Vettel Wins Abu Dhabi GP, Becomes World Champion

Sebastian Vettel won his 5th race of the season and, more importantly, with it clinched his first world title in career. The German drove to his second consecutive Abu Dhabi Grand Prix win in career (this time from pole position) and, thanks to all the other title rivals being lost in traffic throughout the race, he managed to finish the season 4 points clear of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

"Thank you boys. Unbelievable. Thank you, I love you!" he was heard saying on the radio, after the race.

Vettel started the Sunday race from pole position and maintained 1st position throughout the race – except for a few laps spent behind McLaren’s Jenson Button – while everybody behind him failed to live up to the title challenge.

Early pit stops for Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber threw them outside the Top 10, where they began to struggle in traffic. While Webber lost some time behind STR’s Jaime Alguersuari, Alonso spent more than half of race behind Renault’s Vitaly Petrov.

Eventually, Vettel went on to win an easy race, while followed by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. Third on the podium was Button, while Nico Rosberg used an early pit stop under safety car – caused by Vitantonio Liuzzi’s crashing into Michael Schumacher – to eventually finish 4th overall.

Robert Kubica managed to maintain a great pace throughout the first part of the race and pitted late in the race to finish in 5th place, ahead of teammate Petrov and Ferrari’s Alonso. The Spaniard failed to get past Petrov and had to settle for 7th place, ahead of who many considered his main title rival this Sunday, Mark Webber.

Jaime Alguersuari and Felipe Massa completed the Top 10.

With his title, Red Bull completed a season to forget, clinching both titles in play, constructors’ and drivers’.