Starting his second Grand Prix in 12th place, he was the second best placed of the cars on a one-stop strategy today, after Kimi Raikkonen, but he finished well ahead of the Ferrari driver. His strategy brought him into contact with Jenson Button again. The pair had had a battle in Brazil, after which Button said Kobayashi was ‘crazy’.

Today they came into contact just after Button’s first stop on lap 17. At this point Kobayashi had another 13 laps to go until his stop, so the difference in fuel weight between the two cars was 12 laps, worth about a second per lap. Kobayashi had a go and Button outbraked himself trying to hold him off.

“The first big stop is turn eight and when you have got that much fuel on board it is always very difficult to judge the braking point,” said Button. “I slightly outbraked myself and locked the rears and the fronts and ran a bit wide and he got past. In reality it didn’t make a difference to my race as he was quicker than me at that point.”

Button was wary of Kobayashi. He raced him, but was forced into a mistake, which reflected well on Kobayashi. It also showed, arguably, that Button still wasn’t able to shake off the mentality of protecting a championship lead, rather than going for it, even though the championship was over. Kobayashi had nothing to lose and so was able to fight his ground.

At that stage both men had one more pit stop to make. Button was being told by his race engineer Andrew Shovlin that Kobayashi was the guy he was racing against. By the time the Japanese made his stop on lap 30 he was seven seconds ahead of Button. At this point he switched to the soft tyre. He lost 17 seconds to Button over the next 12 laps, mainly because it took him a few laps to settle into a rhythm on the soft tyre. Button pushed very hard in this phase and when Button made his second stop on lap 42 he emerged 10 seconds ahead of Kobayashi.

Tonight Toyota boss John Howett pretty much implied that Kobayashi had done enough in his two races to secure the seat for next season – provided that the Toyota main board votes to stay in the sport at its crunch meeting on November 15th.

“It looks like it,” he said “We will have to give really serious consideration, as he has really shown very good strong results.

“I am very impressed. We were very happy again. What we like is his real fighting spirit. He is not intimidated by anybody. It’s very positive.”

I had a chat with Kobayashi on Friday and as he used his hands to illustrate how he had positioned his car relative to Button’s in Brazil, I noticed that he has a tattoo on his right wrist which he covers up with a leather bracelet. It is hard to see exactly what the tattoo says, but the first two characters are “F1″. On his other wrist is the blingiest Breitling watch I have ever seen.

Kobayashi has made a very positive impression; he’s a fighter, he’s clearly quick and if he can find consistency in qualifying and a bit more pace at the beginning of a stint after a pit stop, he might well turn out to be a real diamond.

It was Vettel’s fourth win of the season, also the fourth 1-2 finish for Red Bull Racing and, encouragingly for them they have won the final three races of the season, which bodes well for 2010. Red Bull became a top team this season and believe that they can stay there for the future.

Lewis Hamilton started from pole position and led the opening stint, but was troubled with a brake problem from early on. He was unable to build a big enough lead to combat Vettel’s longer strategy and lost the lead to the German. Shortly afterwards he was told to pit and retire the car. Abnormal brake wear was the reason.

In the middle stint of the race, Vettel pulled away easily from team mate Mark Webber, meanwhile Jenson Button had another battle with Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi as he emerged from his first stop. The Japanese was on light fuel at the time and attacked the world champion very aggressively, forcing Button into a mistake under braking into Turn 8. It was a stunning piece of driving by Kobayashi. Button said after their battle in Brazil that Kobayashi is ‘crazy’ and clearly was mindful of that as he battled him.

Kobayashi was on a one stop strategy and was fighting Button for a podium, but when he switched to the soft tyre for his second stint his pace dropped off. But he came in a creditable 6th.

In the closing stages of the race Webber was struggling with the soft tyre and Button was able to close in on him. The pair battled for the final couple of laps, but Webber was able to hold off Button in the main passing places.

Meanwhile in the battle for third place in the constructors’ championship Kimi Raikkonen lost out to Heikki Kovalainen in the pit stops.

Rubens Barrichello damaged his front wing in a tangle with Webber in the first corner, but it didn’t seem to slow him down too much and he did not change it at the first pit stop.

The race had some overtaking, largely due to lighter cars on different strategies from heavier cars which had just pitted. But the field spread out a lot in the opening stint and the retirement of Hamilton cost the race it’s incisive edge until the final cameo from Webber and Button.

Photo: Darren Heath

Hamilton was asked this evening whether he feels that with the car he now has, he could have competed for the world championship and his answer was interesting,

“I don’t think so, it’s hard to say. There are some tracks where the car has been quite poor, like Spa. This car, even though it feels quite good here on these low speed corners, is still not the best car, by a fair amount. We still have a lot to improve on. The foundations of the car are what’s not perfect so we need to get that right for next year.

“The faster we go the worse the car gets, in the high speed corners. We have got closer and if we had this car from the beginning we would be a lot closer.

As for this weekend, Hamilton has been the red hot favourite right from first practice, but he seemed to stretch away from the rest during qualifying, rather like Usain Bolt. We’ve grown used to Bolt doing that now in sprint races, but the first time he did it was a surprise and Hamilton says his margin over the field here has come as a surprise,
“I didn’t expect (to be this dominant), it’s a real surprise, the car feels the best it’s felt all year and it’s a surprise to all of us,” he said.

“We are getting no more than we normally get from KERS, It was probably the best lap I’ve done all year. It was near to my perfect lap, maybe a few hundredths here or there but it was good.”

Team mate Heikki Kovalainen, making what is likely to be his last appearance for McLaren, looks set to start from 18th on the grid after a five place penalty for a gearbox change.

Meanwhile Kimi Raikkonen has said that it’s McLaren or nothing for him next season as he only wants to drive a car capable of winning races. McLaren have let it be known that there is interest in Jenson Button, to cool Raikkonen’s financial demands and this is not doing Button’s cause with Brawn any harm. Although I get the feeling that there isn’t much movement there and Button is going to struggle to squeeze more money out of the team. He knows that he would be ill advised to go up against Hamilton in a McLaren and Raikkonen knows that too.

The Finn is probably the only driver on the grid who would take on that challenge.

All of Ferrari’s top brass are here too; president Luca di Montezemolo is here along with Piero Ferrari, Enzo’s son and John Elkann, the nephew of FIAT patriarch Gianni Agnelli.

But on track it has been a very disappointing weekend for the team. In qualifying Giancarlo Fischella ended up last, while even Kimi Raikkonen could not manage better than 11th place. The team stopped development on this car back in July, to focus on next year’s car and although Raikkonen performed heroics with it with four consecutive podiums from Hungary to Italy, the lack of pace caught them out here despite having KERS, which is worth around 4/10ths of a second per lap here.

Ferrari World is due to open in August 2010 and will be the largest indoor theme park on the planet. The core feature is the world’s fastest rollercoaster, which will hit speeds of 220km/h and the acceleration of 0-100km/h in 2.5 seconds gives passengers an impression of the acceleration of an F1 car. The whole place is the size of 11 football pitches.

There are 20 attractions inside, including a driving simulator like the one Ferrari have in their factory, electric cars for kids and an interactive exhibit where people can walk through a huge V12 engine and look at the inside of the pistons and the cylinders.

A nice little detail is that the restaurant inside is based on the menu at the Montana restarurant in Maranello, run by Michael Schumacher’s second mother, Rosella. His favourite tagliatelle dish is on the menu and Rosella is coming out next year to train the staff. It’s a little bit of Italy in the Middle East.

Hamilton has been the man to beat this weekend, topping most of the session times. It is in the middle sector with its two long straights that the McLaren was untouchable, setting a sector time some 7/10ths of a second faster than his opponents. KERS accounts for 4/10ths of that, according to engineers, but Hamilton seems to have mastered the corners linking them.

Button was fastest after the first run in Q3, but was beaten by Jarno Trulli and Rubens Barrichello. Hamilton made a mistake on his first lap, but made up for it on his second with provisional pole time. It looked an effortless lap, his car working perfectly here as it has all weekend.

It was a breathless final few moments of the session; the Red Bulls came alive in Q3 with race fuel on board and were fastest in sector one, with the three fast corners. Webber popped up with fastest time, then Vettel took it, but Hamilton had a few corners left and managed to take his fourth pole position of the season. In the end the margin was enormous.

“It’s never easy but it was as fun as it looked, ” said Hamilton “The car is the best it’s been all year and it’s very comfortable on this circuit. That lap could have been better, maybe we should have gone longer (on fuel).”

McLaren team mate Heikki Kovalainen was eliminated in Q2 due to a gearbox problem, while both Ferraris were off the pace today, Kimi Raikkonen was 11th and Giancarlo Fischella in 20th and last place.

What was interesting was the way the grip went away as the track temperature dropped down to around 31 degrees once it went dark. Finding the right combination of tyres and laps was the key.

Photo: Darren Heath

As he came to the Renault hospitality area in the paddock, four women dressed head to foot in black burkhas were shouting his name from a balcony above the pit building. When he turned to wave at them, they covered their faces. It was a surreal moment, but proof that whatever the cultural differences, people still have the same raw enthusiasm for the sport’s big stars.

Alonso is one of those drivers who doesn’t take well to not winning, like Nigel Mansell or Ayrton Senna. He has trodden water long enough, you can tell that he is itching to get back into the teeth of a championship fight and into the battle with Felipe Massa, which is not going to be straight forward.

Looking back on 2009 he said that he was personally very happy with his performances, because he had totally dominated his team mates, Nelson Piquet and Romain Grosjean,
“Myself, and my performance, I am happy with, ” he said. “Relating to my team-mates all season, I know that people think that I need to beat my team-mate always by rule – but this is not mathematics. F1 is always different and I have been beating them for two years guys who are winning in GP2 and are champions in different categories. It is not that I am beating someone who arrived in F1 by luck. I am happy with my performance and hopefully next year I can prove that I am better than ever now.”

This is certainly true of Lewis Hamilton who, by common consent, has developed a lot as a driver during a tough season with an uncompetitive car. Alonso too has never given up this season, has often hauled the Renault into the final part of qualifying, but with a scant 26 points to show for it.

“We have at the moment one of the worst cars on the grid, or the worst car now, because Toro Rosso is in front of us, and Force India is in front of us, ” said Alonso. “Williams and Toyota are in front of us so with that case, we do whatever we can and we do our maximum all the time. ”

Alonso doesn’t have particularly high hopes for his final outing with Renault,
“I want to finish on a high and for all the people, the mechanics and engineers, I have been there seven years now – so it will be a shame if we do the last race in the middle of the pack, fighting for nothing, and it will be a shame. It will be nice to have some points, but at the moment we are realistic and we are not in that position – so on Saturday we need to find four or five tenths to be in Q3.”

And once the season is over he will transfer his attentions to Ferrari. He has not got a specific start date yet but says that he wants to do the basic things as soon as possible, like seat fittings. Like many drivers he is frustrated by the complete lack of testing between this Sunday and early February. It is a very long winter in prospect,

“No date (to start at Ferrari). For sure, December or before January it will be nice to start doing some things, but very basic things like the seat or the ear plugs – the type of things that take time but are better to do as soon as possible and not wait for February. But nothing really big planned now. At least one test would be nice, because with no testing during the championship plus these long winters, it is not easy for us.”

It’s a quick lap here, the average speed is 125 mph and half of the track is straights where the cars are doing 190mph. My impression is that the win will be fought out between Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button. They finished second third and fourth today in practice behind Heikki Kovalainen.

The general feeling in the paddock is that the track and facilities are great, it works for the TV people and the photographers are in heaven, especially in the twilight with the floodlights on.

But the track will be judged by the fans based on what kind of race it produces. The track has places which encourage overtaking, but it is dusty off-line so it will be interesting to see how many drivers feel bold enough to pass. But as there is nothing hanging on this race championship wise, except third place in the constructors between McLaren and Ferrari and sixth place between Williams and BMW, the drivers should hopefully be in the mood to go for it.

Here is a flavour of the drivers’ reaction to the new track.

Fernando Alonso::” I like it. I had fun driving here today. There are some good parts of the track, especially the first sector with some high speed corners. Then the last part of the lap there are 90 degree corners, but you enjoy it because there is always something to do, no time to breathe. The only problem to stop good racing will be the dust off line. If you want to attack or make an overtaking manoeuvre, you need to be clear that you want to do it, because when you put dust on your tyres it lasts for four or five corners and you have very little grip. ”

Jenson Button: “I like it. I wasn’t sure how interesting it was going to be, but it’s a fun circuit to drive, it’s quite easy to make a mistake here because of the camber changes. There is the fast stuff, Turns 2 and 3, then there is some 2nd gear stuff. But I’ve enjoyed it today.”

Rubens Barrichello: “I’m really pleased with the new track here in Abu Dhabi. The venue looks sensational and it’s quite challenging to drive which is makes it a lot more fun for the drivers.”

Giancarlo Fisichella:” The first part is more interesting, turns 1,2 and 3. The middle sector and final sector there are too many second gear corners. There are a couple of off camber corners where the car is inconsistent, but I’m sure there will be more grip so people won’t make mistakes.”

Nico Rosberg:“I enjoyed driving the track for the first time today. It was dirty to begin with and then of course in the second session we were interested in the artificial lighting conditions in the dark and the effect on the tyres of the temperature dropping.”

Adrian Sutil: “The circuit is OK, but I miss some of the high speed sections you find in other tracks. There are a lot of second gear slow sections and the flow is not really there, but it’s still a big challenge as it’s very slippery so you are always fighting with oversteer. There wasn’t a problem with the changing light as the lighting is very good: you still know it’s at night but you can really see clearly.”

Jarno Trulli: “It was good fun and I am looking forward to racing here. They have done a great job with the facilities and the track is really well built, so I am impressed.”

Williams: Oldest boss but still looking forwards

Two F1 related R&D programmes will be carried out there; one into the flywheel energy regeneration system they have been working on for a couple of years now, the other developing a simulator for race and road use. Williams and QSTP will jointly fund the centre and with share commercial revenues. It underlines the assertion I’ve been making for some time that Williams is a team of the future.

Judging from the wording of today’s announcement by Williams, which came out shortly after Williams spoke to Gulf News and let the cat out of the bag, the Williams/Cosworth tie up is also part of this wider technological development programme Williams is working on.

“We’ve finished our contract with Toyota and we’ve moved on to a British engine manufacturer Cosworth with whom we have won many world championships in the past,” Williams told the Gulf News.

“They are 50 miles away from Williams which is very convenient. Besides we also like our independence. We will be not under the influence, not that Toyota ever bossed around, but we’ve just gone a private and independent route.”

Cosworth’s F1 general manager Mark Gallagher said,“Cosworth is delighted to
be renewing our partnership with Williams. We look forward to forging a long-standing
relationship, not only for the supply of competitive Formula One engines, but also in the joint
development of new technologies that have wider application outside of Formula One. ”

The last sentence is the key one. Williams is thinking beyond F1 and you can also see how an international technology company with an F1 team at the heart of it makes Williams a very attractive proposition for a possible sale to a manufacturer or an automotive venture capital firm at some point down the line when Sir Frank decides it is time to stop.

As for the drivers, Williams said that it was time for Nico Rosberg to move on as he had been with the team “quite a long time”.

He hinted that Rosberg’s next move is to a Mercedes powered team,
“Nico is German and Mercedes need at least one German driver to sit before their engine, ” he said. The smart money is still on that team being Brawn, rather than McLaren.

“MotorLand Aragon is the ideal motorsports complex for US F1’s European operation,” said Peter Windsor, executive vice president and sporting director of US F1. “From the excellent location and weather, to the rich racing heritage and diverse track configurations, MotorLand provides America’s first Formula One team in more than 40 years with the perfect facility to manage the 2010 season and train for 2011 and beyond.”

Technology park is to the right

US F1 will have its main R&D and manufacturing base in the US, but plans to have departments for testing, rebuilds, logistics and communications in Spain.

Motorland is almost equidistant between Barcelona and Madrid.

MotorLand has three circuit layouts, a technology park and kart track as well as other entertainment attractions. Like most modern circuits it was designed by Hermann Tilke, although McLaren F1 driver Pedro De la Rosa was a consultant on the project.

Testing is very limited nowadays in F1 and individual tests are not on the agenda any more. Over the winter and into next season there will be even less testing than 2008/09, with a young driver test in November and then nothing more until the new cars come out in February.

FOTA is considering having a group new car launch in late January early February to create a big media event and to save costs for all the teams. It is taking soundings at the moment on how this would work with media schedules. My own view is that the smaller teams would get less airtime and coverage than they do at the moment. The teams could do a lot more online, including launching cars.

What do you think? Should they leave it as it is with teams launching cars alone or should they do a single launch event? Let me have your comments and I will forward them to FOTA.

The Motorland website is at www.motorlandaragon.com/index.aspx?lang=GB

Rosberg: Will not announce plans soon (Photo: Darren Heath)

“It is my last race for Williams,” he said. “It is a bit strange because for four or five years it is the only team I have worked with, so it has been a long time. I get on with everybody really well, obviously, and a lot of respect has built up – with the mechanics and everyone. So it will be quite strange to leave.

“I am not sure they can win races at the moment. With budgets still being rather free, and an engine change coming up which will not help, so I am not sure they can win races at this point of time – although I am convinced that they can do very well.

“But I would like to win races. That is what really encouraged me to push for the next step.”

Rosberg said that he would not be able to announce his next move for a while and he didn’t know how long it would take. There are other pieces to fall into place here.

There is quite a bit going on behind the scenes with Mercedes at the moment. They are in the throws of negotiating their way into a controlling interest at Brawn, meanwhile they have a 40% stake in McLaren and a contract to the end of 2011 with them. The CEO of Daimler, Dr Zetsche, is coming out to this race. I have also heard a whisper that McLaren’s Ron Dennis may come here too, his first appearance at a Grand Prix since April. Daimler’s largest shareholder is Aabar, the Abu Dhabi investment vehicle and they are central to the strategy for Mercedes taking a holding in Brawn.

There is some suggestion that Rosberg may have saddled himself to Mercedes and is waiting to be told which team he will drive for, but I suspect he and his father have a bit more control over the situation than that. Rosberg Sr is a shrewd operator and although McLaren and Brawn are both good options, he would want more say over it. Also it’s hard to see Rosberg alongside Hamilton at McLaren as he was always beaten by him in the past and that really is Hamilton’s team now.

Meanwhile Jenson Button confirmed this afternoon that he has started discussions with Brawn about a new contract, but said that he wanted to sit down seriously after this weekend to focus on the future. I sense that as much as money, the duration of the contract could be a key point. He would like a long contract, I imagine, especially bearing in mind that Sebastian Vettel is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2011 and may well be a Mercedes target for 2012, if they are running their own team by then.