Welcome to LIVE text commentary of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Championship winner Sebastian Vettel having secured his 14th pole of the season.

Hamilton is just 1.9 seconds ahead of Alonso as he pits, and the Spaniard follows him in! Webber suddenly finds himself the leader ahead of Button, and this is utterly captivating!

Buemi wins a little battle as he secures ninth spot ahead of di Resta, Petrov and Alguersuari. Button passes Webber, seconds after being passes himself, and this is proving to be an enthralling battle!

Button clocks a sluggish 1.47 lap and he is really struggling all of a sudden! Buemi passes di Resta with ease on the long straight, while the Sauber pair swap positions as Kobayashi finds an extra turn of speed.

Button reports a problem to his McLaren team while Webber closes on the Brit, and this could be a challenging few laps for him now. Senna passes both Trulli and Glock.

Button is now two seconds clear of Webber in third, while Paul di Resta tells his team that he's losing traction on the rear tyres. Senna is about four seconds ahead of the Sauber pair.

Perez and Kobayashi each pass both HRT drivers to assume 19th and 20th spots, while there is very little change out front with Hamilton leading by 2.6s from Alonso.

Sutil continues to relentlessly harry Schumacher, but the veteran holds firm for now. Kobayashi is forced very wide as he sees a very promising lap ruined. Senna passes Tonio Liuzzi.

Senna passes Ricciardo for 19th while Button is congratulated by his McLaren team for breaking out of DRS range from Webber - he's now 1.7s clear of the Australian.

Webber remains around a second behind Button, while further problems are encountered by the Sauber pair as Kovalainen in particular struggles. Schumacher is under pressure from Sutil in seventh.

Ecclestone comes over to Vettel to console the Red Bull driver in his garage. What does everyone make of Vettel's dramatic start to the race? Will Hamilton now hold top spot?

Kobayashi is clearly in strife as he pits at the end of the lap, while Webber has picked up some litter on the undertray of his Red Bull and he soldiers on in spite of it. Hamilton and Alonso trade the fastest lap.

Kovalainen is up into 14th while Vettel is now out of his car shaking his head and strutting around the garage as he is consoled by his team. Senna comes into the pits like Perez.

Alonso clears Webber and chases down Button on the long straight down to turn 8, while Buemi passes Kobayashi into 10th place.

The Red Bull mechanics take one look at the RB7 and decide that is it for the German. Amazing - he is out of the race - Vettel is gone! Perez pits from 10th place to get a new front wing, while Hamilton consolidates first place as he clocks the fastest lap and pulls 2.7s clear of Alonso! Perez eventually rejoins in 23rd and last position.

Perez is in all sorts of trouble with a loose front wing, and that is a big problem for him. Vettel ended up with a puncture heading out of the first corner, and he dives into the pits desperately to address the issue - what a mess for the German! He just caught the exit kerb wrong with low tyre pressures and it was enough to cut the right rear tyre.

We're underway at Yas Marina, and we're racing! Vettel gets a good start to lead Hamilton comfortably into turn 1, but incredibly he veers off the road at turn 2! Hamilton is now in front, while Alonso passes Button with Vettel stone last! What an unbelievable start to this race!

The formation lap gets underway at Yas Marina, and Vettel leads the field of 24 away from the dummy grid...

There's just five minutes to go until the formation lap begins at Yas Island! Can the McLaren drivers make a race of it by passing Vettel on the long straight in the opening couple of laps before DRS is activated? It's going to be an intriguing start to the race. What do you foresee unfolding?

With Pirelli returning to race at the venue where much of its tyre development was completed a year ago, teams are finding the rubber particularly durable around the super-smooth Yas Marina circuit. Pirelli director of motorsport Paul Hembery said: "I think next season you will not get the whole season run on the soft. We will close down the gap between the compounds and you will see races where hard and medium is used. The data is showing a big improvement in performance."

Lewis Hamilton believes he extracted the maximum pace possible from his McLaren on his way to a front-row start. Hamilton said that while he was disappointed not to replicate the pace that put him top of the timesheets in Q2, that second nevertheless represented a satisfying outcome. "I felt it was as fast as I could go. It wasn't really a great lap, the one in Q2 was much better, but that's the way it is." How do you think Hamilton will fare today?

Can anyone see past Vettel for victory today? Which three drivers do you predict will find themselves on the podium later?