FiA Formula One Race Director Charlie Whiting has arrived in Abu Dhabi the capital of the United Arab Emirates, direct from Suzuka, to approve the venue ahead of Formula 1’s 2009 season finale.

The new Yas Marina Circuit has only just been handed over from the construction company to the race organizers, as FIA race director Whiting touches down to give the venue the final approval of the sport’s governing body.

“The initial inspection has already been done. Whiting comes here on October 5 to do the final tick-off of the boxes,” race boss Richard Cregan told the Gulf News.

Follow the construction of the future home of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix here.

Sebastian Vettel dominated the 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix from pole position to keep himself in championship contention on a day that Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button could only record the final points paying positions.

Vettel converted his pole into a comfortable race lead at the start, even managing to save a little fuel on his first stint and manage the gap back to the fast-starting Lewis Hamilton.

“I do,” replied Vettel when asked if he felt great. “The biggest threat was lap one, the start. The car was fantastic, so I was able to push lap by lap and increase the gap bit by bit. Obviously with the strategy we were two laps longer than Lewis and a lap longer than Jarno in the first stint, so it all worked out. Until the end I was pretty much in control.”

Sunday Race Results:

Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix saw most of the top ten runners opt for similar two-stop strategies for Sunday’s 53-lap race.

Sebastian Vettel starts on the pole position and significantly Jarno Trulli, Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil will be forced to pit for fuel before him. This puts the Red Bull Renault driver in a very strong position as he chases his third win of the season.

The rain returned ahead of Friday afternoon practice ensuring that the second 90-minute practice session was a frustrating affair resulting in very limited mileage for the 20 runners. With just three sets of intermediate and four sets of full wet tires permitted over the weekend, most opted to stay dry in the pits rather than lapping the Suzuka Circuit.

Only Jaime Alguersuari and Toro Rosso Ferrari team-mate Sebastien Buemi completed an installation lap in the first hour of the session before Fernando Alonso and Alguersuari took top the circuit with 30 minutes remaining. “If we had more tires, I think people would be going out and doing more running,” admitted morning pace-setter Heikki Kovalainen who opted not to run at all.

The final 15 minutes saw most complete a short stint of a few timed laps on the full wet tires. Adrian Sutil set the pace as the checkered flag flew with a best lap of 1:47.231s, seven seconds off Heikki Kovalainen’s best lap in the dryer morning session.

Lewis Hamilton dominated the 61-lap Singapore Grand Prix to take the checkered flag ten seconds clear of Timo Glock on a day when his main race rivals eliminated themselves from contention after making mistakes. Hamilton’s second race win of the season, his 11th with McLaren Mercedes, was sealed when first Nico Rosberg and then Sebastian Vettel were handed penalties for errors exiting and entering the pit lane. From that point, he was able to back off, conserve the car and a drive on to a relatively easy victory.

The big news from the three rounds of night time qualifying was not Hamilton taking pole, but rather Button getting knocked-out in Q2.  On the tight streets of Singapore, the outlook does not seem favorable for the championship leader in tomorrow’s Grand Prix.  Rubens, on the other hand made his way into Q3, but crashed the BGP Chassis in the final seconds of the session, thoroughly spoiling a handful of hot laps on fresh rubber.  Before he made contact with the wall however, he was sitting in 5th place, and with the 5 spot penalty for changing his gearbox outside of the 4-race minimum, Barrichello will start 10th.

Rubens Barrichello set the early pace is Friday Practice 1, taking P1 after 90 minutes of prep for tomorrows qualifying. In Practice 2, Webber had a violent shunt that red flagged the field for the remaining moments of the session, and Mark’s teammate, Sebastian Vettel went on to take the top honors, shaving off over two seconds from his FP1 time.

USF1blog.com recently published the provisional 2010 Formula 1 calendar, but now the official 2010 F1 calendar has been released and it shows a 19-round championship. Such a number of destinations has not been seen in F1 since the 2005 campaign.

Bahrain will take over as the season-opening event next year, with Australia presented as the second round. Taking into account daylight savings time, the change allows the Melbourne race to start at 5pm, following the trend of ‘twilight’ races imposed by Bernie Ecclestone in order to favor television coverage for European audiences.

The Malaysian Grand Prix will retain its twilight status, however the race is scheduled an hour earlier with hopes of avoiding a mid-race wash-out as was the case this year due to the daily fierce rainstorms of April. Abu Dhabi follows the late-day race format as well, while Singapore remains a late-evening event under the floodlights.

Canada appears on the 2010 calendar although the contract remains to be signed – if negotiations should fall through again, Turkey – which appears on the calendar in any case – will be delayed two weeks in order to take over Canada’s reserved date.

New to the Formula One championship will be the Korean Grand Prix, with a debut set for October. Brazil will recuperate its traditional role as the season-ending race, this time in mid-November.

2010 Formula 1 calendar

(1) March 14 – Bahrain (Sakhir)
(2) March 28 – Australia (Melbourne)
(3) April 4 – Malaysia (Sepang)
(4) April 18 – China (Shanghai)
(5) May 9 – Spain (Barcelona)
(6) May 23 – Monaco (Monte Carlo)
(7) May 30 – Turkey (Istanbul)
(8) June 13 – Canada* (Montreal)
(9) June 27 – Europe (Valencia)
(10) July 11 – Great Britain (Donington)
(11) July 25 – Germany (Hockenheim)
(12) August 1 – Hungary (Budapest)
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(13) August 29 – Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
(14) September 12 – Italy (Monza)
(15) September 26 – Singapore (Singapore)
(16) October 3 – Japan (Suzuka)
(17) October 17 – Korea (Yeongam County)
(18) October 31 – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)
(19) November 14 – Brazil (Interlagos)

The path is now clear for the Canadian Grand Prix to return to the Formula One calendar, the promoters of the Montreal event announced in a media statement on last Monday.

Grand Prix F1 du Canada Inc president Normand Legault said a “commercial dispute” with Bernie Ecclestone has been settled, and an “announcement is forthcoming” about the return of the race next year.

“I’ve always been confident of being able to resolve the dispute,” said Legault.

“I never doubted the Canadian race would regain its rightful place on the FIA schedule, and my discussions with F1 management led me to believe the event would return soon.

“The race is important not only for Formula 1, but also for the teams, manufacturers and sponsors.

“I am also happy for the Canadian Grand Prix’s many fans because they are true F1 enthusiasts who appreciate the real value of the spectacle and the competition.”

The Canadian GP, which had been part of the F1 World Championship since 1967, was dropped for this season as a result of a financial disagreement.  The race has been provisionally agreed for 6 June 2010.

The calendar is not expected to be confirmed until October and Ecclestone has yet to comment on Canada’s return.

Legault also announced on Monday that he is not planning to stay on as the race’s local promoter due to the “economic model currently prevailing in Formula One.”

Two years ago, Lewis Hamilton won his maiden F1 victory at the Canadian GP in only his sixth race, while last year Robert Kubica also clinched his first F1 win in Montreal.

With Rubens taking the win at Monza on Sunday and Button following him across the line in second, Brawn GP has all but won the 2009 World Constructors’ Championship.  The Brawn teammates had another phenomenal outing, finishing 1-2 and securing the maximum amount of points possible while simultaneously turning the Drivers Championship into a 2 pony race.  While theoretically there are 4 drivers still mathematically alive, the 2 previously mentioned as well as the Red Bull Racing duo, the 2009 season is moving away from Europe and back to lower speed, aero-demanding circuits where Brawn has shown strength all year long.

So the question is, after Rubens strong showing in Italy today, who would you take to win it all in Abu Dhabi?

Sunday Race Results: