While every man and his dog has been falling over themselves in their efforts to praise the Yas Marina Circuit, it will be interesting to see if the main event - the race - lives up to the hype.

Admittedly, it's a fantastic complex, but much like some of the Olympic stadiums we've seen in recent years, not to mention football stadiums, it is the event, the sport, that really matters.

Sadly, this is the future of F1, bright shiny complexes with every facility in place that one could ever need. No expense is spared as governments in the developing nations battle to out-do one another, much to the delight of Bernard Charles Ecclestone.

Quite where this leaves Silverstone remains to be seen, however, for all the superlatives heaped on this track, and the gimmickry of twilight racing - in the hearts of true racers it doesn't come close to the likes of Spa Francorchamps.

In many ways, today's race is a watershed moment for the sport, for we bid farewell to BMW, KERS and refuelling, while it is likely that a number of the drivers lining up on the grid will not be in an F1 cockpit when the 2010 season gets underway.

It's been a long haul, but here we are at season's end, with a shiny new multi-million pound facility and a new World Champion. It's end of term, a chance for everyone to let their hair down and take it easy.

That said, with only seven seats officially confirmed for 2010, now is the time for drivers to make an impression on prospective employers, now is the time for teams to make the effort to move up the order and thereby grab that extra slice of the prize fund. In much the same way that there are no longer non-championship F1 races - remember them? - F1 doesn't mess about, it doesn't have a sense of humour, same as it doesn't really have a sense of history or tradition, therefore we can expect that in the bid to win points, prizes and sponsors no quarter will be given, the holidays begin once the chequered flag falls.

The current World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, has to be favourite going into today's race. He took pole with relative ease - well, we call 0.667s relative ease - while, of the front runners, only Vettel and Webber were marginally lighter. Therefore, we expect the McLaren star to sign off 2009 with a win, serving clear notice to Button and Co of his intentions for 2010.

We might have expected a 1-2 for McLaren, especially as Heikki is one of the many drivers seeking a drive for next season, however, a gearbox failure, the subsequent grid penalty, and the Finn's failure, once again, to string it all together, means the likeable youngster has his work cut out and will be lucky to finish in the points.

Fresh from back-to-back victories in Japan and Brazil, Red Bull will be up for it, however, Lewis' superiority thus far this weekend, not to mention his KERS advantage, suggests the Stevenage Rocket has this race to lose. That said, let's hope, seeing as it is end of term, that we get to see Mark and Sebastian go head-to-head. That would be fun.

The Brawns line-up fourth and fifth - by the way, 293 entrants correctly predicted that Jenson would qualify fifth, wonder which one will win that 1:8 scale model - and once again it would be good to see the two teammates go at it hammer and tongs.

Another strong performance from Jarno Trulli, though in terms of fuel loads, of the first five rows of the grid it is Heidfeld and Rosberg who put in the best performances, though full credit to Buemi and Vettel also.