Abu Dhabi: Kimi Raikkonen wins classic ahead of Fernando Alonso

Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel held on to his championship lead despite starting from the pit lane.

Raikkonen inherited the lead when Lewis Hamilton's McLaren retired.

Vettel fought back up through the field, benefited from a safety car period that wiped out early errors, to finish third behind title rival Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

Alonso has narrowed Vettel's lead to 10 points with two races to go.

In a thrilling, nail-biting, incident-packed race that belied the Yas Marina track's reputation, Hamilton initially looked set to take a dominant win.

The McLaren driver led away from pole and, apart from a brief scare when he made a mistake while struggling to warm up his tyres in the early laps and had to fight off an attack from Raikkonen, appeared in control.

Hamilton was in the region of half a second a lap quicker than Raikkonen behind him when his car ground to a halt on lap 20 of 55. The problem was later found to be a fuel-pump failure, continuing a dismal run of reliability from McLaren in recent races.

That left Raikkonen in the lead, and he appeared in control, edging away from Alonso, who had passed Williams's Pastor Maldonado to take second place on the lap Hamilton retired.

Abu Dhabi Top 10 Results

1 Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus 1:45:58.667

2 Fernando Alonso - Ferrari +0.852

3 Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull +4.163

4 Jenson Button - McLaren +7.787

5 Pastor Maldonado - Williams +13.007

6 Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber +20.076

7 Felipe Massa - Ferrari +22.896

8 Bruno Senna - Williams +23.542

9 Paul di Resta - Force India +24.160

10 Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso +27.463

- BBC.co.uk