Once a brake problem slowed McLarens Lewis Hamilton, Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel had no competition in Sunday evenings inaugural day/night Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A brilliant win cemented his second place in the drivers world championship behind Brawn GPs Jenson Button, who enlivened the end of the race with a superb challenge to the second-placed Red Bull of Mark Webber in the closing stages.
Hamilton led from pole and built a lead of 1.4s when he refuelled on the 17th lap. Vettel was able to run until the 20th, and emerged comfortably in the lead. Soon afterwards Hamiltons challenge ended when McLaren had to withdraw his car after the telemetry revealed a problem with the right rear brake pads which were suffering from excessive wear.
Webber thus moved up to second, with Button at that stage a distant third ahead of Brawn GP team mate Rubens Barrichello. The Brazilian had run ahead of the Englishman on the opening lap but clipped Webbers left-rear wheel with the right-hand endplate of his front wing, causing understeer. Button overtook, and chased after Webber while, at one stage, unsuccessfully fending off impressive rookie Kamui Kobayashi, until the Toyota driver finally refuelled.
In the closing stages Button found the softer Bridgestone option tyre cured the understeer hed had on the harder primes and homed in on Webber like a heat-seeking missile. On the final lap he drew alongside at the end of the 1.2km back straight, but Webber handled the situation beautifully, hogging the inside line and forcing Button to go to the outside where he didnt want to go. They ran side by side for a while, but the Australian was able to keep his second place by 0.6s.
Behind them, the race was relatively uneventful. Nick Heidfeld signed off BMW Saubers tenure as a joint team with a solid fifth place ahead of Kobayashi, who proved to be the find of the second half of the season. Toyotas Jarno Trulli was seventh, two-stopping where Kobayashi stopped once, and Toro Rossos Sebastien Buemi survived a challenge and a brush with BMW Saubers Robert Kubica, which left the Pole spinning, to take the final point.
Nico Rosberg was ninth for Williams with a recovered Kubica 10th. McLarens Heikki Kovalainen fought up from his 18th place start to take 11th, ahead of Kimi Raikkonens uncompetitive Ferrari, Kazuki Nakajimas Williams, Fernando Alonso who took his Renault until the 34th lap before his sole refuelling stop, and similarly single-stopping Vitantonio Liuzzi whose Force India was the last unlapped runner.
Ferraris Giancarlo Fisichella jumped Romain Grosjeans Renault in the closing laps for 16th, and the Franco Swiss driver was so unsettled that Force Indias Adrian Sutil also sneaked by.
Besides Hamilton, the only other retirement was Jaime Alguersuari. The Spaniard mistakenly tried to refuel in Vettels Red Bull pit instead of his own Toro Rosso camp and was frantically waved back round. He stopped soon after out on the track.
n the constructors world championship, McLaren retained third place ahead of Ferrari, while Williams lost sixth at the last gasp by 1.5 points to BMW Sauber.
File photo of Sebastian Vettel (2009) 
File photo of Michael Schumacher (2007)
Seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher together with F1 racer Sebastian Vettel won the Nations Cup for Germany at the Race of Champions on Tuesday. The event was held at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing, China.

The winning duo beat the Brittish team of the new Formula One world champion Jenson Button and three-time World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx.

The individual contest was won by Mattias Ekstrom, former DTM champion, who defeated Schumacher on Wednesday.

Red Bull driver Vettel also won the FIA Formula One 2009 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix earlier on November 1st at Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was overtaken by Vettel after his first pit stop and then was forced to return to the pits soon after and quit the race after suffering a brakes problem.

Sebastian Vettel driving at 2009 Abu Dhabi GP 
Vettel's teammate and winner of the previous Grand Prix Mark Webber came second and the current season champion Jenson Button won the third place on the podium for Brawn GP after pushing Webber very hard on the dying laps of the race with a gap of about half a second at the finish line.


Rubens Barrichello was able to mantain 4th place, having been overtaken only by his teammate Button.

Nick Heidfeld took fifth in BMW 's final race. Both Toyota cars of Kamui Kobayashi and Jarno Trulli also drove the full race to finish on the back of Heidfeld. Sébastien Buemi closed the top eight for Toro Rosso.

Thus, Sebastian Vettel took the second place in the championship from Barrichello at the finale of 2009 season. Vettel claimed he will aim to become a champion next year. "There is only one step we can make for the team ranking, for the constructors, as well as for the drivers' championship, for myself. So there is no question about the target," Vettel said after the race.