Nico Hülkenberg for the Williams team took the first pole position of his career by recording the fastest lap time in the qualifying session.

Vettel thereafter was able to maintain first position through negotiation of slower traffic for the rest of the race to take his fourth victory of the season and the ninth of his career.

This left Vettel, Alonso, Webber and Hamilton in contention of winning the World Drivers' Championship at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

With their drivers finishing first and second, Red Bull won its first World Constructors' Championship since it purchased Jaguar before 2005 since McLaren could not overtake its points total with one race remaining in the season.

[2] For the 2010 race, the organisers installed a 225 m (738 ft) long moveable steel and foam barrier to the outside of the Subida dos Boxes corner to absorb car impacts and drag it along as opposed to deflecting it back onto the track.

Of his championship rivals, Webber retired after he spun and hit Rosberg, Vettel's engine failed with ten laps to go and Button scored no points in 12th place.

[11] Hamilton said he would be satisfied if his teammate Button assisted his title ambitions, an act which McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh affirmed would not occur.

[17] Force India cancelled a first practice session outing for third driver Paul di Resta because the team wanted to provide Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi with additional track acclimatisation in the battle for sixth place in the World Constructors' Championship with Williams.

Ferrari and Williams modified their brake ducts as teams aimed to optimise aerodynamic efficiency in the season's final races.

[22] During the session Vitaly Petrov lost control of his Renault cresting a hill to the Ferradura turn and damaged its front-right corner in a collision with the outside tyre wall.

[25] Massa's session ended after one hour with a disengaged clutch caused by an electrical fault from running wide and mounting a kerb at the Senna S chicane.

[26] Schumacher attempted to pass Jaime Alguersuari's Toro Rosso car on the inside into the Senna S chicane and the two made contact at its apex.

Soon after Kobayashi avoided contact with the pit lane wall after veering out of the slipstream of Heikki Kovalainen's slower Lotus braking for the Senna S chicane.

Hamilton, Massa, Alonso, Petrov, Toro Rosso driver Sébastien Buemi, Rosberg, Button and Barrichello made up positions three to ten.

[1] Williams driver Nico Hülkenberg ran more front wing angle than Barrichello,[1] and used super soft tyres earlier than the fastest teams.

[33][34] His final lap of 1 minute, 14.470 seconds earned him the first pole position of his career and the Williams team's first since the 2005 European Grand Prix.

[37][38] Schumacher in eighth ran onto a damp patch towards the end of the third session to allow the Red Bull cars past and lost tyre temperature.

[38] Petrov, tenth, made the final session for the first time since the Hungarian Grand Prix three months prior and was the highest-placed rookie driver.

[1][32][37] After the session, Buemi and Sutil each took a five-place grid penalty because the stewards deemed them to have caused separate collisions with Glock and Kobayashi at the preceding Korean Grand Prix.

Hamilton, in an unbalanced car, was able to fend off Alonso on the inside at the exit of Descica do Lago turn for fifth and continued to do so for the rest of the lap.

[43] Petrov made a slow start, mounting a kerb at the exit of the Senna S Chicane to avoid colliding with Alguersuari and fell to 22nd.

[43] At the conclusion of the same lap, Button, separated by slower cars,[1] made the race's first pit stop to switch onto the medium compound tyres,[47] emerging in 18th position.

[2] Button's faster pace meant he was followed in due course by:[45] Massa, Barrichello, Hülkenberg, Kubica, Heidfeld, Alguersuari, Liuzzi and Buemi over the next seven laps.

In the meantime, di Grassi entered the Virgin team's garage on the 44th lap to rectify a worsening rear suspension fault.

[47] Liuzzi lost control of his car on a kerb to the outside of the second Senna S chicane due to a suspected front suspension failure.

[1] Alonso managed the wear on his tyres to allow for a challenge to Webber, who was distanced by his teammate Vettel with a sequence of faster lap times.

[1] Not long after the stewards informed the Sauber team that Heidfeld was deemed to have ignored blue flags instructing him to allow faster cars past and imposed a drive-through penalty.

[2] Schumacher allowed Rosberg past after the safety car was withdrawn as his teammate had a new set of tyres and was better able to challenge Button; the two ended the race in sixth and seventh.

"[53] Adrian Newey, the team's technical director, thanked aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou and designer Rob Marshall for their work to the RB6 in Milton Keynes.

[44] His teammate Hamilton commented on his prospects of title success in the season-finale: "In Abu Dhabi I'll be doing everything I can to pull off the win I need, and hoping the other guys hit problems.