Abu Dhabi is a fitting venue for the finale

I hope that as an avowed cynic I may be forgiven just this once for an uncustomary burst of eulogising.

But I would be guilty of the crime of neglect in not exemplifying the very real and superbly assembled benefits of Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Grand Prix circuit and its trackside environs if I failed to venture into the realms of high praise.

Few Formula One tracks, and certainly not brand, spanking new ones, escape the birth pangs that usually accompany the new kid on the block. No so Abu Dhabi, the place to be.

After the scary episodes of the Brazil Grand Prix last weekend when world champion Jenson Button was the target of an armed street gang and other Formula One personnel were victims of less serious, but no less frightening, muggings around the Interlagos venue and its depressing shanty surroundings the relief is to find oneself in the undeniable safety of the UAE.

My personal experience of Sao Paulo's Interlagos Favela zone a couple of years ago had me, a naive, well-dressed innocent, fleeing a rising kerbside threat in a passing taxi whose astute and brave driver identified the danger I was in, rescued me and rushed me at blurring speed back to my city centre hotel.

Most coveted crown

No such perils lie ahead of those who find themselves in attendance at the grand F1 finale — more likely, if my last year's experience is anything to judge by, a surfeit of good manners and kindness from an army of officials and roadside trekkers, locals and otherwise, to and from the track all anxious to show Abu Dhabi's thoroughly respectable face to the outside world.

It is fitting that the championship, the most open and exciting ever, has gone right down to the wire with four men, all heroes, in with a chance of going home as king of F1 and ferociously battling it out to wear motorsport's most coveted crown.

The writer is a motorsport expert based in England.