Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won the Formula One World Championship on Sunday with victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Red Bull driver storms to victory as Alonso and Webber fall short
Sebastian Vettel became the youngest World Champion in Formula One history on Sunday after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The 23-year-old German led the race from pole position to finish ahead of McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button at the Yas Marina circuit.
It was a stunning success for the Red Bull driver, who came into the race third in the standings, 15 points behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.
However, Alonso, together with Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber, who in turn stood eight points behind the Spaniard, both came unstuck after early pit stops left them bogged down in traffic.
They eventually crossed the line in seventh and eighth places respectively, with Mercedes GP's Nico Rosberg and Renault pair Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov separating Alonso from the fourth place he needed for a third world title.
Vettel therefore ended the season on top of the drivers' standings - for the first time this year - with 256 points.
Alonso finished second with 252, Webber third with 242, while Hamilton ended the season fourth on 240 points.
Although Vettel failed to put a foot wrong all weekend on his way to what was his fifth win of the season, the title was arguably as much lost by Webber and, in particular, Alonso.
The Australian had appeared on the back foot since spinning out of the Korean Grand Prix three weeks ago - an error that cost him the lead in the overall standings.
Alonso, in contrast, came to the Middle East sensing that the title was within his grasp having mounted a strong late-season campaign.
Defensive
That would have been the case had the race finished in the same order it started. However, lining up third on the grid, Alonso was immediately on the defensive after losing out to Button at the first corner.
Fourth place was still enough, but any chance of the order shuffling itself further on lap one was scuppered when the Mercedes cars of Michael Schumacher and Rosberg made contact at turn 12, the seven-times world champion then spinning before being hit by Force India's Tonio Liuzzi.
It was in fact a rather lucky escape for Schumacher - Liuzzi's car hitting his own head-on before landing on top of it.
The safety car therefore came out for five laps and with Vettel streaking clear at the restart, fifth-placed Webber found himself losing ground to his team-mate at a rate of a second-per-lap.
He stopped for hard compound tyres on lap 12 and rejoined way down in 16th, behind the likes of Rosberg, Petrov and Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari, who all stopped behind the safety car.
He passed Alguersuari soon after but stayed behind Alonso when he pitted on lap 16 having brushed the barrier immediately beforehand.
Both drivers also needed to pass Petrov who, along with Rosberg further ahead, were in effect making themselves kingmakers thanks to their early stops.
Alonso lunged up the inside of the Russian on lap 23 but ran wide upon the exit of the corner, while second-placed Hamilton and leader Vettel respectively stopped on laps 24 and 25 - the Red Bull staying ahead of the McLaren.
The pair were separated, however, by Kubica and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, who were duelling for third and fourth places having both started on harder tyres, although Hamilton passed the Japanese driver into turn 11 on lap 27.
With Alonso and Webber still stuck in 11th and 12th places behind
