The season-ending 2010 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX captured the attention of the global sports audience.
Casual viewers and die-hard fans alike gathered to watch a thrilling showdown from one of the most spectacular settings on the Formula One calendar and our global partners enjoyed some of the largest Formula One audiences of recent seasons. Focusing on the largest five European markets, the results were remarkable.
In Spain, an average of nine million viewers watched the live coverage as La Sexta recorded 7.4 million viewers, the highest Formula One audience since Fernando Alonso last challenged for the title at the 2007 finale. Regional broadcaster TV Cataluna added over a million viewers, whilst the regional broadcaster in Alonsos home town of Asturias and TV Valencia contributed a further 400,000 viewers.
German broadcaster RTL has gone three full seasons since surpassing the 10 million viewer milestone for F1 coverage; even then it was only achieved once that year. In 2010 that figure has been breached twice, first as Michael Schumacher made his comeback for Mercedes GP in Bahrain and then on Sunday when an average of 10.3 million viewers tuned in, which peaked at 12.1 million when Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel crossed the line to become the youngest-ever world champion.
In Italy, Rais live average audience of 10.6 million viewers was comfortably twice as large as the corresponding event in 2009 and with a share of 50 percent it was the most watched Formula One broadcast since 2007.
The BBC in the UK recorded its largest audience of the 2010 world championship with 5.3 million viewers and a share of 40 percent, although, this was somewhat lower than the 6.6 million who watched Jenson Button crowned world champion in Brazil last year.
In France, TF1 attracted 4.4 million viewers and a peak of 5.6 million, a total bettered just once this season at the championship-opening 2010 FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX.
Under the  in 's floodlights, German driver  added a new Formula One record to his list as youngest winner of the championship at 23 years. On Saturday, Vettel took the title at  of . 

Starting from pole position, the  driver led the race right through except during pit stops, when reigning world champion  led for a few laps.
Sebastian Vettel is the youngest Formula-1 world champion at the age of 23 years
Championship leader  started the race 11 points ahead of . With 25 points for a win, 18 for second and 15 for third, the Spaniard only needed to finish second to secure his third world championship. With a 15-point lag behind Alonso, Sebastian Vettel was third in the championship standings; winning the championship depended on neither Alonso nor Webber finishing on the podium.

A major accident between  and  on the first lap of the race triggered deployment of the . Alonso and Webber were among drivers who decided to make earlier than planned pit stops while racing was resricted. However, they rejoined the track behind the  of , who proved extremely difficult to overtake. Both remained stuck behind Petrov for the remainder of the race, finishing 7th and 8th respectively to score 6 and 4 points.

Sebastian Vettel went on to win the race ahead of the two  of  and , scoring 25 championship points to give a total of 256 - only 4 ahead of Alonso.

Vettel had never previously led this year's contest. He had to wait until championship favorites Alonso and Webber crossed the finish line in 7th and 8th positions respectively before receiving the news by team radio. With his voice breaking among tears and laughter, Vettel thanked his team for their efforts throughout the season. He won five races from ten pole positions.

Since the start of his F1 career, Vettel’s name has repeatedly entered record books.

In 2007, he replaced an injured  in the . Finishing 8th and collecting one championship point; this his first record was youngest driver to score a point in F1.

In 2008, Vettel had the opportunity to race for a full season with , winning what remains that team's only race victory. At the , he became the youngest driver to qualify in pole position and youngest race winner. 

In 2009, he moved to , scoring that team’s first pole position and first race victory. He went on to finish second in the world championship.


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