Vettel fights back

Sebastian Vettel produced one of the greatest drives of his young life on Sunday, starting last from the pit lane to finish third in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and retain his world championship lead over Fernando Alonso, who was second.
Kimi Raikkonen became the eighth race winner of the season, giving Lotus their first win since Ayrton Senna drove for them back in 1987. It was Raikkonen's 19th win of his career and his first since the Belgian Grand Prix of 2009.
But there was another desperate disappointment for McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who had the race in his pocket when he retired with electrical problems on the 20th lap.
But it was Vettel, followed by Alonso, who were the main talking points. Vettel overcame not one but two wing-damaging incidents to his Red Bull and also changed his tyres twice but still managed to get on the podium, passing Jenson Button in the closing stages of a superb race.
Abu Dhabi and Valencia do not have a reputation for providing great action but in an enthralling season they have been arguably the best contests.
Hamilton flew out of the blocks at the start, putting behind him not only the rest of the field but the memory of a number of poor starts in recent races.
Mark Webber got off to a shocker and was immediately passed by the flying Raikkonen and Pastor Maldonado.
On the second lap Hamilton, who complained about the coldness of his tyres, appeared threatened by Raikkonen. But soon he would start to pull away.
By the fourth lap he had got enough heat into those tyres to extend his advantage to 2.3 seconds. A long way further back, meanwhile, Vettel had made light of his wing damage to move up to 14th. Then he went off the track to pass Romain Grosjean, before being told to let the Lotus driver back in front to avoid a penalty.
The introduction of the first safety car, after Nico Rosberg had crashed out in his Mercedes, hit Hamilton, because by then his lead was 3.8 seconds over Raikkonen.
But then a desperately disappointed Hamilton fell out of the race on the 20th lap, immediately after recording the fastest lap. The hugs from the McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh and the rest of the team when he returned to base was a very poor consolation for the 2008 world champion.
Meanwhile Webber was having one of the most eventful races of his career. He clashed with Maldonado when he squeezed the Williams driver as he overtook him – a dangerous thing to do because Maldonado is not one to yield.
Webber lost three places but five laps later, halfway through the race, he had another clash, this time with Felipe Massa. Both collisions were dismissed as racing incidents. However Webber's next clash, this time with his old crash-buddy Grosjean, proved terminal for the Australian's race.
But at the end it was not Webber but his Red Bull team-mate Vettel who was the taste of Abu Dhabi, and the German still holds a 10-point lead heading into the final two races.