I should have posted this the other week, but the 14th November saw the final race of this year’s F1 seaon – in Abu Dhabi – and a newly-crowned World Champion in Sebastian Vettel. I admit, I would have preferred to see Webber take the title this year (he finished on 242 points compared to Vettel’s 256) but what did please me was seeing Alonso frustrated in his attempts to win by a mighty defensive drive from Petrov, which left him unable to climb higher than 7th – simply not enough. Alonso, in my opinion, did not deserve the championship this season after the debacle with team orders.

So, instead, in Vettel we have yet another youngest ever champion, and – I expect – probably the first of many. He was tipped by many pundits to be on the way, and got there sooner than some might have thought. The win also ensured Red Bull took both trophies this season.

A short break now, and then the season restarts around March next year.

A red-bull one-two clinched the constructors’ title for the team, leaving the drivers’ championship to be decided in Abu Dhabi. Vettel took the win with Webber in second place. Alonso’s (slightly lucky IMO) 3rd place leaves him in the best position to win the championship, whereas Hamilton’s determined 4th place gives a slim chance of him still being in the running, but in reality a lot of things would need to go his way for that to happen. Button – who finished 5th after an unfortunate qualifying (which had its own follow-up incidents) now cannot retain his title for a second year.

As it stands, Alonso has an 8 point lead over Mark Webber going in to the final race, with Vettel 7 points back on that. This means that if Alonso finishes 2nd or better, he’s done it, and if not, it’s a bit more open. I’d much prefer to see Webber take the title, so we’ll just have to cross fingers and see how it all pans out on the 14th in the final race of the season.

It’s reported that Captain Pickard, or, in real life, Patrick Stewart, is to be knighted in the New Year honours list. I can only agree, and say “make it so”. A very varied and talented actor, he is.

In other news, we are hearing more confirmation that Schumacher is close to an F1 return with the Mercedes team – though nothing yet from the man himself, or the team. I’m in two minds about this return. I wouldn’t want it to be a damp squib, because he left on a high, but nor would I relish the return to his utter dominance. A good scrap would be interesting.

Loads of peeps were trapped in the Channel Tunnel last night, after freezing temperatures on both sides of the tunnel contributed to a mass break-down of the trains. It appears that on-board staff had not been properly trained in what to do, which is not great. Think everyone is out now, but they were stuck for some time. Not great at all.

Lastly, WordPress 2.9 is out, with bucket loads of new functionality. If you run WordPress on your blog site, you should upgrade now. Make sure your host meets the new requirements first, though – the MySQL and PHP version requirements have increased to 4.1.2 and 4.3 respectively.

Jenson Button has taken this year’s F1 World Championship finishing in 5th place (from 14th on the grid). Barrichello, who was his cloest rival, suffered a puncture in the closing stages of the Grand Prix, but would not have been able to take the championship to a final round due to Jenson’s finishing position.

The finish also granted the constructors’ championship to Brawn GP, in their first season of racing.

The race was not without incident, with crashes galour towards the start, and a dramatic looking moment when Kovalainen took off from the pits dragging a fuel hose behind him, which promptly sprayed fuel over the car of Kimi Raikkonen. Luckily everyone was ok.

Congratulations to all!

News just in is that Flavio Briatore, boss of the Renault F1 team has resigned his position, with the team deciding not to contest Nelson Piquet Jr’s allegation that he was told to crash in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Frankly I’m amazed. This will be a big blow to the team, and doesn’t really help the current turbulent image of F1 racing. There are no details yet as to who exactly was in on the decision. Potentially I suppose with the team boss leaving the full details may not come to light. The official press release says that no further comment will be made until the FIA council on 21st September.