Sebastian Vettel won the inaugural Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi in the UAE, taking his fourth win of the season and the second spot in the championship standings.
Vettel started second in the race and was able to take the lead after pitting on lap 20. Polesitter Lewis Hamilton, who had been in the lead until lap 17 when he pitted, suffered brake issues and retired from the race.
"We had a very good start, it wasn't good enough to overtake Lewis, but I was surprised I was so close to him," Vettel said. "Then, when Lewis (Hamilton) was on the long straight, he pushed a button and disappeared ahead, but I was able to stay close. We knew we were a little bit heavier and we were always able to catch him up, especially in the last sector.
"The car was a dream today. It worked brilliantly on both tire compounds and it was a pleasure to sit in the car this evening. It's just perfect to finish the season in this way on such a high."
Vettel's victory was the third straight win for Red Bull Racing, which ended the season in second in the constructor's championship.
Vettel's teammate, Mark Webber, helped secure a one-two finish for the team as he held off the new champion Jenson Button in a tough battle to the checkered flag. As Vettel raced ahead with a near 18-second lead and running the fastest laps of the race, Webber was able to defend the second-place finish with several stealthy moves on the charging Button as the race wound down in the final laps.
"Towards the end of the race, Jenson was able to close the gap to me and I thought 'this is going to be tight,'" Webber said. "We knew we had a slight top-speed advantage, but not much and I had to make sure I was accurate with my braking points. We had a good clean fight on the limit and the battle was a credit to how Jenson’s driven all year."
Webber ended up finishing just .6 seconds ahead of Button.
Brawn GP took the two spots behind Red Bull as Rubens Barrichello scored the fourth finishing position.
BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld finished fifth in his last outing with the team, while the two Toyota teammates scored five total points with Kamui Kobayashi finishing sixth in his second career start. Trulli finished seventh.
"It was a really good race for me," Kobayashi said. "At the start I overtook (Kimi) Raikkonen and that was important in the end because it would have been difficult to finish in the top six if I had been behind him during the first stint. When I got past I was confident I had the race pace to fight for the points and my target was to be consistently fast.
"I certainly wasn't expecting to be racing in Formula One this season and I want to say thank you to Toyota for this opportunity. My target was to finish in the points today but I am a bit surprised to be in the top six."
Kobayashi replaced an injured Timo Glock for the last two races of the season.
Scuderia Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi secured the last point of the season with an eighth-place finish.
The only other DNF besides Hamilton was Jaime Alguersuari, who mistakenly pitted in the wrong pit area and ran out of fuel in his Scuderia Toro Rosso back out on the track as he tried to make his way back around.
