GP PREVIEW

Looking ahead to the Abu Dhabi GP

THE MAIN EVENT

Over the past two decades, there have been many attempts to create a new F1 circuit as the centrepiece of a leisure park. Yas Marina is the one that was seen through to completion and so far there have been a couple of decent races, each made exciting through the sparkle of being a title-decider. But the circuit hasn’t really delivered the sort of thrilling wheel-to-wheel racing the layout seemed to promise. What it does have is plenty of stuff that should make for an exciting grand prix: high-speed corners in sector one; long straights in sector two; and an honestly-we’re-not-trying-to-copy-monaco tight, lowspeed twisty sector around the marina to end the lap.

Yas works its mojo hard, The grand prix is the talk of the town, and is supported with big-name concerts and more clowns, jugglers and acrobats than is healthy. This year the venue adds another string to its bow as it hosts the final of the inaugural Formula 1 esports Series, a three-race event that will see one of 20 players crowned champion.

CLASSIC RACE: 2010

Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and – theoretically – Lewis Hamilton, were all in with a shot at the 2010 title, going into the last round.

The permutations were too many to count, but suffice to say the race was billed as an Alonso vs Webber showdown. So focused were they on each other that, lemming-like, they both jumped off the same cliff and finished P7 and P8, stuck behind a determined Vitaly Petrov in a slow but amazingly well positioned Renault. Vettel, meanwhile, did his bit, by winning from pole to become the youngest world champion – and one of the least expected.

RACE DATA

Circuit name Yas Marina Circuit First GP 2009 Number of laps 55 Circuit length 3.451 miles Race distance 189.739 miles Lap record 1:40.279 (Sebastian Vettel, 2009) F1 races held 8 Winners from pole 3 Tyres Ultrasoft, supersoft, soft

TV TIMETABLE (UK TIME)

Friday 24 November Practice 1 09:00-10:30 Practice 2 13:00-14:30 Saturday 25 November Practice 3 10:00-11:00 Qualifying 13:00 Sunday 26 November Race 13:00 Live coverage Channel 4 & Sky Sports F1