FORMULA ONE: Lewis Hamilton took advantage of Sebastian Vettel's early retirement to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for McLaren on Sunday.
The British driver was handed the lead when the Red Bull world champion was forced to retire on the opening lap because of a puncture sustained at the second corner. It was Vettel's first retirement of the season, with the German damaging his car further on the way back to the pits after spinning onto the grass.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso pushed Hamilton all the way, trying to pinch the lead at the final round of pit stops but Hamilton held out for his third win of the season. Hamilton's teammate Jenson Button claimed third despite problems with his Kers system, ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber and Ferrari's Felipe Massa in fifth, with the three battling it out for the final podium place.
Webber had been in third place for a large part of the race but a switch to a three-stop strategy put him back behind Button. The Mercedes pair of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were sixth and seventh, ahead of Force India's Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta.
Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi made up the scoring places with Rubens Barrichello driving from the back of the grid to claim 12th for Williams, two places ahead of teammate Pastor Maldonado. Vitaly Petrov was 13th for Enstone-based Renault, with teammate Bruno Senna 16th.
In winning, Hamilton became only the second man to claim victory at the Yas Marina circuit, after Vettel won in 2010 and 2009's inaugural race.
