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Sebastian Vettel said he was struggling to find the right words when he met the media after his amazing World Championship victory in Abu Dhabi, but that didn’t stop him coming out with some entertaining soundbites.

The German didn’t know until the flag that he had done enough to clinch the title as the team wanted him to focus on winning the race.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Vettel. “I am still a bit empty. I can’t believe it. When I crossed the line I did not know if it was enough or not. All weekend I did not try to focus on the championship as the situation was pretty clear. We had to try to win this race, do our maximum and the rest was up to the others. I did the in-lap and just enjoyed it. Since I am a little kid I follow Formula One.

“Before the race I said to myself ‘look there are so many people coming here to Abu Dhabi to watch the race’. So many people thrilled about this race about to take place, watching the World Championship decision and to find out who is going to win it. Just to be part of that race and part of that fight, to be one of the four, I was feeling extremely proud, happy. I don’t want to sound philosophical but we travel so much all year and we get to see so many places, different people, and I was just feeling extremely happy with myself as I can do something I really love.

“People keep saying we are not doing too bad and I am able to enjoy it. I said to myself ‘no matter what happens it has been a good season’ with all the trouble we had and things slowing us down and taking points away from us. Then crossing that line. I was already thinking… I was tempted to watch the screens but I didn’t as my engineer, the last 10 laps, kept telling me all sorts of things, the gaps and pace. Partly I asked for it, to know where I am. But things I have to watch out for which is fine but I think in none of these 19 races he has been so alive in the last 10 laps.

“I was already thinking ‘what is going on?’ and I was seeing sometimes on the screen Lewis behind the Renault and also I think it was Alonso and Ferrari behind the Renault. But then I just tried to forget and kept driving and focused on myself.”

Vettel admitted he was surprised to become the youngest World Champion, beating Lewis Hamilton by 167 days.

“Yeah, when it comes to records, after Lewis won the championship, I thought to myself, it will be questionable if there will ever be anyone younger than him. And to be fair, he only missed it by only one point the year before. You can argue but records are there to be broken in a way.”

Mark Webber says he tried his hardest to win the 2010 title, and has no regrets about just missing out.

Webber finished third in the World Championship, having been the leader until he crashed out of the Korean GP.

“It was a big day and we had the chance to do something incredibly unique, but in the end it didn’t turn out for us,” said Webber. “Earlier in the race we knew we had to roll the dice and go for it with the strategy, but it left us exposed and Fernando covered us.

“I tried my absolute hardest and we did everything we could, but in the end it wasn’t enough. You’ve got to take your hat off to Sebastian, he’s done a great job all year and to lead the Championship at the last race, he’s got the timing right and I fully congratulate him on the World Championship.

“I was in with a chance of winning the Championship until the last race, so I must have been doing something right and in the end there are a lot of positives. I feel I have driven very well for most of the season and that’s the most important thing to me. This weekend didn’t turn out and it’s a shame, but it’s a good time to reflect in the next few weeks and look back at the highs and the lows but that’s the way the sport is sometimes.”

 Webber says he will bounce back next year: “There have been quite a few emotions over the last couple of weeks; when you come so close to the top and just miss out, it’s a shame, but I tried my absolute hardest and I have great guys around me. I think two championships for the team is not bad and I’ll be fighting again next season.”

Calm before the storm? Drivers posing 90 minutes before the start

So here they are, the complete 2010 field on show in Abu Dhabi a few minutes ago, including Michael Schumacher, Bruno Senna and Timo Glock, who were all missing from Friday’s photo shoot organised by Bernie Ecclestone.

Intriguingly Webber and Alonso spent some time chatting both before and during the parade, reminding us that they get on well.

BTW, this morning I asked Ecclestone what he thought of Webber and his season. “He’s a Ferrari driver,” said Bernie. ” I think he’s got the character that the Old Man would have liked.”

Now I wonder why he said that…

Jenson Button says that he will not adjust his approach on the first lap tomorrow, despite being in the middle of the title contenders.

Button is behind Alonso and in front of Webber, and clearly if he gets involved in contact with either man, controversy will result.

“I think you have to look at it as a normal race,” said Jenson when asked by this blog about the situation. “As soon as you start changing your style or way of thinking, I think that’s when accidents happen. Plus, we’re out there to score as many points as we can for the constructors’.

“I know the guys around me are looking at the drivers’ championship, but we still want to finish second in the constructors’ championship. And one of us can still win the World Championship.

“I think for them, they’ve got to watch out for us more than the other way round. I’m looking forward to the race, and my aim is to be on the podium, that would be a great way to finish the season, like I did last year.”

Mark Webber struggled to conceal his frustration after qualifying only fifth in Abu Dhabi tonight, leaving himself with a huge task if he is going to get back into the title hunt.

He demonstrated his disappointment when he walked out of the compulstory multinational TV scrum after talking only to the BBC and the German media.

“I’m not wrapped of course, to be fifth on the grid is not very good,” he said after the session. “So it’s disappointing of course. But still a long way to go tomorrow. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. Would like to have been further up, but couldn’t get the pace. A bit disappointing.

“We need to be there at the end, of course, a lot of things can still happen in the race. Haven’t helped things by our performance today, but we’ve seen races change. The championship isn’t decided today. Would have been nice to be further up. You could be more confident, but at the end of the day we’ll still in the hunt.”

Webber chose to start his crucial final qualifying run with one slow lap before picking up speed for his second, and that might not have been a good choice.

“I just didn’t have the grip that the other guys had. Together with my driving style, lots of different things, they all add up.  Sometimes you’re on pole, sometimes you’re not. It would have been nice to have been on the front row. No one’s interested in a shopping list of excuses, we’ve just got to do the best job we can tomorrow.”

Felipe Massa says Lewis Hamilton is ‘crazy’ if he believes that the Brazilian deliberately tried to take him out in qualifying in Abu Dhabi.

The pair got tangled up in Q2 while on out laps, and Lewis was forced to run over a chicane, knocking down a bollard in the process. Hamilton still managed to set a lap time and get through, but at the time he accused Massa on the radio of ‘trying to take me out.’

“First of all he was completely to the wrong side of the track and didn’t let me by,” said Massa. “And then he tried to push the car over, beyond the corner. I was on the normal line. If he said that, he’s completely crazy.”

Massa’s preparations for his final lap were compromised when he had to get out of the way of Fernando Alonso and allow him a clear track.

“It was not great to be honest on the opening lap, and then I had a problem to prepare my lap, and I couldn’t, so I couldn’t do the lap like I expected. It was a big casino there on the out lap to try to prepare the tyres. I couldn’t prepare to open my lap, so for sure it was supposed to be a lot better than that.”

Massa’s plan for tomorrow is to  “try to overtake as many cars as possible…”

Fernando Alonso gave McLaren an unexpected vote of support today after Lewis Hamilton topped the afternoon session in Abu Dhabi.

For obvious reasons it suits Alonso to have Hamilton in the mix and potentially taking points of the Red Bulls. Fernando himself finished the second session in third, albeit just 0.001s ahead of Mark Webber.

“I don’t really care where Lewis is in the times today,” he said initially. “For us it was a good Friday, because we managed to do a lot of laps. We tested some set-up possibilities for tomorrow that we need to analyse today. Overall it was a good Friday in terms of time on the track, in terms of how competitive other people are. We know that Friday is not very representative, and for sure Red Bull are still favourites for tomorrow. Hopefully McLaren can do a good job here and be on pole, but I guess Red Bull wasn’t 100% today.”

Asked by this blog how the track had developed into the evening, Alonso said: “It did change. Especially in first practice it did improve a lot. It was wet or damp in the installation lap in some corners, and sure it did improve. And then they ran some other categories between the two sessions, and overall we ended up with a good level of grip. We expect some more to come tomorrow as usual, and better on Sunday. I think Bahrain, Korea, Singapore, here, every lap you do on the track you feel better and better grip. We need to think also on that in terms of set-up for tomorrow etc. We know the track will come to us.”

He acknowledged that the Bridgestone supersofts are a concern: “Probably the supersofts were having some high degradation today, which was more or less expected, because tyres are one step softer or even two steps softer than last year’s tyres. We expect some extra degradation this year, but there is some big evolution in this track from Friday to Sunday, so if it doesn’t rain tomorrow or Sunday, I think supersoft can be OK even in the race.”

Alonso insisted that he’s not feeling any stress.

“I’m still feeling good, very relaxed, yesterday and today.  Sure tomorrow and Sunday will be more stressed, because you approach an important race. But I think all of the contenders at this point we have enough races, enough experience. We’ve been racing from go-karts all of us, 15 or 20 years ago. We know it’s an important race. At the end of the day it’s 25 points, the same as any of them. So we need to do a good weekend, a competitive lap tomorrow, a good start, good pit stop, and good race pace.”

Mark Webber finished both practice sessions today in Abu Dhabi in fourth place, but is satisfied with progress so far.

Webber was a tiny 0.001s behind Fernando Alonso in the second session, and 0.170s behind team mate Vettel.

“Pretty good, a normal session,” said Webber. “We had an engine change between the two sessions, so that was planned. The usual suspects at the front. Lewis has done a pretty good lap. It was a pretty good day. After us four I didn’t really take much of a notice.”

Webber said he slept well last night, despite the stress of the title decider.

“Good, I slept like a baby last night. Ready to go again tonight. You can only do what you can do. It feels like Bahrain [the first race] in the engineering office, in the car.

“It’s a normal weekend, but obviously there’s a lot more at stake this weekend, that’s the only thing that’s changed. You can’t try any harder.”

Sebastian Vettel was a little cautious when assessing Red Bull’s prospects after practice in Abu Dhabi today saw Lewis Hamilton outpace the blue cars.

Although Vettel was top in the first session he was beaten to the tune of 0.257s by the McLaren driver in the evening session. As ever there’s a question mark over fuel levels, but Vettel conceded that things are tight this weekend.

“Not bad,” he said after the session. “The car felt obviously very strong early afternoon, tonight a bit different with the conditions. All in all I was pretty happy. I think there is still a bit of lap time to gain, and we need to see. Obviously now we need to analyse the lap times of the other cars, how strong we are compared to them, and then hopefully we’ll pick up some pace and have a good day tomorrow.

“I think we’re up there, we were always pretty close. I think it looks quite good but as expected, tight, I think especially in the late evening Ferrari looked competitive, and McLaren. So as I said, tight as expected, hopefully we can pick up some pace and be ahead tomorrow.”

Asked how he would sleep on Saturday night Vettel joked: “Usually I get tired at night. I don’t know what you do, but usually I get tired and fall asleep…”

"Michael, where are you?". Ross Brawn looks for his man...

Michael Schumacher has infuriated Bernie Ecclestone by failing to show up for an end of season photo in the Abu Dhabi paddock.

For the first time all the team principals joined the drivers and Bernie for the traditional photo. The Crown Prince was also supposed to be there, but he was detained at the last minute.

Schumacher had indicated that he would come, but failed to show up. This writer spotted him disappearing into Mercedes hospitality, unusually attired in a pair of denim shorts…

Michael wasn’t the only driver to be missing. Bruno Senna was excused as he was busy with the FIA Stewards after an incident with Lewis Hamilton, while Bernie’s people were Timo Glock was having a massage on an injured foot – although he later told this blog that he’s simply gone to the wrong place, at the wrong end of the paddock. He arrived just as the photo session was ending.

However Schumacher was the one notable by his absence, and he probably hasn’t done himself any favours…