Puncture puts Vettel out

Sebastian Vettel suffered the first retirement of his epic season which left him thumping the steering wheel of his Red Bull in frustration.

With the sun beginning to set over the Yas Marina Circuit ahead of the 55-lap Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Vettel made the perfect start from the record-equalling 14th pole position this year.

But then out of the blue, Vettel sustained a puncture to his right rear tyre heading into turn two, sending the double world champion spinning off the track and onto the grass.

Within seconds the remainder of the field filed past the stricken car that eventually made it back to the pits, only for the damage to the wheel rim to be too great for a new tyre to be fitted.

It meant that after six laps Lewis Hamilton led in his McLaren by 2.7seconds to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who had passed Jenson Button on the long back straight on lap one.

Button was followed by the now lone Red Bull of Mark Webber, with Felipe Massa fifth in his Ferrari, and the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher sixth and seventh.

The Force India pairing of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta were running eighth and ninth, the latter 21.5secs down on Hamilton.