After suffering a puncture on the second corner of the first lap, unlucky Sebastian Vettel had to sit out the race on the pitwall while Lewis Hamilton romped home to dominant win. A dramatic start to the penultimate race of the season, in the equally dramatic setting of the Yas Marina circuit, saw Ferrari too coming on strong as Alonso chased hard, but never really threatening the charging Hamilton.

All through practice McLaren looked as if they might well fulfill expectations of upsetting Red Bull, and come the final stages of Q3 in qualifying, a front row lock out for the Woking team looked to be on the cards. Enter Mr Vettel who as usual had a different scenario in mind. A storming last minute lap once again snatched pole from hungry Hamilton, but with mere fractions of a second separating the top three, the race looked set to be a thriller with Jenson Button looking over the shoulders of his team mate and new World Champion.

But come the race start and the second corner exit of Vettel, the race quickly settled into a rhythm with Hamilton commanding the race from the front while Alonso tackled Button in second. However it rapidly became apparent that Button as carrying a problem which emerged to be his KERS system which ceased functioning on lap 15. Despite trying valiantly to keep Ferrari at bay while juggling brake balance and attempting to restart the system, Alonso ultimately threaded his way past the struggling Button.

Behind the top three, Webber tried to get on terms, but having pushed Button for a time, he eventually faded slightly and settled for fourth which by all accounts was pretty much what the team expected. Meanwhile Massa followed home in fifth and once again Rosberg led Schumacher home as the Mercedes team secured sixth and seventh positions ahead of the Force India’s Sutil and Di Resta.

With Kamui Kobayashi coming home tenth in Sauber-Ferrari, that meant NGK spark plugs finished the race with a brilliant nine out of ten of the leading finishers in the desert sands of Abu Dhabi. The season’s finale is now just a fortnight away in Brazil, with Massa hoping the home crowd could lift him to a win, while fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello will be wondering will this home grand prix may be his last?