Formula One:Formula One: Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won Formula One's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina ahead of his team-mate Mark Webber and new world champion, Brawn GP's Jenson Button in third.
The 22-year-old German beat Webber by a comfortable 17.8 seconds in the first race to start in daylight and end under floodlights for his fourth win of the season to make sure of second place in the drivers’ championship.
Button, who clinched the title in the previous Brazilian Grand Prix for his championship-winning Brawn GP team, rounded out his season with third after hunting down Webber and chasing him nose-to-tail in the closing laps.
A mere 0.6 of a second separated the two cars at the chequered flag.
It was Button's first appearance on the podium since Italy last month after a season that started with him winning six of the first seven races.
McLaren's outgoing world champion Lewis Hamilton had led from pole position but the Briton's hopes of becoming the first winner in Abu Dhabi vanished after 20 laps when he retired with a brake problem.
"There was a problem with the brakes, I couldn't stop the car," said Hamilton after his race was cut short. "I was locking and locking and locking and it was harder than ever to drive the car.
"It's a shame as the car felt so good these last couple of days but we haven't had many brake problems this year so there you go."
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, likely to move from Brawn to Williams for next year, finished fourth with Germany's Nick Heidfeld fifth in BMW-Sauber's last race before the German manufacturer leaves the sport.
Japanese stand-in Kamui Kobayashi, replacing the injured German Timo Glock, scored his first points in Formula One with sixth place for Toyota ahead of veteran Italian team mate Jarno Trulli in seventh.
After just two races, Kobayashi could also claim to be his country's top driver with Williams' Toyota-backed driver Kazuki Nakajima ending the season with a dismal tally of no points from 17 starts.
Swiss rookie Sebastien Buemi, a Bahrain resident for much of the year, took the final point for Toro Rosso in eighth place.
The race, against the stunning backdrop of the most lavish circuit in Formula One, was low on thrills or incidents other than Button's determined chase of Webber and Hamilton's unexpected retirement after threatening to run away with victory.
Formula One driver and constructor standings after Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit
Drivers
1. Jenson Button (Britain) Brawn 95 points
2. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull 84
3. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Brawn 77
4. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 69.5
5. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 49
6. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 48
7. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams 34.5
8. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 32.5
9. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 26
10. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 24
11. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 22
12. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 22
13. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 19
14. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 17
15. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Ferrari 8 *
16. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso 6
17. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India 5
18. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Toyota 3
19. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso 2
20. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams 0
21. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 0
22. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Force India 0
23. Romain Grosjean (France) Renault 0
24. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain) Toro Rosso 0
25. Luca Badoer (Italy) Ferrari 0
* Fisichella scored eight points for Force India before joining Ferrari
Constructors
1. Brawn - Mercedes 172 points
2. RedBull - Renault 153.5
3. McLaren - Mercedes 71
4. Ferrari 70
5. Toyota 59.5
6. BMW Sauber 36
7. Williams - Toyota 34.5
8. Renault 26
9. Force India - Mercedes 13
10. Toro Rosso - Ferrari 8