Sebastian Vettel clinches the title with victory in Abu Dhabi

Vettel went into the weekend only third in the standings, and having not led the Championship race all season, but he set the marker down by grabbing pole position in qualifying, ahead of the McLaren-Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who had just a slim outside chance of snatching the title.

Fernando Alonso, who led the Championship before Abu Dhabi, qualified in third, while second-placed Mark Webber could only come in fifth in his Red Bull. Hamilton's teammate and outgoing World Champion Jenson Button was squashed in between with fourth on the grid.

Alonso only needed to maintain his position and keep Webber behind him in order to clinch the title, but he failed to do the former at the start of the race, losing his third place to Button right at the first corner, and putting himself right in Webber's target.

Going into Turn 5, Michael Schumacher spun his Mercedes GP car, and the unfortunate Vitantonio Liuzzi smashed his Force India right into Schumacher, narrowly avoiding a nasty accident. This brought the Safety Car out as the marshals tried to clear the debris.

Six cars took the opportunity to make their mandatory tyre change during the safety car period, namely Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP, Renault's Vitaly Petrov, Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari, Virgin Racing's Lucas di Grassi, and the Hispania cars of Bruno Senna and Christian Klien. Petrov and Rosberg's decision to pit early was to prove pivotal in the race later on.

The Safety Car went in on lap 5, with Vettel leading from Hamilton, Button, Alonso and Webber. The Australian was trying his best to catch Alonso's Ferrari, but to no avail. Vettel meanwhile was stretching his lead in front, and hoped that his title rivals would slip up.

That was exactly what happened between laps 12 and 16. Red Bull called in Webber for his pit stop on lap 12, and he emerged back onto the track in 16^th place, with the Aussie expecting to make up places once the others have pitted.

Ferrari, seeing the Red Bull change their tyres, followed suit, first by calling in Massa on lap 14, and then Alonso on lap 16. The Spaniard emerged just ahead of Webber, but crucially, they were behind Petrov and Rosberg, who had already pitted and were set to finish the race without any more stops. Alonso and Webber therefore had to find their way past the Renault and Mercedes GP cars in order to stay in the Championship hunt.

But Alonso was finding it very hard to pass the Russian, who was certainly giving no quarter. Out in front further, the other Renault of Robert Kubica was also putting up a fight, against another Championship contender in the form of Lewis Hamilton, after the Brit had pitted on lap 23 and emerged behind the Pole in fourth place.

Kubica had started on the harder tyres for the race, which gave him more reliability and distance, and made it very hard for Hamilton to pass him. However, McLaren knew that Kubica had to pit, and so Hamilton bided his time and waited for the Renault to change tyres, which he did at last on lap 47.

Immediately, Hamilton went on a charge to hunt down Vettel in order to grab the win and keep alive his slim title chances. Kubica emerged from the pits in sixth, right in front of teammate Petrov who had held up Alonso and Webber all race. Alonso knew that he had to make several passing moves in order to keep alive his title hopes, but it was not to be, as Petrov managed to keep the Ferrari behind him in a controlled drive.

It was Vettel who stole the headlines though, as he grabbed the vital victory from pole, and with it, the World Championship title. Hamilton gave a decent fight of it, but could only finish second, ahead of his teammate Jenson Button in third.

Nico Rosberg finished in a decent fourth position, ahead of the Renaults of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov in fifth and sixth respectively. Alonso's failure to pass the Russian rookie crushed his title hopes, with seventh place not enough to negate Vettel's victory. Webber finished eighth to cap off a disappointing weekend for the Australian. Jaime Alguersuari and Felipe Massa rounded off the points scorers in Abu Dhabi.

Sebastian Vettel therefore finishes the season as World Champion with 256 points, a mere four ahead of Fernando Alonso who had 252. Mark Webber was a further 10 points behind on 242, while Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in the standings with 240 points.

In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull Racing completed a magnificent season with 498 points and the Constructors' title, ahead of McLaren-Mercedes who had 454 points. Ferrari finished third on 396 points, Mercedes GP a distant fourth with 214 points, and Renault in fifth on 163 points.