All to play for — the three titles on the line in Abu Dhabi

Three championships remain. None of them arrives in Abu Dhabi carrying the same kind of tension.

Ussh has the clearest route: score nine points and he becomes IMS's first three-time Drivers' Champion. Webbah has the least room: a lead that stood at 29 after Japan is now down to two over Kat. Higosh has the most personal fight of the three, with the other Williams 17 points behind and no D4 prize left for the team-mates to win together.

Abu Dhabi can settle all of them. It can also send all three to Brazil.

Division	Leader	Team	Nearest rival	Team	Gap	The Abu Dhabi route
D1	Darth Ussh	Cadillac	PolyTromp	Williams	56	Nine points guarantees Ussh the title
D2	Webbah87	Williams	Kaтю́shа Snowstorm	Haas	2	A three-point swing puts Kat ahead
D4	Higosh!	Williams	JDJT3593	Williams	17	A 16-point gain over JD seals it

Nine points will make Ussh the first

Ussh has scored nine points in each of the last three rounds. Nine more will make him the first driver in IMS history to win three championships.

There is a pleasing bluntness to the equation. He is 56 clear of PolyTromp and 62 ahead of HPJones. Even if Poly takes every available point in Abu Dhabi and Brazil, Ussh reaches safety as soon as his weekend total hits nine.

The title has not been built on a late run of victories. Ussh has not won since Spa. Poly won in Australia, Qatar and Baku; HP won in Austria and Japan. Neither Williams driver could keep appearing often enough to turn that pace into a season-long chase.

Ussh has started all ten D1 races. Poly and HP have started six each.

Driver	Team	Points	Starts	Wins	Maximum after Brazil
Darth Ussh	Cadillac	180	10	3	244
PolyTromp	Williams	124	6	3	188
HPJones	Williams	118	6	2	182

There is no great tale of regret from the challengers. Poly knew before his winning run began that he would miss races. HP says the drivers' championship was never his target in a season laid across the summer holidays. Both can look at their wins without pretending the calendar came as a surprise.

Ussh is frank about how little strain the championship itself has demanded.

That does not make the third crown routine to him. His last two seasons left him feeling as though his pace was slipping while the people around him grew faster. Season 7 has answered that fear. The lead is enormous, but the field has given him races he still looks forward to every week.

Those first two championships could hardly have ended more differently.

Season 2E1 champion

FerrariDarth Ussh283 pts

T

Runner-upTheIceman729267 pts

+16

TheIceman729 opened with Kick Sauber, then raced for Ferrari from Round 2.

Starts

11

Wins

3

Podiums

8

Poles

6

Fastest laps

6

DNFs

0

Title sealedRound 11 · Japan

Entered the finale eight points ahead, then won from pole to finish the job.

Season 4E1 champion

FerrariDarth Ussh275 pts

Runner-upForestalWaif1135 pts

+140

Ussh led E1 after every round and ended the season 140 points clear.

Starts

12

Wins

7

Podiums

10

Poles

3

Fastest laps

1

DNFs

0

Title sealedRound 9 · Spain

A sixth win opened a 98-point lead with only 91 left to score.

Abu Dhabi offers the third, and the same nine-point score that has followed him from Baku to Japan and Monza would be enough to end the wait.

Kat has Monza, momentum and Webbah within reach

Webbah's lead over Kat was 31 points after Baku. Japan trimmed it to 29. The final Monza verdicts tore it down to two.

That is the D2 story now. Not a leader trying to protect a useful cushion, but two drivers beginning the penultimate round almost side by side. The championship predictor cannot split them either: on their recent scoring, it has Kat and Webbah finishing the season less than one point apart, with Kat fractionally ahead.

Driver	Team	Points	Gap	Recent run: Baku · Japan · Monza
Webbah87	Williams	147	—	13 · 21 · 3
Kaтю́shа Snowstorm	Haas	145	2	15 · 23 · 30
Walter9500	Ferrari	129	18	19 · 0 · 11
kyotonic	Williams	113	34	5 · 13 · 15

Only Webbah can end D2 in Abu Dhabi. A full 32-point weekend combined with Kat scoring one point or none would put him beyond reach. Anything resembling a normal fight between them sends the title to Brazil.

Webbah refuses to carry Monza into the next race. He calls it the poor weekend he was due and still regards himself as quick enough to win the championship if he executes the final two races properly.

Kat has no interest in making life comfortable for him.

The second sentence is as important as the first. Walter is 18 points away, close enough to punish another weekend in which the leaders take points from one another. D2 is not yet a private contest, even if Webbah and Kat have pulled to the front of it.

It is also a championship between two Team Principals. Webbah is attempting to complete the drivers' title alongside his final season in charge of Williams. Kat is trying to deliver a D2 crown while running the Haas team she represents. Only Webbah has a team-mate inside the top four, and Kyo has already promised to make the afternoon uncomfortable for the opposition.

Kyo says Webbah will need him at his best, whether that means scoring for Williams or giving the title rivals what he calls "an extra stressful day at the office". Asked if that could become his version of Pérez holding up Hamilton at Abu Dhabi in 2021, he left both choices open.

That could mean defending for Webbah. It could mean taking points from Kat. It could also mean Kyo running his own race in a championship where he remains mathematically alive.

One driver has the lead. The other has Monza, and all the momentum.

Back where it began, with a first title waiting

After Austria, JD was 52 points clear. The championship looked as though it might disappear with him.

Higosh has spent eight rounds dragging it back.

The cruel part for JD is that he did stop the charge. He won in Baku, waited until the last lap to beat Higosh in Japan and pulled them level again. Seven days later, Higosh won at Monza while JD fought his way forward from 13th. The appeals have left 17 points between them.

JDJT3593Williams

196 pts

Higosh!Williams

213 pts

1. AustriaJD pulls 52 clear61–9 after Austria
2. AustraliaHigosh turns it aroundHe takes the lead, 110–108, in Australia
3. MonzaSeventeen the other wayHigosh leads 213–196 after Monza

Driver	Team	Points	Gap	Wins	Abu Dhabi position
Higosh!	Williams	213	—	4	Gains 16 on JD and the title is his
JDJT3593	Williams	196	17	4	Keep the loss to 15 or fewer to reach Brazil
McBeth655	Red Bull	162	51	0	Must take 20 points out of Higosh to reach Brazil alive

McBeth survives on the calculator. Inside Williams, nobody needs one. The constructors' trophy is already theirs; four wins each have left Higosh and JD with only one thing to take from the other.

For JD, Abu Dhabi is a fight to rescue the championship he once controlled. For Higosh, it is a chance to close the circle.

This is where his IMS career began. He comes back four wins richer, 17 points ahead of his team-mate and close enough to his first title to finish it in one night. The predictor backs him to stretch the lead again, although the new game patch has taken away the comfort of arriving in a familiar car.

Higosh is not hiding from what the circuit means to him.

One night can leave Brazil with everything — or nothing

Ussh may need no more than the score he has collected in every round since Baku. Kat needs only to beat Webbah by three points to take the D2 lead. Higosh needs a far larger blow against JD, but arrives on a seven-race run that has already overturned a 52-point deficit.

The maths gives Abu Dhabi three possible coronations. The people involved give it three very different races.

Ussh is trying to complete a return to the top. Webbah is trying to stop a collapse. Higosh is trying to finish a fight against the only driver who can claim the same number of D4 wins this season.

Brazil waits at the end of all three roads. By Sunday night, it may have no drivers' title left to decide.