The battle at the top of the table may have attracted much of the media attention but, just as importantly for the new teams, the battle for tenth place was also decided.
The winner… Lotus Racing. Thanks to their 13th placed finishes, Sir Richard Branson will serve drinks on an AirAsia flight as part of a bet between the two airline owners.
Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic, and Tony Fernandes, owner of AirAsia, both agreed that the looser become a stewardess for the day on their rivals airline.
True to his word, Branson will don a red AirAsia stewardess outfit for a flight between Kuala Lumpur and London. Seats aboard the flight will be auctioned off to raise money for charity.
“There has been a fantastic spirit of competition between us and Virgin Racing all season and one of the first people to come and congratulate us on the pitwall was Richard,” said Fernandes.
“We have had this great bet running all season and now it’s time for Richard to start preparing himself for some hard work and the likely pain of a pair of high heels!
“We agreed last night that we will run an online charity auction for the seats on our Kuala Lumpur / London route to raise money for a charity of Richard’s choice and give fans of both teams the chance to be on the flight.
“The date of the flight will be announced very soon and the aim is to raise as much money as we can for a good cause so the discomfort Richard will go through is worth as much as it possibly can be!”
Branson receives his stewardess outfit in Abu Dhabi, made to measure.