The final race of 2009 took place in the amazing surroundings of the kind that government support and oil cash can bring.

With Silverstone’s place on the 2010 calendar under threat, the shabby surroundings of Northamptonshire with its Johnny Herbert suite and scaffolding suddenly looks rather last century. As much as I consider Silverstone to be something of a dump (behind both Donington Park and Brands Hatch in terms of niceness for visiting spectators), F1 does have its roots in the UK and Europe and there must be a balance between flash new events and the location of the people who actually watch the races.

Oh, the race, you say?

Hamilton’s practice and qualifying dominance came to nothing in the race and it was finally a rear brake problem that forced him into retirement. Vettel came home first ahead of Webber who kept the charging Button behind him after a final-lap tussle.

Heroes

Vettel won in great style once again and secured second place in the driver’s championship. Button and Webber showed how you attack and defend in modern F1. Kamui Kobayashi again showed that he deserves a place next year and is clearly the rookie of the year.

Villains

Without Lewis’s brake problems, we may have seen a great fight between him and Vettel for the win.

Clowns

Toro Rosso’s Jaime Algueruari retirement was something I’ve never seen before. Slow on his in-lap, he tried to pit in sister team Red Bull’s box and was understandably shooed on by the team - ready for Vettel’s stop as they were. He then stopped on the next (a sort of combined out/in lap) either because he ran out of fuel or because of a gearbox failure, depending on who you asked.

And that’s the final race HVC report for 2009, but there will be some season roundups in the coming weeks.