Red Bull emerges victorious

The podium after Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was only the third in the last 19 years comprising three world champions: the new one, Sebastian Vettel, and the most recent two - Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.

Of similar rarity but great significance was the presence of Helmut Marko, accepting the trophy for the winning constructor. It was Marko who encouraged Red Bull's Dietrich Mateschitz to fund the career development of young drivers who could become future Grand Prix stars. Vettel - just 23 years, 134 days old and the youngest to win the world drivers' title - is the product of that program.

Until the ninth lap of the 1972 French Grand Prix, it was Marko himself who looked like a future champion. Six weeks before he had set the lap record on the infamous 72-kilometer circuit of the Targa Florio. The previous year the Austrian had won the Le Mans 24 hours in one of the sport's most famous sports cars: the Martini-liveried Porsche 917K. But at Clermont-Ferrand - while in fifth place behind that year's champion-to-be Emerson Fittipaldi - a flint was thrown up, puncturing the visor of his helmet and leaving him blind in one eye.