Racing | Formula 1 | 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — Vettel Wins His First Championship at Yas Marina

On 14 November 2010, Formula 1 arrived at Yas Marina Circuit with four drivers still able to win the championship. Fernando Alonso led Mark Webber by eight points, Sebastian Vettel by fifteen and Lewis Hamilton by twenty-four. Vettel put the Red Bull-Renault on pole, with Hamilton second, Alonso third, Jenson Button fourth and Webber fifth.

Vettel led from the start. A first-lap collision involving Michael Schumacher and Vitantonio Liuzzi brought out the safety car, allowing Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov to make early tyre stops. When Webber stopped on lap 11 and Alonso followed on lap 15, both rejoined behind Petrov and remained caught in traffic.

At the front, Vettel completed all 55 laps in 1:39:36.837. Hamilton finished 10.162 seconds behind, Button was third, Rosberg fourth, and Robert Kubica fifth. Petrov held sixth ahead of Alonso and Webber; Hamilton set the fastest lap, 1:41.274 on lap 47.

That order transformed the championship. Vettel finished the season with 256 points, four more than Alonso; Webber had 242 and Hamilton 240. The 23-year-old German won his first Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship and became the youngest champion in the series’ history at the time.

The official final classification records the same podium and points-finishing order; no later penalty altered the race win or championship. The decisive facts were visible on the circuit: Vettel converted pole into victory, while Alonso and Webber could not recover the positions lost through their pit-stop sequence and the traffic behind Petrov.

The pin marks Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The 2010 Grand Prix used the original 5.554 km, 21-turn, anti-clockwise Grand Prix layout, which remained in use from the circuit’s 2009 opening through 2021. The accompanying diagram shows that period configuration, including the long back straight and the original marina-side final sector.

Sources: Formula 1 official race result, starting grid, fastest laps and final 2010 Drivers’ Championship standings; Formula 1’s youngest-champions retrospective; Grandprix.com’s contemporary race notes and final results; Motor Sport’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix history and 2010 championship review; RacingCircuits.info’s Yas Marina layout history; GeoNames’ Yas Marina Circuit record. Image: Arz, “Circuit Yas-Island,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, a route diagram of the 2009–2021 layout.