Vitantonio Liuzzi returned to Hispania for the race, having been replaced by Narain Karthikeyan for the Indian Grand Prix to make way for him to drive in front of his home crowd.

[3] Williams driver Pastor Maldonado took a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding his engine quota for the season.

The first practice session saw Jenson Button set the fastest lap time, one tenth of a second ahead of Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.

Qualifying began with dusk approaching in Abu Dhabi, with Vettel looking to equal Nigel Mansell's record of 14 poles in a season.

In the first session Rubens Barrichello had an oil leak, therefore unable to set a lap time, but was allowed to race.

In the second qualifying session, which took place as the sun went down, there was a red flag mid way, due to a loose bollard, which Massa drove over but escaped without damage.

Vettel led into the first corner, but an unexplained puncture on his right rear tyre caused him to spin off the track at Turn 2 and suffer his first retirement of the season.

He was followed by Felipe Massa, the two Mercedes, the two Force Indias, and the two Saubers - with Kobayashi taking the final point and Pérez missing out in eleventh.