It has long been rumored, now it's happening: Toyota is pulling out of Formula 1. The parent company announced that it was pulling out of the top level of racing due to the continuing financial crisis. Toyota now joins Honda and Bridgestone, in F1, and Suzuki in rallying last year, to leave top level motor sport because of the crisis. John Howett, the president of the F1 team, has told Autosport that the team itself will still be on the grid next year, however. It will be interesting to see how that happens.

The Bridgestone Tire Company, which has been supply cars with tires in Formula 1 since 1997 announced today that it would withdraw from the series at the end of 2010, when its contract runs out. It will be interesting to see which company steps in to take over the big job Bridgestone has been doing for the last few years as the only tire provider. Any ideas?

Anyone want to believe that maybe the real story of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was not the winner Sebastian Vettel, not Lewis Hamilton who might have won after his pole but he had brake problems, and not even Jenson Button who gave a great battle effort with Mark Webber for third place, but was Kamui Kobayashi?

After passing two world champions, Kimi Raikkonen at the start and Button after the first third of the race, Kobayashi managed to drive his Toyota to sixth position, ahead of his teammate Jarno Trulli. It was a beautiful, gutsy drive, and we would like to see more just like it! So would he, apparently....

"It was a really good race for me," Kobayashi said. "At the start I overtook (Kimi) Raikkonen and that was important in the end because it would have been difficult to finish in the top six if I had been behind him during the first stint. When I got past I was confident I had the race pace to fight for the points and my target was to be consistently fast. The team did a great job with the strategy and the pit stop which played a big part in helping me finish in the points. I certainly wasn't expecting to be racing in Formula 1 this season and I want to say thank you to Toyota for this opportunity. My target was to finish in the points today but I am a bit surprised to be in the top six. This is a fantastic result and I am extremely happy."

USF1 is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. But it needed a base in Europe too, in order to work on the cars between the European races, etc. It has found a very interesting location in bright and sunny Spain, according to its statement from Abu Dhabi:

"US F1 Team announced today that MotorLand Aragon, an 865-acre motorsports complex located in the northern part of Spain in the town of Alcaniz, has been selected as the team's European base. MotorLand will serve as the team's European testing, racecar development and logistics headquarters."

"'MotorLand Aragon is the ideal motorsports complex for US F1's European operation,' said Peter Windsor, executive vice president and sporting director for US F1 Team. 'From the excellent location and weather, to the rich racing heritage and diverse track configurations, MotorLand provides America's first Formula One team in more than 40 years with the perfect facility to manage the 2010 season and train for 2011 and beyond.'"

It's only the second track at which we have seen the artificial lighting of a night race over a Formula 1 track. The other is the Singapore Grand Prix. But the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will start ini the day and finish at night. Today saw the race's first practice sessions, and the second session ended in darkness under the floodlights.

These are not the same lighting system as Singapore, and you can see the difference on television. When you're at the Abu Dhabi track, the effect of the lighting looks pretty much as good as Singapore, if different. But when seen on the television, the effect is not as uniform in Abu Dhabi as it is in Singapore. This lighting looks more like something we're used to seeing in Nascar or other oval night races, not the artificial daylight of the Singapore lights. Still, I think this could end up being a very interesting race with all the new aspects at the Yas Marina Circuit.

As expected, Jean Todt has won the election as the next president of the International Automobile Federation, replacing Max Mosley. Todt faced Ari Vatanen in an election Friday, and won. Todt, of course, is a Formula 1 insider, having led Ferrari to its many world titles from 1999 to 2004 with Michael Schumacher driving.

Tomorrow is the election day for the new president of the International Automobile Federation. Max Mosley will leave his job and he will be replaced by Jean Todt. Or Ari Vatanen. We'll see who wins the election tomorrow. Speculation says it will be Jean Todt.

Jenson Button drove the race of his life today in Sao Paulo to finish in fifth position after starting in 14th, and thereby won the world championship with one race left. Mark Webber won the race in a nice, but calm, and largely overshadowed victory in his Red Bull.

I think few people doubted Button would win the title after he won six of the first seven races this year. But he had done practically nothing since then and had been driving boring, sluggish races. Today's Brazilian Grand Prix wiped out all the doubt and showed Button at his most brilliant ever. He took risks, he passed car after car, he made incisive moves and came out way, way ahead. And he just could not stop saying after the race, "I am the world champion!!!" Indeed, he is!

Check that out! A Formula 1 qualifying session that lasted 2 hours and 42 minutes, the longest qualifying session in F1 history. And thank goodness it did, because the repercussions are potentially huge on the outcome of the drivers' title race as Rubens Barrichello scored the pole position and Jenson Button qualified only fourteenth, and Sebastian Vettel qualified only sixteenth. Madness.

It is now common knowledge that the F1 teams are having a hard time figuring out why certain teams have been so fast at certain tracks this year, while other teams just drop out of the picture. Today's practice session in Sao Paulo have been a continuation of that trend, and more so than ever. Although the Brawns and Red Bulls both look on the pace, the real surprise was in the second session how Sebastian Buemi in a Toro Rosso was fastest for most of the session until he was just thrown off the fastest time at the last minute by Fernando Alonso, in a Renault. And that one was a surprise in itself, as Alonso had been complaining of difficulties here at Interlagos. But Buemi second fastest?!?!

"I am happy that we seemed quite competitive in the afternoon, after the mechanics did a very good job to rebuild the car after my accident this morning," Buemi said, refering to the morning practice when he lost control coming up behind a slower driver. "Now we have a solid basis on which to improve tomorrow, after studying all the data."

Doesn't tell us anything, but Toro Rosso probably can't figure it out either.