MOTORSPORT: Hat-trick makes Red Bull No. 1

Although Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren-Mercedes were the quickest, Red Bull won its third straight grand prix, and notched its fourth one-two finish of the season, as 22-year-old German superstar Sebastian Vettel took the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi this morning, Australian time, almost 18 seconds clear of Webber.

Completing the best season, by far, of his eight years in GP racing (despite his worst preparation, after a broken leg), Webber and his Renault-powered RB5 held off the challenge of new world champion Jenson Button in his Brawn-Mercedes in the closing stages.

"Jenson was able to close the gap to me and I thought, 'This is going to be tight'!" Webber said.

"We knew we had a slight top-speed advantage, but not much and I had to make sure I was accurate with my braking points.

"We had a good clean fight on the limit and the battle was a credit to how Jenson's driven all year."

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said: "Mark did a brilliant job to hang on to second place ... it was a really exciting last lap of the year."

Webber not only handled the pressure of the latest world champion but the eight points he collected gave him 69.5 for the season -- 20.5 more than last year's world champion, Hamilton.

Hamilton and the McLaren-Mercedes were the class of the field at Abu Dhabi's mind-blowing new circuit as he took pole position by 0.7 seconds and was leading the race before forced out by signs of a brake failure.

McLaren has finished third in the constructors' championship; one point ahead of Ferrari, but neither got a point today.

And, on the strength of its form in the past three GPs, Red Bull Racing is the best team in F1 right now.

It has won six races for the year -- four by Vettel, two by Webber.

Brawn and Button's success was overwhelmingly early in the season as McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW tried to get to grips with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) and Red Bull was getting its act together without KERS or a double diffuser.

Only McLaren and Ferrari persisted with KERS and now it seems it is gone for next year in a sign of how out of touch F1 is with the real world.

Something that could be of great benefit to the motor industry, and was the type of challenge F1's brilliant engineers should have been conquering, is abandoned after one season, simply put in the too-hard basket.

As stunning as the Abu Dhabi circuit is, it also is a symbol of F1's divorce from reality. (Were the two ever married?)

The opulence that $1 billion or more had produced was unbelievable, yet the world is still not sure it is over its financial crisis and F1 teams have been under pressure -- most notably from departing Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley -- to slash spending.

How and why teams are going to do that when they see a new sea of money -- and potential funding -- discovered as it has been in the capital of the United Arab Emirates?

So what have we learned from F1 season '09? That Ferrari and McLaren can be beaten consistently.

Ferrari gave up on this year's car by mid-season and has been concentrating on its 2010 model. But without the advantage of the extra power KERS could generate for strategic use, the big two will have to try to beat Red Bull and Brawn fair and square next year.

Red Bull has the genius of Adrian Newey and a Renault engine that has proven to be much better than it seemed a couple of months back.

Brawn has Ross Brawn, a team that already had solid foundations at Honda, the Mercedes engine and perhaps now will be Mercedes-Benz's factory team next season.

BMW is gone, Renault has gone backwards, Williams battles on as a privateer and there will be four new teams next year -- and we will look at that landscape in coming weeks, including the arrival of Ayrton Senna's nephew Bruno via Spanish outfit Campos.

The biggest intrigue for us in the immediate future is whether Toyota will continue in the sport.

We should know within a fortnight.

On the one hand it has spent too much money without success to pull out now, yet on the other hand the bean counters at its Japanese headquarters may hold sway in the debate on whether it is worth the effort and expense.

On the driver front we have seen that it is a golden era with talents like Vettel, Hamilton and the now-veteran Alonso, who leaves Renault for Ferrari, as well as Button and our boy Webber.

Kimi Raikkonen, paid out of his contract by Ferrari, holds the key to the driver market.

McLaren remains the logical home for him, but his management may have priced him out of the seat.

Toyota may want him, if it is still in, but it too may find the price prohibitive.

Red Bull is unlikely now to see any need to shuffle Webber across to sister team Toro Rosso if Raikkonen remains available.

Giancarlo Fisichella has been massively disappointing in his short time with Ferrari and we question whether he is even worth retaining as test driver now when Felipe Massa returns from injury next year.

And Heikki Kovalainen has been a big disappointment at McLaren and not worth any other team now giving him another chance.

Yet Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello has shown himself, despite ultimately losing second place in the championship to Vettel, still capable of winning races and will go around again after a move from Brawn to Williams in what is likely to be a swap with Nico Roseberg.

Timo Glock looks set to find a home at Renault alongside Robert Kubica, who comes across from the effectively defunct BMW-Sauber, and Jarno Trulli's experience may be of use to one of the new teams.

Toyota at least looks to have unearthed a genuine Japanese talent, Kamui Kobayashi, if it decides to stay on.

In two starts as a substitute for the injured Glock, Kobayashi has been exceptionally quick -- and notched two points for sixth place in Abu Dhabi.

Nick Heidfeld, fifth in Abu Dhabi for BMW-Sauber, surely will find a seat somewhere -- perhaps even McLaren if Raikkonen is not there.

Much interest is going to be in who the new US F1 picks. With a shortage of suitable candidates from the US, it is almost certainly going to have to backtrack on its promise of an all-American line-up for its debut season.

Supercross star Chad Reed will fill in for Whincup, while Mick Doohan will be Australia's other representative.

With the top two F1 drivers of this year, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel, and retired seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher there, ideally Whincup and Mark Webber would have been Australia's representatives.

Webber was never a chance because he is about to have a titanium rod removed from the leg he broke 11 months ago -- after pins came out in February and screws in June and August.

Whincup has decided that the increasingly intense battle with Will Davison for the V8 Supercar Championship, which continues at Victoria's Phillip Island next weekend, has to be his single priority.

Understandable perhaps, but a pity nonetheless. It would have been great for him, and V8 Supercar racing, to see him competing in such esteemed international company.

Another time, and before too long, hopefully.

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