8   -2  Juan Montoya        6252    -400    36  2   0   7   18
9   --  Ryan Newman         6175    -477    36  2   0   5   15
10  --  Kasey Kahne         6128    -524    36  0   2   7   14
11  --  Carl Edwards        6118    -534    36  0   0   7   14
12  --  Brian Vickers       5929    -723    36  6   1   4   13
======== CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS =======
13  --  Kyle Busch          4457    -2195   36  1   4   9   13
14  --  Matt Kenseth        4389    -2263   36  1   2   7   12
15  --  Clint Bowyer        4359    -2293   36  0   0   4   16
16  --  David Reutimann     4221    -2431   36  2   1   5   10
17  --  Jeff Burton         4022    -2630   36  0   0   5   10
18  --  Marcos Ambrose      3830    -2822   36  0   0   4   7
19  +2  Kevin Harvick       3796    -2856   36  0   0   5   9
20  -1  Joey Logano*        3791    -2861   36  0   1   3   7
21  -1  Casey Mears         3759    -2893   36  0   0   0   4
22  --  Jamie McMurray      3604    -3048   36  0   1   1   5
23  --  Martin Truex Jr.    3503    -3149   36  3   0   1   6
24  +1  A.J. Allmendinger   3476    -3176   36  0   0   1   6
25  -1  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  3422    -3230   36  0   0   2   5
26  --  Elliott Sadler      3350    -3302   36  0   0   1   5
27  --  David Ragan         3252    -3400   36  0   0   0   2
28  +1  Sam Hornish Jr.     3203    -3449   36  0   0   2   7
29  -1  Reed Sorenson       3147    -3505   36  0   0   0   1
30  --  Bobby Labonte       3128    -3524   36  0   0   1   2
31  +1  Paul Menard         2979    -3673   36  0   0   0   0
32  -1  David Stremme       2919    -3733   33  0   0   0   0
33  --  Michael Waltrip     2839    -3813   34  0   0   0   2
34  --  Robby Gordon        2699    -3953   35  0   0   1   1
35  --  Scott Speed*        2690    -3962   35  0   0   1   1
36  --  John Andretti       2597    -4055   34  0   0   0   0
37  --  David Gilliland     1928    -4724   31  0   0   0   0
38  --  Brad Keselowski     1528    -5124   15  0   1   1   4
39  --  Regan Smith         1440    -5212   18  0   0   0   0
40  --  Joe Nemechek        1342    -5310   30  0   0   0   0

So the deed is done, and world champion Jenson Button is off to McLaren in 2010. Is this a good thing or a bad thing for Jenson?

The prevailing reaction to the news online seems to be that this is a Big Mistake for him. He’s going from a team he’s worked with, stood by and helped build up for seven years (first as BAR then Honda and finally as Brawn) and going to a team notoriously hard-headed and detached from the emotional needs of its drivers, and moreover a team that is already formed around one individual – Lewis Hamilton. Lewis saw off Fernando Alonso and now waves farewell to Heikki Kovalainen, so what’s the betting that he will benefit from his ‘embedded’ position within the team to see off Button as well?

Actually I don’t buy that logic. I don’t think McLaren throw themselves at any particular driver, not even someone who has been a “company man” for as long as Lewis has been. It was this dispassionate even-handedness that incensed Alonso, the fact that the team wouldn’t give one driver priority over the other. It’s hard to think that they won’t take the same balanced approach now, especially given that both drivers have equal pedigrees as world champions; it’s not like a rookie coming in, such as Kovalainen, who was automatically going to struggle and be unfavourably compared with Hamilton.

Hamilton will have vastly more familiarity with the team, the culture and more importantly the hardware. But this is where things might get very interesting: McLaren make superbly precise cars, mechanically perfect in every way; and Jenson’s driving style is equally smooth and perfect. It should be a match made in Heaven, whereas Lewis’ style of driving is somewhat more rough and tumble and on the edge. He’s made it work but in a totally different way from Jenson’s style of driving, and it will be fascinating to see which one of them the 2010 McLaren ends up suiting best. This, rather than years of history with the team, should prove to be the key factor in determining who comes out on top at Woking.

But why should Jenson put himself into this head-to-head? Why not just stay at “his” team? Well, for one thing, he’s been there for seven years and finally achieved the ultimate goal; surely it’s time to try something different after all those years in one place. Not moving would suggest a degree of inertness and lack of vision.

Accusations of “disloyalty” are being thrown at Jenson, which is frankly absurd: he stuck with the team when Honda quit and things looked bleak, instead of casting around for a life raft with another team. He even took a paycut to help the team survive. You can understand his desire to see that be rewarded with a decent pay deal befitting a world champion, especially now Brawn have been bought out by the cash-rich Mercedes. But instead, Ross Brawn and Mercedes have taken a hard-headed view on capping expenses, and that prices Button out of contention. Well, so be it – you can’t blame him for thinking enough’s enough and it’s time to move on.

But the real reason why I think Button is right to leave Brawn is that I fear the team may struggle in 2010, with or without Jenson. Much of the success they achieved this year was on the back of a car developed on the huge budget Honda provided and through a clever exploitation of a loophold on rear diffusers; once Honda disappeared and the team shrank down, there was no cash for onward development, everyone else adopted rear diffusers – and Brawn started to sink backwards down the standings. Only that early success kept them far enough ahead in the championships to clinch the titles in the end, but it was a narrow squeak.

It’s hard to see how they won’t be starting midfield in 2010. Mercedes may have come on board but this is very late in the day for next year’s car development, so we’re probably looking at 2011 before the team can catch up with its rivals again. Next year could be very tough for the team, and I very much doubt that Jenson Button would be able to defend the world championship in a Brawn/Mercedes next year.

So where should he go instead? Ferrari’s full-up, Red Bull is also locked up, that leaves … McLaren. Yes, there is the obvious problem that he’d be up against Lewis Hamilton, but is that such a big gamble? If the 2010 McLaren is a genuine championship contender (and the rate of improvement in the car in 2009 suggests it will be) then surely it’s better to be in it than staring at from behind? Is Jenson comes second to Lewis Hamilton in the 2010 championship then that will be a triumph (losing to another world champion is better than seeing the likes of Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel or Felipe Massa get the better of you.)

My bet is that Lewis will come out top of the team mates in 2010, but that Jenson will do pretty well and push pretty hard. I susect they will be the best team in 2010. And I think Jenson Button’s made the right choice in moving there.

So here we are, the penultimate outing of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup, and the end is in sight. And for Jimmie Johnson, that means a historic fourth consecutive championship is within his reach. Having had his disaster of the Chase last time out in Texas, surely nothing would get the in the way of the 48 in Phoenix?

Kurt Busch took the lead from polesitter Martin Truex Jr. at the start, with Jimmie Johnson comfortably slotting into third. Further back, an unusually hooked-up Sam Hornish Jr. was running in the top ten, and the likes of Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart and Juan Montoya were working their way from further back as the cars bedded themselves in and made themselves at home on the roadway. On the downside, Dale Earnhardt Jr was dropping back through the field, while Max Papis became the first driver to be lapped as early as lap 27 of 312 on this one mile oval.

With Mark Martin breaking into the top five, Johnson decided it was time to head for the front and on lap 57 he took the lead from Busch, with Denny Hamlin now in 3rd followed by Martin, Truex and Gordon. Still with no incidents, the first pit stops approached under green, and Greg Biffle was the first in on lap 70 from 17th place complaining of poor handling, followed by others including Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The leaders were in within the next five laps, and Kurt Busch managed to reclaim the lead during the pit sequence by coming out ahead of the 48 with Martin now in third. Jeff Gordon had a scare, narrowly colliding with Sam Hornish as he made his way into his pit box, but still emerged in fourth place ahead of Hamlin and Truex.

Busch’s lead didn’t last long, with the 02 getting held up behind the lapped traffic of Reed Sorenson allowing Johnson to pounce and take the position back on lap 90. Things were looking pretty good for Johnson as the race hit one third distance without any cautions despite the occasional sighting of debris here and there. Finally the debris materialised in turns 1 and 2 on lap 115 and the first yellow of the afternoon came out; during the ensuing pit stops, Kurt Busch’s crew had a problem with the front right tyre change and dropped the 02 three places.

Cautions breed cautions, and as the field got underway on lap 119 for the first ever double file restart at Phoenix a series of small wheel spins and braking starting in the vicinity of Greg Biffle amplified as it echoed back through the tightly-packed field causing bigger and bigger collisions until toward the back Erik Darnell was spun around and then rolled back up the track to get hit on the side by Michael Waltrip, whose front end was badly damaged as a result. Others caught up in the slow speed incident were Brad Keselowski, David Ragan and Robby Gordon.

At the restart on lap 127, Johnson got a good break over Martin but Jeff Gordon starting from 3rd struggled, the car not to his liking this stint; he survived a scare after a rub with Kyle Busch sent him flying up toward the wall, and he was quick to go and give the 18 a little tap in return next lap around.

As the race hit half distance, Johnson continued to lead (having led 86 of the 156 laps so far) ahead of Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Martin, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon recovering to 6th after his earlier dramas. Truex had dropped to 7th while Tony Stewart had dropped way back to 22nd position complaining that the handling on the 14 was wildly inconsistent from lap-to-lap.

More debris in turn 1 was the cause of the third caution of the afternoon on lap 162, and the big winner in the ensuing pit stops was Clint Bowyer who had a brilliant stop and leapt up into second spot behind Johnson despite taking a full set of tyres, pushing Hamlin to 3rd, Kurt Busch to 4th and Mark Martin to 5th ahead of Gordon in 6th. Jeff Burton also got a big boost from the pit stops and was suddenly in the top ten, having started from 36th after a deeply disappointing qualifying in a car he knew was a lot faster than that – and today was proving it.

Once again, cautions bred cautions: within two laps of the restart we had a major multiple-car pileup on the front straightaway on lap 169. It started when Dale Earnhardt Jr – running on the inside of Marcos Ambrose – lost the 88 and slid the car sideways – apparently on oil already leaking from the car – which caused a chain reaction behind him as cars tried, and mostly failed, to avoid the developing accident. In total 11 cars were caught up in the wreck, with eight of them ending up locked together in a clump that almost blocked the roadway until they fired up their engines and started to limp away and back to the pits. While only Bobby Labonte’s car was unable to get underway, others had serious damage – Brian Vickers’ right front wheel was almost completely torn off and his race was done, Earnhardt hit the garage after multiple impacts, and Tony Stewart’s Sprint Cup chances also looked finished as his steering was badly affected by damage and he was soon at the back of the lead lap, finally getting passed by Jimmie Johnson on lap 220.

But up front, little seemed to trouble Jimmie Johnson who cruised serenely on to claim the bonus points for most laps led, with more that 3s over Kurt Busch in second. Bowyer, Hamlin, Martin and Jeff Burton rounded out the top six. As the sun began to set, turns 1 and 2 were completely in shade and track conditions cooled, Bowyer fell back out of the top six complaining of a serious lack of grip.

Another lengthy incident-free period meant that the final scheduled pit stops of the afternoon would be under green, commencing with 70 to go to the chequered flag. Johnson’s 5s lead meant that he was back out in front after the pit stops cycled through, but Denny Hamlin had cut that lead back to under a second and the win was by no means assured for the 48, but Johnson gradually started to ease out the lead again as the green flag laps wore on. Kurt Busch, meanwhile, was struggling in this late stage, a poor pit stop meaning that he had fallen out of the top six for pretty much the first time all afternoon as the conditions changed and left him struggling for grip.

The changing conditions seemed to best suit Jeff Burton, who was having his best race in a very long time, slipping past Denny Hamlin for second place on lap 289 but then unable to do anything about the 2s lead that Jimmie Johnson enjoyed. Only a yellow flag seemed to offer any threat to a Johnson victory now.

And no yellow flag materialised. The race ran green for an impressive 133 laps right to the chequered flag, and Johnson was peerless throughout, the victory never in doubt. He had indeed rebounded from the disappointment in Texas in the best possible way, and the title was now finally within reach: all Jimmie has to do is finish 25th or better at Miami-Homestead regardless of what his rivals do, and the title is sealed.

Just one more week, one more race, and Jimmie Johnson makes history.

Race result

FIN ST  CAR  DRIVER             MAKE       PTS/BNS  LAPS
1   3   48   Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  195/10   312
2   36  31   Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  170/0    312
3   5   11   Denny Hamlin       Toyota     165/0    312
4   10  5    Mark Martin        Chevrolet  160/0    312
5   1   1    Martin Truex Jr.   Chevrolet  155/0    312
6   2   2    Kurt Busch         Dodge      155/5    312
7   13  33   Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  146/0    312
8   17  42   Juan Montoya       Chevrolet  142/0    312
9   14  24   Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet  138/0    312
10  15  00   David Reutimann    Toyota     134/0    312
11  21  47   Marcos Ambrose     Toyota     130/0    312
12  7   18   Kyle Busch         Toyota     127/0    312
13  16  44   A.J. Allmendinger  Ford       124/0    312
14  6   16   Greg Biffle        Ford       121/0    312
15  4   9    Kasey Kahne        Dodge      118/0    312
16  25  99   Carl Edwards       Ford       115/0    312
17  12  77   Sam Hornish Jr.    Dodge      112/0    312
18  28  17   Matt Kenseth       Ford       114/5    312
19  30  26   Jamie McMurray     Ford       106/0    312
20  24  39   Ryan Newman        Chevrolet  108/5    312
21  27  20   Joey Logano *      Toyota     100/0    310
22  22  7    Robby Gordon       Toyota     97/0     310
23  33  6    David Ragan        Ford       94/0     310
24  31  29   Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  91/0     310
25  8   14   Tony Stewart       Chevrolet  88/0     310
26  40  43   Reed Sorenson      Dodge      85/0     310
27  9   07   Casey Mears        Chevrolet  82/0     308
28  35  19   Elliott Sadler     Dodge      79/0     308
29  41  98   Paul Menard        Ford       76/0     308
30  29  09   David Gilliland    Chevrolet  73/0     308
31  39  96   Erik Darnell       Ford       70/0     306
32  23  113  Max Papis *        Toyota     67/0     304
33  37  82   Scott Speed *      Toyota     64/0     303
34  42  34   John Andretti      Chevrolet  61/0     268
35  18  88   Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet  58/0     256
36  11  55   Michael Waltrip    Toyota     55/0     251
37  26  12   Brad Keselowski    Dodge      52/0     239
38  19  83   Brian Vickers      Toyota     49/0     170
39  20  171  Bobby Labonte      Chevrolet  46/0     169
40  34  187  Joe Nemechek       Toyota     43/0     47
41  38  36   Michael McDowell   Toyota     40/0     36
42  32  66   Dave Blaney        Toyota     37/0     9
43  43  37   Tony Raines        Chevrolet  34/0     6

Sprint Cup standings after 35 races

Only Mark Martin can stop Jimmie Johnson now – Jeff Gordon is eliminated the minute Johnson takes the start at Homestead. After that, just 25th or better sees Jimmie Johnson take the 2009 title.

    +/- DRIVER              PTS     BEHIND  ST  P   W   T5  T10
1   --  Jimmie Johnson      6492    Leader  35  3   7   15  23
2   --  Mark Martin         6384    -108    35  7   5   14  21
3   --  Jeff Gordon         6323    -169    35  1   1   16  24
4   --  Kurt Busch          6281    -211    35  0   2   9   20
5   --  Tony Stewart        6207    -285    35  0   4   15  23
6   --  Juan Montoya        6203    -289    35  2   0   7   18
7   --  Greg Biffle         6171    -321    35  0   0   10  16
8   --  Denny Hamlin        6140    -352    35  1   3   14  19
9   --  Ryan Newman         6081    -411    35  2   0   5   15
10  --  Kasey Kahne         6016    -476    35  0   2   7   14
11  --  Carl Edwards        5972    -520    35  0   0   7   13
12  --  Brian Vickers       5826    -666    35  6   1   4   13
======== CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS =======
13  --  Kyle Busch          4310    -2182   35  1   4   9   12
14  --  Matt Kenseth        4265    -2227   35  1   2   7   12
15  --  Clint Bowyer        4224    -2268   35  0   0   4   16
16  --  David Reutimann     4103    -2389   35  2   1   5   10
17  --  Jeff Burton         3847    -2645   35  0   0   4   9
18  --  Marcos Ambrose      3767    -2725   35  0   0   4   7
19  --  Joey Logano*        3700    -2792   35  0   1   3   7
20  --  Casey Mears         3653    -2839   35  0   0   0   4
21  --  Kevin Harvick       3626    -2866   35  0   0   4   8
22  --  Jamie McMurray      3495    -2997   35  0   1   1   5
23  +3  Martin Truex Jr.    3365    -3127   35  3   0   1   5
24  -1  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  3343    -3149   35  0   0   2   5
25  --  A.J. Allmendinger   3342    -3150   35  0   0   1   5
26  -2  Elliott Sadler      3310    -3182   35  0   0   1   5
27  --  David Ragan         3191    -3301   35  0   0   0   2
28  --  Reed Sorenson       3104    -3388   35  0   0   0   1
29  +1  Sam Hornish Jr.     3103    -3389   35  0   0   2   7
30  -1  Bobby Labonte       3058    -3434   35  0   0   1   2
31  --  David Stremme       2919    -3573   33  0   0   0   0
32  --  Paul Menard         2894    -3598   35  0   0   0   0
33  --  Michael Waltrip     2761    -3731   33  0   0   0   2
34  --  Robby Gordon        2653    -3839   34  0   0   1   1
35  --  Scott Speed*        2608    -3884   34  0   0   1   1
36  --  John Andretti       2533    -3959   33  0   0   0   0
37  --  David Gilliland     1852    -4640   30  0   0   0   0
38  --  Brad Keselowski     1440    -5052   14  0   1   1   4
39  --  Regan Smith         1373    -5119   17  0   0   0   0
40  --  Joe Nemechek        1342    -5150   30  0   0   0   0

Jimmie Johnson has had some incredible luck over the years – and none more so than the race last week at Talladega, where damage limitation ended up successful beyond his wildest dreams. But luck can turn bad in an instant, and at the start of the Dickies 500 the bullet that Johnson felt he’d dodged last week caught him square in the chest within minutes of the start.

Johnson was three-wide alongside Sam Hornish Jr and David Reutimann on lap 2 when the 77 got loose after slight contact with the 00. Hornish twitched, then connected with the 48 sending Johnson sliding up into the wall. So far, nothing too bad – as long as Johnson could keep it under control and not hit anything else. He almost pulled it off, but then came back down the track and tapped the 77 for a second time, which sent them both spinning. Johnson ended up impacting the inside wall hard, on at least three of the four corners, and the car looked horribly beat-up as it crawled to the garage for emergency – and lengthy – repairs. As well as the obvious bodywork damage, the suspension and driveshaft looked horribly deranged. Suddenly that championship-clinching margin Johnson came into this race with was evaporating before his eyes.

Jeff Gordon led for the first 12 laps before Kurt Busch took over, with brother Kyle (who had already swept the NASCAR Nationwide and Truck races at Texas this weekend) taking up residence in third and then slipping past Gordon for second on lap 19. Dale Earnhardt Jr, Tony Stewart and Reutimann rounded out the top 6.

To add insult to Johnson’s injuries, the race went green for the next 78 laps giving him no breaks about how many laps down he might be if and when he came back out. It also meant that the first round of pit stops starting from lap 52 were under green flag conditions. Kurt Busch was one of the last of the leaders to come in, holding a 4s lead over his brother, but when the pit stops cycled through it was Kyle who had managed the best stop and come out in front of the field. Jeff Gordon meanwhile had a slow stop following a problem with one of the rear tyres, and had slipped back out of the top ten.

The second yellow when it did come on lap 87 was for Sam Hornish Jr. again, who had been struggling ever since that collision with Johnson and more than once been seen sliding through corners sideways. he was an accident just waiting for a place to happen, and sure enough he spun through turn 2 into the inside wall with three flat tyres. The rest of the field were relieved, able to take a pit stop under caution and get into some fine-tuning at last. At the restart, Kyle and Kurt led Reutimann, Stewart, Marcos Ambrose with Denny Hamlin making up the top six.

Finally, as the leaders hit lap 113, Jimmie Johnson emerged back onto the track, the car so thoroughly rebuilt that it looked unnaturally pristine, albeit starkly black as the new bodywork was devoid of the usual livery. The car was quickly back into the pits for additional quick fixes to a tyre rub and then set off again to demonstrate that it could make the minimum speed requirement. Although now 117 laps down after all this, Johnson did still have some low-hanging fruit to aim for – Mike Skinner, Joe Nemechek and Michael McDowell had all retired very early on, and even Johnson’s nemesis Sam Hornish Jr. was now down over thirty laps stuck in the garage after his own crash, so Johnson could reasonably target 39th place. Not great, but at least better points-wise than 43rd – albeit only by about 12pts in total. Still, titles have been won by slimmer margins.

The sun was going down and the track beginning to cool, which meant that handling was starting to change. Benefiting from the new conditions were Marcos Ambrose – up to 3rd and challenging Kurt for second spot – and Mark Martin, who had finally cracked the top ten on lap 122 to make the most of the chance to cut Johnson’s points lead in the Sprint Cup. Of the other top contenders, Gordon’s day was going south fast – down to 14th on lap 126 – while Juan Montoya was in 8th place with room for improvement.

The leaders were in for their next round of green flag pit stops on lap 146, Kyle’s crew once excelling to put their man out with a 4s lead, double what it had been before the pit stops. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had crept up into 4th with the fastest car on track at this point running just behind Ambrose, with Reutimann and Stewart ahead of Montoya in 7th. However Jeff Gordon had dropped to 18th and was at risk of going a lap down when he was saved by a caution for debris at turn 1 on lap 167.

Everyone took the opportunity to come in, and Kyle Busch emerged from pit lane a country mile ahead of the rest, but Marcos Ambrose had a slow stop with attention needed to one of his shocks dumping him down 15 positions as a result. That left Kyle leading brother Kurt, Earnhardt Jr., Reutimann, Clint Bowyer and Stewart as the top six with Mark Martin now up to 7th and Montoya down a spot to 9th. Johnson meanwhile was in 40th, creeping up on the still-garaged Sam Hornish Jr.’s position but now 120 laps down after additional running repairs on pit road, and pit chief Chad Knaus sounding resigned as he cautioned Johnson not to push it if anything started to feel wrong with the rebuilt 48.

The green flag lasted only two laps before Juan Montoya got loose and hit the back of Carl Edwards, sending them both up into the wall. Brad Keselowski then ran right into the back of Montoya’s broken car coming back down the track. Edwards came off especially badly damage-wise, but it was Montoya’s damage that had considerably more impact to the Chase situation as he brought the 42 to the garage for extensive repairs. Jeff Gordon was among those caught up in spins as they tried to avoid the accident, but at least in Gordon’s case it was a simple slide that merely required new tyres – the team opting to come in straight away even while the pit lane was officially closed, and taking the penalty. After all, being put down to the end of the lead lap was little change for Gordon at this point.

Kyle had a poor restart on lap 181, allowing Kurt to retake the lead at long last while only just fending off Reutimann for the second position. Jeff Gordon, in 18th, was still the last car on the lead lap. The green flag lasted 25 laps before the fifth caution of the afternoon came out for Reed Sorenson, who had the front right tyre go down on him sending him on a sudden snap against the wall, and then – to add insult to injury – he ricocheted down and hit the inside wall as well before being called into the garage area for repairs. That gave Jimmie Johnson another potential place to make up for if he could keep running; as the track came back to green Johnson made up another place to 39th after overhauling the absent Sam Hornish Jr., but now the best he could finish was 35th even if every single car wrecked right away.

At the restart on lap 212 it was Kyle Busch back at the front after a better pit stop than brother Kurt, and this time he was able to get away cleanly from Kurt and Reutimann. Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Martin made up the rest of the top six, Denny Hamlin having dropped well back after sliding through his pit box. The pressure was building on Martin: with the positions as they stood, Johnson would still come out of Texas with an 80pt lead despite the second lap disaster: with Montoya in the garage and Gordon simply not performing, it was all on the veteran. Once again, even when Johnson gave his rivals the chance, they didn’t seem to be around and able to pick it up and run with it.

The race passed two thirds distance as the sun set over the Motor Speedway; would the change to dusk and night time upset the dominance of the Busch brothers, who had led all but 13 laps to this point? It certainly seemed to have had an adverse effect on Dale Earnhardt Jr, who had fallen back to 8th place; Mark Martin on the other hand had finally cracked the top five behind the Busch brothers, Reutimann and Stewart, and he then slipped past Stewart for 4th on lap 247. The darker and cooler it got, the more Mark Martin came alive it seemed: perhaps Johnson wasn’t going to get away with it this time after all. In the end, 38th would prove to be the best Johnson would be able to manage with Keselowski, Sorenson and Montoya all doing enough to stay ahead of the 48 in the final standings.

Now attention turned to fuel strategies: Kyle Busch’s new pit chief Dave Rogers admitted that they were short on fuel by a few laps, and that applied to almost all of the runners still in contention. How they coped with that – and whether any cautions came out to change the outlook – was becoming key to the outcome of the race.

It emerged that Kurt Busch had the whip hand when he was able to stay out two laps longer than the other leaders on the penultimate stint, finally pitting (under green once more) on lap 271 for what he hoped would be the last time today. Kurt was worried about a vibration and urged his crew to “take their time” on the pit stop and make sure everything was okay, meaning he dropped back to 6th place after the stops worked their way through. The vibration fears were oddly echoed by brother Kyle after his own pit stop when he started to fear a loose wheel might be to blame: everyone on the crew was consulted and were sure that all the tyres were secure, so Kyle stayed out.

Now speeds were cut as everyone made fuel conservation their top priority: Kurt still seemed to be two laps short unless he could work miracles with the fuel conservation, while others including Mark Martin were even further adrift and up to half a dozen laps shy of full race distance. Nor would there be any cautions to help them eke out the fuel to the end: the race was running all the way to the very end without any more yellow flags.

Cars started to give up and peel off onto pit road as early as lap 313 when Matt Kenseth came in for a splash and dash. Greg Biffle, AJ Allmendinger and Stewart were in on lap 315, Martin and Newman on lap 317. But Kyle was stubbornly staying out, stretching his lead over Reutimann even further, while pit chief Dave Rogers kept urging his man to slow down or run dry. Meanwhile brother Kurt’s team were much happier now with their man’s fuel conservation, and assured him that Kyle would be no problem – the 18 was short. The 02 wasn’t; or at least, that’s what they calculated. They were betting the farm on being right.

Jeff Gordon gave up and pitted for fuel on lap 323, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in on lap 327. Still the leaders tried to tough it out … until David Reutimann finally ran out of fuel on lap 329 and crawled painfully down pit road to his pit box. And the next lap, just as his brother’s team had calculated, Kyle too was out of fuel and had to take to pit road. His dream of taking the NASCAR’s first-ever ‘trifecta’ was gone, and Kyle was clearly bitterly disappointed and left the complex without a word to the press after finally ending up 11th despite having the best car and having led 232 of the 334 laps.

That only left one question to be answered: could Kurt make it to the chequered flag? Everyone held their breath – but the 02 team had calculated it brilliantly, and Kurt Busch did indeed cross the finish line almost a full lap – 25.6s – ahead of anyone else. In the fuel conservation lottery, Denny Hamlin ended runner-up and Matt Kenseth popped up into third place, but more significant to the Chase was Mark Martin ending up in 4th place which meant that he had made major in-roads into Jimmie Johnson’s Sprint Cup lead.

Suddenly this championship has got interesting again – a fourth consecutive Jimmie Johnson title might not be such a done deal after all.

Race result

FIN ST  CAR DRIVER             MAKE       PTS/BNS LAPS  STATUS
1   3   2   Kurt Busch         Dodge      190/5   334
2   25  11  Denny Hamlin       Toyota     175/5   334
3   30  17  Matt Kenseth       Ford       165/0   334
4   7   5   Mark Martin        Chevrolet  160/0   334
5   24  29  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  155/0   334
6   4   14  Tony Stewart       Chevrolet  150/0   334
7   10  33  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  146/0   334
8   8   16  Greg Biffle        Ford       142/0   334
9   42  31  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  138/0   334
10  16  44  A.J. Allmendinger  Ford       134/0   334
11  5   18  Kyle Busch         Toyota     140/10  334
12  26  39  Ryan Newman        Chevrolet  127/0   334
13  1   24  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet  129/5   334
14  27  1   Martin Truex Jr.   Chevrolet  121/0   334
15  19  47  Marcos Ambrose     Toyota     118/0   334   In Pit
16  13  00  David Reutimann    Toyota     115/0   334
17  17  6   David Ragan        Ford       112/0   332
18  31  82  Scott Speed *      Toyota     109/0   332
19  14  20  Joey Logano *      Toyota     106/0   332
20  22  26  Jamie McMurray     Ford       103/0   332
21  36  07  Casey Mears        Chevrolet  100/0   332
22  33  19  Elliott Sadler     Dodge      97/0    332
23  40  55  Michael Waltrip    Toyota     94/0    331
24  41  34  John Andretti      Chevrolet  91/0    331
25  9   88  Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet  88/0    331
26  15  83  Brian Vickers      Toyota     85/0    331
27  29  7   Robby Gordon       Toyota     82/0    331
28  21  202 David Gilliland    Toyota     79/0    331
29  39  98  Paul Menard        Ford       76/0    331
30  38  96  Erik Darnell       Ford       73/0    331
31  28  171 Bobby Labonte      Chevrolet  70/0    331
32  32  78  Regan Smith        Chevrolet  67/0    330
33  2   9   Kasey Kahne        Dodge      64/0    330
34  43  21  Bill Elliott       Ford       61/0    311   In Pit
35  35  12  Brad Keselowski    Dodge      58/0    262
36  18  43  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      55/0    248
37  20  42  Juan Montoya       Chevrolet  52/0    231
38  12  48  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  49/0    205
39  6   99  Carl Edwards       Ford       46/0    174   In Pit
40  11  77  Sam Hornish Jr.    Dodge      43/0    88    In Pit
41  37  36  Michael McDowell   Toyota     40/0    20    In Pit
42  34  187 Joe Nemechek       Toyota     37/0    13    Out
43  23  170 Mike Skinner       Chevrolet  34/0    6     In Pit

Sprint Cup standings after race 34 of 36

    +/- DRIVER              PTS     BEHIND  ST  P   W   T5  T10
1   --  Jimmie Johnson      6297    Leader  34  3   6   14  22
2   --  Mark Martin         6224      -73   34  7   5   13  20
3   --  Jeff Gordon         6185     -112   34  1   1   16  23
4   +2  Kurt Busch          6126     -171   34  0   2   9   19
5   --  Tony Stewart        6119     -178   34  0   4   15  23
6   -2  Juan Montoya        6061     -236   34  2   0   7   17
7   --  Greg Biffle         6050     -247   34  0   0   10  16
8   +3  Denny Hamlin        5975     -322   34  1   3   13  18
9   -1  Ryan Newman         5973     -324   34  2   0   5   15
10  -1  Kasey Kahne         5898     -399   34  0   2   7   14
11  -1  Carl Edwards        5857     -440   34  0   0   7   13
12  --  Brian Vickers       5777     -520   34  6   1   4   13
======== CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS =======
13  --  Kyle Busch          4183    -2114   34  1   4   9   12
14  --  Matt Kenseth        4151    -2146   34  1   2   7   12
15  --  Clint Bowyer        4078    -2219   34  0   0   4   15
16  --  David Reutimann     3969    -2328   34  2   1   5   9
17  --  Jeff Burton         3677    -2620   34  0   0   3   8
18  --  Marcos Ambrose      3637    -2660   34  0   0   4   7
19  --  Joey Logano*        3600    -2697   34  0   1   3   7
20  --  Casey Mears         3571    -2726   34  0   0   0   4
21  --  Kevin Harvick       3535    -2762   34  0   0   4   8
22  --  Jamie McMurray      3389    -2908   34  0   1   1   5
23  --  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  3285    -3012   34  0   0   2   5
24  --  Martin Truex Jr.    3260    -3037   34  2   0   0   4
25  --  Elliott Sadler      3231    -3066   34  0   0   1   5
26  --  A.J. Allmendinger   3218    -3079   34  0   0   1   5
27  --  David Ragan         3097    -3200   34  0   0   0   2
28  --  Reed Sorenson       3019    -3278   34  0   0   0   1
29  +1  Bobby Labonte       3012    -3285   34  0   0   1   2
30  -1  Sam Hornish Jr.     2991    -3306   34  0   0   2   7
31  --  David Stremme       2919    -3378   33  0   0   0   0
32  --  Paul Menard         2818    -3479   34  0   0   0   0
33  --  Michael Waltrip     2706    -3591   32  0   0   0   2
34  --  Robby Gordon        2556    -3741   33  0   0   1   1
35  --  Scott Speed*        2544    -3753   33  0   0   1   1
36  --  John Andretti       2472    -3825   32  0   0   0   0
37  --  David Gilliland     1779    -4518   29  0   0   0   0
38  --  Brad Keselowski     1388    -4909   13  0   1   1   4
39  --  Regan Smith         1373    -4924   17  0   0   0   0
40  --  Joe Nemechek        1299    -4998   29  0   0   0   0

A shock formation lap crash put an emphatic end to Casey Stoner’s previous-perfect Valencia MotoGP weekend, allowing Dani Pedrosa an almost completely free ride to a home win.

Stoner had dropped back to allow the field to stream past him as they got off the grid for their warm-up lap, but moments later the cameras cut back to the Ducati lying in the gravel and a shocked Stoner kneeling next to it. Replays showed the bike suddenly snap away from under him and throw him off into a nasty, violent high-side into the air before they slid into the gravel trap. The bike was too badly damaged for Stoner to pick it up and continue, and he became the race’s first – and ultimately only – retirement. The Ducati team would later blame cold tyres and issues with their warm-up lap tyre management strategy which would be reviewed before the next race in 2010.

Stoner’s exit eased the pressure on Jorge Lorenzo, who arguably could have been beaten to the MotoGP runners-up spot by Stoner but who was now unassailable. Unfortunately, when the race got underway, Lorenzo got a poor start and immediately dropped back behind Valentino Rossi and Toni Elias form the second row; Rossi had the undoubted advantage of starting behind the now-vacant pole position spot which allowed him a free run down the straight to turn 1.

But naturally it was Dani Pedrosa who got the best start as always, and while Lorenzo was fighting back to get past Elias for third, and Rossi settled into second, Pedrosa was building up a lead that no one came close to challenging for the rest of the afternoon. With Stoner sidelined, that meant the Spaniard would take third place in the MotoGP championship ahead of the Aussie.

Lorenzo briefly got past Rossi for second place again, but a few corners later had a nasty moment when he applied the throttle out of a orner and found the bike bucking like the proverbial donkey; Lorenzo did impressively well to hold on to it and not get thrown off completely, but the scare allowed Rossi back in front again and he needed no further invitations to stretch a safe lead over his team mate of up to 2.4s. This gap came down in the final laps, and whether that was a matter of tyre wear or simply canny race management by Rossi didn’t really matter – Lorenzo never really had a realistic chance to challenge for the second position before the chequered flag.

Elias’ pace fell off after his flying start and he succumbed to both Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden but managed to hold in for 6th place. Edwards was racing for fifth place in the championship (behind the untouchable four of Rossi, Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner of course) but even fourth place was not enough to get him the points to beat out Andrea Dovizioso: for that, Edwards needed the held of his incoming team mate Ben Spies, who pulled off a strikingly good pass on Dovizioso with six laps to go. That move – the icing on the cream of a great début weekend from Spies – put Edwards ahead of Dovizioso by a single point in the championship.

Marco Melandri survived a mid-race trip through the gravel but ended up demoted to last as a result; and outgoing James Toseland finished a distant 12th while his replacement Spied emphatically eclipsed him, and he made a sad, depressed sight as he arrived back in the pit lane at the end of his last MotoGP race before he returns to World Superbikes for 2010.

And thus with the chequered flag finished the 2009 season. The teams stay on at Valencia for some testing, but then the toys will be packed away until Qatar’s night race in April 2010, and we’ll see whether the usual suspects (Rossi, Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner) once again dominate the action – and whether Rossi can win it again, or if it’s finally time for one of the young pups to claim the master’s scalp.

Race result

Pos  Rider             Team             Time/Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda            46:47.553s
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha           +   2.630s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha           +   2.913s
 4.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha    +  32.515s
 5.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati           +  34.585s
 6.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda    +  34.888s
 7.  Ben Spies         Yamaha           +  37.706s
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda            +  38.364s
 9.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati    +  42.491s
10.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda    +  43.689s
11.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda        +  46.018s
12.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha    +  50.226s
13.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati    +  57.168s
14.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki           +1:06.877s
15.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki           +1:11.701s
16.  Gabor Talmacsi    Scot Honda       +1:14.405s
17.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki  +1:33.425s

Retirement:

     Casey Stoner      Ducati           0 laps

MotoGP championship – final 2009 standings

Pos Driver           Points
1   Valentino Rossi     306
2   Jorge Lorenzo       261
3   Daniel Pedrosa      234
4   Casey Stoner        220
5   Colin Edwards       161
6   Andrea Dovizioso    160
7   Toni Elías          115
8   Alex de Angelis     111
9   Loris Capirossi     110
10  Marco Melandri      108
11  Randy de Puniet     106
12  Chris Vermeulen     106
13  Nicky Hayden        104
14  James Toseland       92
15  Mika Kallio          71
16  Niccolò Canepa       38
17  Gábor Talmácsi       19
18  Aleix Espargaró      16
19  Sete Gibernau        12
20  Ben Spies             9
21  Yuki Takahashi        9

Pos Constructor Points
1   Yamaha         386
2   Honda          297
3   Ducati         272
4   Suzuki         133
5   Kawasaki       108

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