Vettel dominates in Abu Dhabi

As the Australian made a slow getaway, Vettel and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg were able to swarm past on either side of his RB9, and thereafter Webber spent his time fending off Lotus's Romain Grosjean (who pushed Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton down to fifth), coping with a minor KERS overheating problem, and then hunting down Rosberg. Eventually he was able to overtake the German on the 20th lap to make it a Red Bull one-two, but Rosberg kept him honest to the flag as Grosjean likewise kept the pressure on the Mercedes. Vettel, however, was half a minute up the road and, as Webber suggested afterwards, "In a different category."

Hamilton, who'd had brake issues on the grid formation laps, struggled behind Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber, Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso and Adrian Sutil's Force India at times when they were out of kilter on tyre strategy, and in the closing stages was unable to pass Paul di Resta despite getting within half a second of the Scot's Force India. In the end they both lost places to Fernando Alonso, who played second fiddle for a long time to Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa while doing a very long middle stint. The Spaniard was on fire after a late pit stop to switch to soft Pirellis on lap 44, and set several fastest laps as he clawed his way up to a great fifth place. He aggressively rejoined the track after his pit stop and passed Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne seemingly outside of track limits. However, stewards decided the incident required no further action following a post-race investigation.

Di Resta clung on to a good sixth ahead of Hamilton, with Massa closing in, while Sergio Perez's dogged pursuit of Sutil was rewarded on the final lap when he grabbed ninth for McLaren from the German.

Pastor Maldonado had an up and down race to take a solid 11th for Williams ahead of Jenson Button, whose McLaren's nose was damaged for the second race in succession by a collision on the opening lap. Nico Hulkenberg should have been in the points but was given a drive-through penalty when Sauber unsafely released him in front of Perez during their stops on the 27th lap. He cut past the two Toro Rossos near the end to take a frustrated 14th, as Vergne's effort to make a one-stop race failed, while Williams' Valtteri Bottas also overtook them by taking advantage of blue flags shown as Vettel lapped them at the end.

Giedo van der Garde was faster than Caterham team mate Charles Pic, who was instructed to let him by, and they took 18th and 19th ahead of the Marussias of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton.

The only non-finisher was Kimi Raikkonen, who hit the back of Van der Garde's Caterham on the opening lap and damaged his Lotus's right-front suspension. As Vettel was making his first pit call on lap 14, the Finn was seen leaving the circuit.

Vettel now has 347 points to Alonso's 217, with Raikkonen still third on 183 from Hamilton on 175, Webber on 166 and Rosberg on 159. Red Bull have 513 points to Mercedes' 334, Ferrari's 323, Lotus's 297, McLaren's 95 and Force India's 77.