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Abu Dhabi played host to Formula One's first twilight race with the lights going out in late daylight conditions at 17:00hrs on Sunday and the chequered flag falling in the evening around hundred minutes later. The spectacular 5.554km track, designed by renowned Formula One architect Hermann Tilke, turned out to be a racer's paradise as 18 of the 20 cars that started the race finished, and the fans had their fair share of action as the track was more than conducive for some late breaking and sharp overtaking manoeuvres. Running alongside Yas Island's new marina, the anti-clockwise circuit had many unique features including a pitlane exit which crosses under the circuit and part of the track passing under the Yas Marina Hotel.

With Brawn GP and Jenson Button successfully securing the Constructors' and Drivers' Championships at the last race in Brazil, the two big prizes on offer tonight were 2nd place in the Drivers' Championships and 3rd place in the Constructors'. Sebastian Vettel settled the first issue in style with a glorious winning drive under the beautiful night sky, while the combatants for the Constructors' 3rd place ended the day where they began with neither McLaren nor Ferrari picking up any points.

Lewis Hamilton came into Sunday as the man to beat, having shown remarkable pace in qualifying, topping the time charts in each of the three sessions. The only person to challenge the Briton on Saturday was Sebastian Vettel who though 0.667 seconds behind Hamilton in the final run of qualifying, knew he still had a very fast car under him. The race to get into the first corner was always expected to play a crucial role in the outcome, and Hamilton used his KERs powered Mercedes engine perfectly to keep his lead intact.

Barrichello, who was challenging Vettel for 2nd place in the championship had a poor start bumping his front wing into the Red Bull of Mark Webber, losing a small chunk off it, and in the process dropping a place down to 5th with teammate Jenson Button the beneficiary.

Lewis was expected to drive off into the sunset once he got ahead, but that never really happened as every time he posted a fastest lap Vettel responded in kind. Hamilton's lead never really went above a second and a half, with Vettel taking eight-tenth's off him on lap 11 after Lewis locked-up and ran wide in the triple-right-hander. Three consecutive pit stops for the top three runners saw Vettel come out ahead Hamilton with Webber just a bit behind.

Sadly, the fans were deprived a great battle at the top of the order as Hamilton retired from the race on lap 20 because of a rear brake failure.

While there was plenty of jostling for positions in the lower order, the top six settled into a perfect rhythm by that stage, and despite some expected traffic from a few cars on one-stop strategies, Vettel and Webber looked on course for a Red Bull 1-2 to round-off the season.

The top 8 at the end of the second round of stops (lap 44) were Vettel, Webber, Button, Barrichello, Heidfeld, Kobayashi, Trulli and Buemi. A special mention for the young Japanese star Kobayashi, he had an interesting battle with Jenson Button earlier in the race and showed that he is more than ready to tango with the big boys.

There was to be some late drama in the race as Jenson Button showed that he is well and truly world champion material as he picked up huge chunks on Mark Webber in second place. By the time we hit the last two laps, Button and Webber were well and truly involved in a battle with the champion breathing down the neck of the Australian. However, Webber showed he had enough stomach for the fight and blocked violently to hold off Button to ensure that Red Bull ended their season on a high.

The points scorers ended as they were 10 odd laps ago, including a great fifth place finish for Nick Heidfeld in the final race for the BMW Sauber team atleast for a few seasons to come. Interestingly, those points earned today pushed them into 6th place in the Constructors' standings ahead of team Williams-Toyota!

At the back end of the track Heikki Kovalainen did brilliantly in the early exchanges storming up five places to 13th after starting from 18th after his gear-box replacement penalty. He was however unable to keep that level of progress going, and eventually finished in 11th place one spot ahead of fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen. Tonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil in the Force India Formula One Team finished in 15th and 17th positions respectively. With starting positions relatively far down the field, scoring points was a tall objective, however both Adrian and Tonio enjoyed close battles throughout the race with both Renaults - Adrian overtaking Grosjean on the final lap - and the Ferrari of Fisichella.

File Photograph Copyright: Cord Rodefeld