It was Hamilton’s 17th career victory and his third of this season and although he said he felt “fantastic” he was also pretty humble in his post race statements, saying that one win hadn’t necessarily put him back on track, he felt above all “fortunate not to get into any trouble.”

It was a day when the Red Bull team was less than the flawless outfit we have seen all season; Sebastian Vettel had a puncture which led to a suspension breakage on the way back to the pits on the opening lap and Mark Webber’s first pit stop was very slow and took him out of contention of the battle with Jenson Button for the podium. But he lit up the second half of the race with some bold overtakes as he took on a very ambitious three stop strategy to successfully jump Felipe Massa.

But it was the first time in 20 races that a Red Bull driver has not stood on the podium.

In contrast to last year’s event where there were only 11 on track passes, this race featured plenty of spectacular overtaking throughout the field, although most of it down to DRS. The double DRS zone made things difficult for some drivers who passed their opponents in the first zone and were then repassed in the second.

That said there were a lot of problems with backmarkers costing the leaders time, the stewards looking into several examples with Pastor Maldonado being a leading culprit. He was given a penalty for blocking.

Leaders also lost time behind backmarkers on the way in and out of the pits. Fernando Alonso came into the pits for the second time right behind the HRT of Daniel Ricciardo, which cost him a chance to get close on the exit. Traffic for Hamilton meant that Alonso was around 20 seconds when he went for the pits, with a stop taking 22 seconds.

Paul di Resta, Kamui Kobayashi and Pastor Maldonado all started the on the medium compound tyre, a tactical gamble looking at trying to do a one stop race.

The track temperature was 31 degrees when the race started, similar to the start of qualifying.

At the start Sebastian Vettel, starting form pole, had a failure of the right rear tyre which pitched him into a spin, he returned to the pits but it wasn’t safe to continue.

“I saw immediately something happened to his tyre and I just made sure I didn’t collect him. This is one of my best races against one of the best drivers in the world (Alonso). I feel fantastic,” said Hamilton. “We were very quick and it would have been very close (with Vettel) but every now and then you need a but of bad luck to enjoy the good times. I don’t remember when he last had bad luck.”

Vettel’s retirement left Hamilton out front with Alonso moving impressively from 5th to 2nd on the opening lap, past Webber and Button, who also swapped places a couple of times.

Schumacher and Rosberg had a ferocious scrap on the opening lap, Rosberg getting ahead in the early stages.

Di Resta’s pace on the medium tyre was impressive in the first stint, lapping faster than team mate Sutil on soft tyres by lap 7.

By lap 13 Webber had got close enough to Button to activate the DRS and started attacking. Button was struggling with a KERS problem that meant not only did he lack the power boost it gives, but also his braking was affected.

On lap 17 the three leaders came in, Hamilton, Alonso and Button, while Mark Webber stayed out, but a slow stop spoiled his chances of jumping Button for third place and he fell behind Felipe Massa into 5th place.

Webber and Massa had a double DRS battle on lap 31, the Australian taking advantage of a mistake by Massa to pass in the first zone, but overshooting the braking zone as he tried to stay out of Massa’s way, Massa sailed back past him in the second zone.

The second stops came from lap 36 onwards, with Webber taking a third set of soft tyres, requiring another pit stop to run the medium.

Alonso came into the game when Hamilton lost time behind traffic, but Alonso found Ricciardo coming in ahead of him, it was close as the Spaniard exited the pits but Hamilton stayed in front.

Webber’s bold three stopper called for him to build a 22 second gap over Massa before a final stop at the end. He was helped in this by Massa picking up some debris from a Williams on lap 46 and a spin on lap 50. The Brazilian has yet to register a podium finish in 2011.

“When I was doing the in lap I was thinking this was one of my best wins,” said Hamilton. “With all the doubt that’s been around me. And it’s my Mum’s birthday so that makes it even better.

“This weekend I’ve been clearer in my mind, I’ve had less weighing on me. I was able to drive clearly. In the last race I had that mistake, but here I didn’t make a mistake. I feel fortunate to have finished and not get in any trouble.”

Alonso’s 9th podium of the season means that he is now 10 points behind Button and has a chance to finish second in the world championship.

Meanwhile the only dark cloud on Hamilton’s day is that the gap between him and Button is now down to 28 points, meaning that he will definitely finish behind a team mate for the first time in his F1 career, as there are a maximum 25 points available in the final race in Brazil.

Check out the UBS Strategy Report on Tuesday with a full analysis of how the strategies were decided in today’s race

ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX, Yas Marina Circuit, 55 Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren 1h37:11.886
2. Alonso Ferrari + 8.457
3. Button McLaren + 25.881
4. Webber Red Bull + 35.784
5. Massa Ferrari + 50.578
6. Rosberg Mercedes + 52.317
7. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:15.900
8. Sutil Force India + 1:17.100
9. Di Resta Force India + 1:40.000
10. Kobayashi Sauber + 1 lap
11. Perez Sauber + 1 lap
12. Barrichello Williams + 1 lap
13. Petrov Renault + 1 lap
14. Maldonado Williams + 1 lap
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso + 1 lap
16. Senna Renault + 1 lap
17. Kovalainen Lotus + 1 lap
18. Trulli Lotus + 2 laps
19. Glock Virgin + 2 laps
20. Liuzzi HRT + 2 laps

Drivers Championship
1. Vettel 374pts
2. Button 255
3. Alonso 245
4. Webber 233
5. Hamilton 227
6. Massa 108
7. Rosberg 83
8. Schumacher 76
9. Petrov 36
10. Sutil 34

Constructors’ championship
1. Red Bull-Renault 607
2. McLaren-Mercedes 482
3. Ferrari 353
4. Mercedes 159
5. Renault 72
6. Force India-Mercedes 57
7. Sauber-Ferrari 42
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 41
9. Williams-Cosworth 5

It was Vettel’s 14th pole of the season, equalling Nigel Mansell’s record from 1992 and the 29th of his career.

McLaren had controlled the pace throughout the weekend, but in the final crucial phase they lost out to Vettel, who strung together a perfect lap, with a stronger Sector 1 and Sector 2. It seemed that the McLaren didn’t perform quite as well as the Red Bull when the temperature came down to 28 degrees. In Q2 Hamilton did a best time of 1m38.434s and if he had been able to repeat that in Q3 he would have had pole.

Once again Vettel has geared his car expecting pole position, as he did in Monza and a few other places. So he hits the rev limiter on the straights, but his acceleration out of corners is superior. It makes him vulnerable in the race if another car can get within 1 second of him for DRS activation, but he is confident that he can build a lead in the opening laps to stop that happening.

The final practice session before qualifying had shown that the fastest way to use the tyres was to do a quick lap followed by a slower lap and then push again. The third lap should be 2/10ths faster than the first one.

As the qualifying session started in fading light, the temperature had dropped by ten degrees, so everyone needed to locate the grip and find the fastest way to use the tyres.

They went for the first lap in the end, but the falling temperatures played their part.

“We all feel something (as it cools) you can be surprised either way.” said Vettel. “The front grip is affected, but it’s not the same for all cars, it wasn’t the case for me. As it gets cooler it gets quicker, but then after a break it is hard to read the trends.”

In Q1 Rubens Barrichello’s technical problems continued, sidelined by an engine failure on Friday and and oil leak on Saturday morning he didn’t even get to leave the pits and will start what many feel could be his penultimate Grand Prix in 24th place.

Dan Ricciardo got a career best 21st place ahead of Jerome D’Ambrosio and half a second clear of team mate Tonio Liuzzi. He knows this track well having done three days here last year in the Red Bull RB6 during the Young Guns test.

The second session was red flagged when Felipe Massa clouted a kerb very hard and dislodged a bollard, which lay in the middle of the track.

The cut off for the top ten shootout was predicted at 1m 40.5secs and Michael Schumacher was struggling to beat that.

But the Toro Rosso cars underperformed in qualifying with their upgraded car and ended up 13th and 15th. Also eliminated were Petrov, Senna, Kobayashi and Maldonado.

The Venezuelan takes a ten place grid penalty for having to take a ninth engine in the season, which means that the two Williams cars will start at the back of the grid, a very awkward result on a weekend when they are in the spotlight with negotiations with Qatar over a huge sponsorship and the possibility of Kimi Raikkonen coming back with the team.

In Q3 Hamilton controlled the pace, but his second run saw him fall into the clutches of team mate Button who set an almost identical lap time.

Vettel grabbed the initiative and took his 14th career pole.

ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX, Yas Marina, Qualifying
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1m38.481s
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1m38.622s + 0.141
3. Jenson Button McLaren 1m38.631s + 0.150
4. Mark Webber Red Bull 1m38.858s + 0.377
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m39.058s + 0.577
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m39.695s + 1.214
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m39.773s + 1.292
8. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m40.662s + 2.181
9. Adrian Sutil Force India 1m40.768s + 2.287
10. Paul di Resta Force India

11. Sergio Perez Sauber 1m40.874s + 2.440
12. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m40.919s + 2.485
13. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1m41.009s + 2.575
14. Bruno Senna Renault 1m41.079s + 2.645
15. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1m41.162s + 2.728
16. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1m41.240s + 2.806
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1m41.760s + 3.326

18. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 1m42.979s + 3.197
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus 1m43.884s + 4.102
20. Timo Glock Virgin 1m44.515s + 4.733
21. Daniel Ricciardo HRT 1m44.641s + 4.859
22. Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin 1m44.699s + 4.917
23. Tonio Liuzzi HRT 1m45.159s + 5.377
24. Rubens Barrichello Williams no time

The three most recent champions, the new one in the middle (Getty)

He was also lucky on the day that Ferrari made a terrible tactical error, which crippled Fernando Alonso’s race. They were so focussed on covering the early stop for Mark Webber and reacted to that, bringing Alonso in early, rather than seeing the risk posed by drivers who had pitted under a safety car on lap one. That error cost Alonso the world title today.

At the start Button jumped Alonso for third place. Webber didn’t really try to attack while further back Schumacher got caught out by his team mate in Turn 5 and went into a spin. He was smashed by Tonio Liuzzi, who had nowhere to go. The nose of Liuzzi’s car narrowly missed Schumacher’s head.

This brought out a safety car, under which Rosberg pitted, as did Petrov, Di Grassi and the two Hispania cars.

It was a messy end to a patchy comeback season for the seven times champion.

The race restarted on lap six. Hamilton had to go off track to avoid Vettel as he braked to build a gap to the safety car for the restart.

Webber’s tyres started to go off and he pitted on lap 12. But he came out behind Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso and when Alonso pitted on lap 15, he was able to rejoin just ahead of Webber. It seemed ironic that a Red Bull owned Toro Rosso car would be the one to cost Webber the chance to jump Alonso.

Webber pushed Alonso hard, the pair closed up on Petrov. Ferrari told Alonso it was “critical” that he pass Petrov. Meanwhile Alonso had other problems because also ahead of him was Nico Rosberg, who had pitted under the safety car and thus would not be stopping again. This put him on course to be fifth in the race and thus lose the title.

Hamilton pitted on lap 23 and that forced Vettel to react. He pitted a lap later and was lucky that Kobayashi made a mistake as it meant Vettel could get ahead of both Kobayashi and Kubica. The Pole made a sublime pass on the Japanese a lap later. Neither of them had pitted at this stage.

Hamilton passed Kobayashi on lap 27, but couldn’t pass Kubica. Meanwhile Button led on lap 31, having not pitted yet. We have seen him several times this season getting much longer life out of soft tyres than his rivals. Hamilton was on the radio asking for permission to pit for new tyres as his left front was giving him problems.

Button stayed out and Vettel closed him down. Button pitted on lap 40, dropping back into third place.

Kubica pitted on lap 47 and rejoined ahead of Petrov and Alonso, compounding the misery of Ferrari. The Renaults certainly did a job for Red Bull, their customer for engines, today. But it was all fair.

So Alonso started third and finished seventh, Webber started fifth and finished eighth.

Vettel emulated Kimi Raikkonen’s 2007 feat of winning the title in the last round having been third at the start of the race.

“We have to enjoy this moment. It is our moment,” said Vettel. “I was thinking of Kimi’s situation today. It was similar, but we were in a stronger position. One big advantage with Kimi is that he does his own thing and that was my target all weekend long. Who would have thought that a Ferrari starting third with good pace would finish seventh? That’s how it goes some times. I’m just happy to add my name to the list with Schumacher and Senna.

“The car this year was phenomenal, it was a masterpiece. I had the clear target going into the season to win the championship, I was very focussed, maybe I got a bit tense mid season. But to come back after what happened in Spa and all the bad press I got, that’s when you realise who supports you. I realised that sometimes things don’t go your way but there is justice and today it went my way.”

ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX, Yas Marina Circuit, 55 laps
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h39m36.837s
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 10.1s
3. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 11.0s
4. Rosberg Mercedes + 30.7s
5. Kubica Renault + 39.0s
6. Petrov Renault + 43.5s
7. Alonso Ferrari + 43.7s
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 44.2s
9. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 50.2s
10. Massa Ferrari + 50.8s
11. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 51.5s
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 57.6s
13. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 58.3s
14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 59.5s
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m03.1s
16. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1m04.7s
17. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
18. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
19. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
20. Klien HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 4 laps

FINAL STANDINGS DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

1. Vettel 256
2. Alonso 252
3. Webber 242
4. Hamilton 240
5. Button 214
6. Massa 144
7. Rosberg 142
8. Kubica 136
9. Schumacher 72
10. Barrichello 47
11. Sutil 47
12. Kobayashi 32
13. Petrov 27
14. Hulkenberg 22
15. Liuzzi 21
16. Buemi 8
17. De la Rosa 6
18. Heidfeld 6
19. Alguersuari 5

CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP
1. Red Bull-Renault 498
2. McLaren-Mercedes 454
3. Ferrari 396
4. Mercedes 214
5. Renault 163
6. Williams-Cosworth 69
7. Force India-Mercedes 68
8. Sauber-Ferrari 44
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 13

The Aussie, who lies second in the championship, eight points behind Fernando Alonso, was never really on the pace of his teammate Sebastian Vettel. He was three tenths slower in Q1, two tenths slower in Q2 and then six tenths slower in Q3, when it counted.

“The last couple of minutes (of Q3) were not the best for me,” said Webber. “I didn’t really have the performance in myself of the car.”

Had he reproduced his Q2 form in Q3 he would have been third behind Lewis Hamilton. But he said, ruefully, that” for the first time this season, I looked at the pit board and I though, ‘I can’t do that lap time.’ Everywhere else I’ve dug in and got the lap. Today I couldn’t do that.”

Most of Webber’s deficit to Vettel is in the second sector of the lap, the one which features the two long straights and the heavy braking for Turn 8. Here Webber set only the 13th fastest sector time, three tenths slower than Vettel. He also dropped a couple of tenths in each of the other two sectors. He was slow out of the hairpin, losing traction onto the straight.

But he was also slower than Vettel through Turn 1 all weekend and was expected to lose a tenth or two there. But the six tenths was a surprise.

It will be very hard for Webber to make up the places he needs in the race, not least because Button’s McLaren has a straight line speed advantage.

Starting behind Alonso, he needs to get himself up at least two places ahead of him if he is to have a chance,

“If I finish one position ahead of Fernando it’s not enough, that was pretty obvious after Brazil,’ said Webber, “I need to finish ahead of him, but also if I don’t finish I don’t in the championship either. The script is impossible to predict tomorrow.”

Webber feels that if he loses the title it will not be because of this qualifying session. “It’s over 12 months of hard work, you don’t have a chance of winning the championship unless you perform over a whole season, which I have done.”

One eye on the title: Vettel can do it tomorrow (Darren Heath)

Mark Webber could manage only the fifth fastest time, which deals his title hopes a real blow. He has to hope for misfortunes to the others tomorrow, as starting behind Alonso on the road and with less points, he’s in a difficult position.

Alonso made some changes to his car, reverting to settings from Friday, while Hamilton and McLaren were able to get the maximum from their F Duct.

Despite that, he did not have an advantage over the Red Bull on the straights in the second sector.

In the first part of qualifying, Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel traded fastest laps as the track improved all the time. Even though it wasn’t for position, it was exciting stuff, building the atmosphere perfectly. Alonso was fastest, with the best compromise of the three cars, while McLaren was gaining on the straights but losing in the slower final sector, the opposite of Red Bull. Nico Rosberg did a spectacular lap to go P2 at the end of that first session.

Sebastian Buemi was eliminated in Q1, along with the new teams, outqualified by team mate Alguersuari for the sixth time in seven races. Both Lotus cars were ahead of both Virgin cars, with Jarno Trulli, who is under a little pressure, faster than Heikki Kovalainen.

In Q2, Hamilton had a torrid time, locking up on his first run and then almost colliding with Felipe Massa. He recovered to get through into the top ten.

Eliminated from the top ten for the first time this season was Robert Kubica in the Renault who was outqualified by his team mate Vitaly Petrov, which could prove crucial to the Russian’s chances of staying with the team next year.

In Q3 the pressure really started to show. The two drivers who had least to lose, Vettel and Hamilton, fought for pole position while Alonso and Webber looked out of it as Button was third after the first runs.

But Alonso soaked up the pressure to record the third fastest time on his last run. It bumped Button to fourth and Mark Webber down to fifth, six tenths of a second slower than his team mate. It was a big game moment,

“I took it very calm, the last qualifying lap, I had to stay very calm” said Alonso. “Our main target is to do the best we can. Sometimes we can be on pole sometimes third. If our best is enough we will see tomorrow. I’m confident, I have been for the last five months.”

“It feels good, “said Vettel. “It was a tough qualifying session today. The conditions changed so much between the afternoon and evening. We knew it would be tricky. I did only one run of three laps, but it was enough.”

ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX, Yas Marina Circuit, Qualifying 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m40.318s 1m39.874s 1m39.394s
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m40.335s 1m40.119s 1m39.425s
3. Alonso Ferrari 1m40.170s 1m40.311s 1m39.792s
4. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m40.877s 1m40.014s 1m39.823s
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m40.690s 1m40.074s 1m39.925s
6. Massa Ferrari 1m40.942s 1m40.323s 1m40.202s
7. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m40.904s 1m40.476s 1m40.203s
8. Schumacher Mercedes 1m41.222s 1m40.452s 1m40.516s
9. Rosberg Mercedes 1m40.231s 1m40.060s 1m40.589s
10. Petrov Renault 1m41.018s 1m40.658s 1m40.901s
11. Kubica Renault 1m41.336s 1m40.780s
12. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m41.045s 1m40.783s
13. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1m41.473s 1m40.914s
14. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari 1m41.409s 1m41.113s
15. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1m41.015s 1m41.418s
16. Liuzzi Force India-Ferrari 1m41.681s 1m41.642s
17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m41.707s 1m41.738s
18. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m41.824s
19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1m43.516s
20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1m43.712s
21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m44.095s
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1m44.510s
23. Senna Hispania-Cosworth 1m45.085s
24. Klien Hispania-Cosworth 1m45.296s