Germany’s Sebastian Vettel was crowned as the Formula One World Champion on Sunday after an assured drive at the season’s finale in Abu Dhabi.
The Red Bull ace produced a scintillating performance when it mattered most to collect his fifth top podium finish of an incredible campaign.
Winning three of the final four races ultimately won the 23-year-old the sought-after prize in the United Arab Emirates and he will be rightfully lapping up the adulation after the closest of finishes.
Although his triumph is a massive personal achievement from a personal point of view and his team, who also stormed away with the constructors’ award, many others will reflect on their respective near misses.
Take Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, for example.
The Spaniard led the way going into the final showdown after reigning supreme in Italy, Singapore and Korea.
Needing to finish fourth to win his third world title, he could only scrape home in a hugely disappointing seventh to finish four points behind Vettel, who landed his first career gong in F1, and in doing so, joining fellow German and seven-time champion Michael Schumacher in the record books.
Alonso’s frustrations were palpable after the race. He failed to dislodge Vitaly Petrov and Nico Rosberg in front after a contentious early pit-stop and with it went his chances of adding to the crowns he won in 2005 and 2006.
Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber enjoyed a fine season in the saddle, but like Alonso, failed to come up with the goods when required.
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The Australian secured wins in Spain, Monaco, Great Britain and Hungary, but a run of seven events without claiming maximum points evidently haunted him at the death as he took home the bronze medal.
He is now one of the sportsbook outsiders to land the prize in 2011, with many of the opinion that this season was the year he needed to take the coveted trophy.
McLaren and British pair Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button trailed in fourth and fifth position respectively as the 2008 and 2009 champions came up short.
Hamilton (three) and Button (two) landed just five wins between them, but they will be hoping to come back bigger and stronger next term.
Felipe Massa of Ferrari will have been less than impressed with his sixth-placed ending while Mercedes star Rosberg, who came seventh, could be one to watch in the next edition.
