Abu Dhabi to close expanded 2009 F1 season

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - The Formula One season will stretch to 19 races next year with Abu Dhabi making its debut as the final grand prix in mid-November, the sport's governing body said on Wednesday.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) published the draft calendar, which starts in Australia on March 29 and has one more race than in 2008, after a meeting of its World Motor Sport Council in Paris.

The season will start and finish later than it has done for 20 years, with the final round on November 15.

The troubled French Grand Prix retained its slot with a June 28 date but there was still no return for the U.S. Grand Prix, absent this year after eight successive visits to Indianapolis.

Abu Dhabi, with a new harbourside street circuit, will become the second grand prix in the Middle East after Bahrain on a calendar that otherwise features the same countries as this year.

The Gulf state will be the only new venue after street circuits in the Spanish city of Valencia and a night-time race in Singapore this year.

Brazil, previously the season finale, will become the penultimate round instead after a Far East swing through Singapore, Japan and China.

UPPER LIMIT