November 02, 2009

Australian Mark Webber rounded out his best Formula One season by finishing second behind Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel at the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Red Bull pair took full advantage of the early retirement of pole-sitting Briton Lewis Hamilton with brake problems on his McLaren Mercedes to claim their fourth one-two result of the season.

Webber endured a tense tussle with world champion Jenson Button over the closing laps but held on to secure his eighth podium finish of the season, which included wins in Germany and Brazil.

It completed a remarkable year for the Australian after his pre-season preparations were hampered by broken leg sustained in cycling accident.

"I just want to congratulate the team for their patience with me at the start of the year coming back from what happened," Webber said after the race.

"It's been my best season and we (he and Vettel) have had sixteen podiums together so it's been good."

The results confirmed that Vettel finished the season as runner-up in the drivers' championship behind Button, with Rubens Barrichello third and Webber fourth.

Red Bull also proved they were more than worthy of finishing second to Brawn in the teams' championship.

In a race that started in late afternoon sunshine, but finished under dazzling floodlights, Barrichello finished fourth in his expected last outing for Brawn.

German Nick Heidfeld marked his last race for the departing Sauber BMW team, which is leaving Formula One, by taking fifth ahead of Japanese Kamui Kobayashi, who secured his first points in Formula One in a Toyota in only his second race after replacing the injured Timo Glock.

Italian veteran Jarno Trulli finished seventh for Toyota and Swiss Sebastien Buemi, who was 21 on Saturday, took the final point in eighth place for Toro Rosso.

Hamilton, who was smartly out of the blocks to establish a solid early lead, retired on lap 20 with McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh indicating his car appeared to have a brake problem.

"I was struggling to stop the car," said outgoing world champion Hamilton.

"The right rear brake wasn't working and it was too dangerous to continue," Hamilton said.

F1GP - Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired
1 15 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 01:34:03.4140
2 14 Mark Webber Red Bull 01:34:21.2140
3 22 Jenson Button Brawn 01:34:21.8140
4 23 Rubens Barrichello Brawn 01:34:26.1140
5 6 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 01:34:29.6140
6 10 Kamui Kobayashi Toyota 01:34:31.7140
7 9 Jarno Trulli Toyota 01:34:37.7140
8 12 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 01:34:44.6140
9 16 Nico Rosberg Williams 01:34:49.3140
10 5 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 01:34:51.5140
11 2 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 01:34:56.1140
12 4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 01:34:57.7140
13 17 Kazuki Nakajima Williams 01:35:03.2140
14 7 Fernando Alonso Renault 01:35:13.0140
15 21 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India 01:35:47.8140
16 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari +1 Lap
17 20 Adrian Sutil Force India +1 Lap
18 8 Romain Grosjean Renault +1 Lap
19 1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren DNF
20 11 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso DNF

Driver Team Pts
1 Jenson Button (GBR) Brawn 95
2 Sebastian Vettel (GER) Red Bull 84
3 Rubens Barrichello (BRA) Brawn 77
4 Mark Webber (AUS) Red Bull 69.5
5 Lewis Hamilton (GBR) McLaren 49
6 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari 48
7 Nico Rosberg (GER) Williams 34.5
8 Jarno Trulli (ITA) Toyota 32.5
9 Fernando Alonso (ESP) Renault 26
10 Timo Glock (GER) Toyota 24
11 Felipe Massa (BRA) Ferrari 22
12 Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) McLaren 22
13 Nick Heidfeld (GER) BMW Sauber 19
14 Robert Kubica (POL) BMW Sauber 17
15 Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) Force India 8
16 Sebastien Buemi (SUI) Toro Rosso 6
17 Adrian Sutil (GER) Force India 5
18 Kamui Kobayashi (JPN) Toyota 3
19 Sebastien Bourdais (FRA) Toro Rosso 2
20 Kazuki Nakajima (JAP) Williams 0
21 Nelson Piquet Jr. (BRA) Renault 0
22 Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA) Force India 0
23 Romain Grosjean (FRA) Renault 0
24 Jaime Alguersuari (ESP) Toro Rosso 0
25 Luca Badoer (ITA) Ferrari 0

Team Pts
1 Brawn 172
2 Red Bull 153.5
3 McLaren 71
4 Ferrari 70
5 Toyota 59.5
6 BMW Sauber 36
7 Williams 34.5
8 Renault 26
9 Force India 13
10 Toro Rosso 8