18 races have been raced, 2 championships have been won, but there's still one more race to go in this season, before we all retreat to our corners and start bickering about what has happened this year in the long few weeks before testing starts and we all begin to bicker about what is going to happen and why each of us is more prescient than the offspring of Nostradamus and Mother Shipton.
But back to the subject under discussion, the 2015 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The race is held at the Yas Marinas circuit, on Yas Island, designed by Hermann Tilke, and was first run in 2009, the contract being arranged until 2016.
The lap record for the F1 circuit, 1:40.279, was set by Sebastian Vettel in 2009. The pit lane, which winds under the circuit has attracted some critisism, but the track in general is liked by the drivers, the 21 corners providing a variety of challenges. The race is scheduled to start just before sunset, so the race starts in daylight and ends up under floodlights in the dark.
The race has had 3 victors, Sebastian Vettel has won 3 times - '09, 10 and 13, Lewis Hamilton has won twice, 11 and 14, and Kimi Raikonnen has one victory, in 2012. It's been the deciding race of the championship for the last 2 years, after taking the place of Brazil as the final race, with 2014 being a wee bit contraversial as double points were awarded in the championships. There was fairly widespread disapproval of this decision, and it has not been retained for this year.
Even though the championships have been decided, I'm still going to be glued to my monitors, there are still elements of interest in the Lewis/Nico battle - if Nico can maintain his current ascendancy of Lewis going into the winter break, it could certainly benefit him (and us) in the competition next year.
As always, I'll be around to chat for most of the sessions live - you have been warned