Vettel wins race and world championship at Abu Dhabi

F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit

Sebastian Vettel has done what he needed to. He stuck his head down, gave it all and won the race. Ferrari's terrible strategy and McLaren's good form here have given him the world championship, well deserved. Lewis Hamilton is second, Jenson Button third.

It's 3 past the hour, and the lights go out for the ultimate race of the year. 4 title contenders, a lowering sun and Vettel on pole is the ideal setting for the championship decider.

Vettel made a great start, keeping his lead ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso had a pretty terrible start and saw Button pass quickly to third place. Alonso managed to keep the advantage on Webber, who is now right behind him.

At turn 5, Schumacher is in close battle with Barrichello, both sticking on the inside on the approach of the turn. Upon the accelleration out of that corner through, Schumacher lost the rear end and spun, standing in the middle of the track and with the nose in the wrong direction. Initially everybody managed to avoid him, but Liuzzi eventually crashed onto the Mercedes GP. Both cars were obviously ruined, and Schumacher luckily escaped injury as the Force India's front left tyre just nealy missed Schumacher's helmet.

The event brings out the safety car, and all cars are allowed to take the shortcut around turn 5 to be able to avoid the car stack.

After lap 1, many drivers immediately chose to dive into the pitlane to change tyre compounds. Among them are Rosberg and Petrov.

At the end of lap 5 the safety car leaves the track and the racing is on again. The release didn't invoke position changes, apart from Kubica's move on Sutil on the outside of turn 5.

The first laps after the safety car, Vettel is giving it all and pulling away from the rest of the field. Lewis Hamilton can more or less keep up the pace, but Button is falling away rapidly, and Alonso even more so. Webber is not even threatening Alonso, and Massa is right behind the Red Bull as well.

On lap 9 Webber actually shows how much he is struggling for pace as he touched the armco with the right rear tyre. Spark were flying off, but is looks like he didn't really damage his car.

On lap 12 Webber is already piting and is slipping through the tunnel on the way back to the track. He took on the primes and rejoins the track back in 16th position. Vettel meanwhile is also losing pace and has got company of Hamilton. The McLaren is now within 0.9s of the leading Red Bull.

One possible explanation for the difficulty at Red Bull is their double qualifying laps in Q3 on the option tyres. Those are the same tyres as they are running on since the start. The McLarens and Ferraris on the other hand only did a single flying lap on those tyres.

On lap 14 Massa also pits to cover Webber's stop, but a small delay during the pitstop put Massa behind Webber where they had hoped to jump Webber at the stop.

On lap 16 it's Alonso who takes he pitstop, rejoining the track right ahead of Webber after the latter just set the fastest lap.

Webber meanwhile is out of reach of Massa. Toro Rosso driver Alguersuari easily let Webber pass by on the straight, but Massa is still behind the Spaniard at lap 18.

On lap 19 Vettel is asked to look after his tyres as the team is looking to go a bit longer with him on the options. The German again pulled away a bit from Hamilton. The two of them need to continue a bit longer in order to be able to stay ahead of Hulkenberg and Petrov.

By lap 21 Alonso has come up behind Petrov, a man who is on primes as well but he has already made a stop during the first safety car. Rosberg is a problem for Alonso as well, as the Mercedes GP is running ahead of Hulkenberg and also has already stopped early on during the safety car period. It is crucial for Alonso to pass all three cars ahead of him, because at the moment the championship is slipped through the Spaniard's hands.

On lap 24 Alonso attempts an overtake but only just manages to avoid a collision. He stays ahead of Webber through.

At the same time Hamilton pits are joined behind Kubica and ahead of Rosberg. One lap later Vettel pits to cover Hamilton. He was 1.8s ahead of the Briton before the stop. Critically, Vettel comes out ahead of Kobayashi and Kubica.

Half a lap later Kubica manages to pass Kobayashi but Lewis Hamilton is still stuck behind the duo. One lap later Hamilton passes Kobayashi, but his struggle with these cars might cost him second place in this race, as Button is still lapping quickly.

On lap 29, past the halfway mark, Button has a 13s cushion on Vettel but the McLaren driver still has to make his mandatory pitstop. Kubica is a further 5s down and is less than a second ahead of Hamilton.

On lap 32 Hamilton is still stuck behind Kubica, but he already hinted to his team that his front left tyre is in terrible condition and might have to pit again. McLaren reponded however that they cannot afford another pitstop at this time.

On lap 37 Hulkenberg gets away from Petrov as he makes his stop. Button does the same on lap 39.

On lap 41, Vettel is therefore comfortably leading Kubica by 12 seconds. Hamilton is still stuck behind the Renault, with Button now 4th. Sutil is 5th but needs to stop, 6th is Rosberg, 7th Petrov and 8th Alonso.

Lap 47, with 8 laps to go, Kubica pits and rejoins the track still comfortably ahead of his teammate Petrov. This means that Alonso now has to pass first Petrov, then Kubica and then Rosberg.

One lap from the end, Trulli suddenly loses his rear wing, piece by piece. First the top panel let go, then the lower panel and the endplates. No problems though for the other drivers, despite the debris the Lotus left on track.

In any case, Vettel wins the championship after a great season, a great start, difficult mid-season and a nearly perfect ending. The Red Bull RB6 was good enough after all!