THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAO PAULO, Brazil — Sebastian Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday to set up a showdown for the Formula One title at the season-ending Abu Dhabi race next weekend.
Red Bull teammate Mark Webber was second, championship leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari third and Lewis Hamilton of McLaren fourth.
The top two places at the 4.3-kilometre Interlagos track gave Red Bull its first constructors’ championship.
Alonso was the only driver who could have won the championship in Brazil, but his third-place finish was not enough. He has an eight-point lead over Webber and a 15-point advantage over Vettel ahead of Abu Dhabi next weekend. Hamilton is 24 points back.
Alonso now has 246 points, while Webber has 238 and Vettel 231. Hamilton has 222 points and remains in contention but with remote chances. Alonso can clinch his third F1 title with a second-place finish in the last race.
"In terms of points we are happy," Alonso said. "The championship is very open now. With the win, Sebastian is another strong contender. We will see what we can do in Abu Dhabi."
Defending champion Jenson Button of McLaren, who was nearly robbed by armed men the day before outside the track, finished fifth and cannot win the title.
Vettel got a good start from second place to pass pole pole-sitter Nico Hulkenberg of Williams and never looked in trouble.
"It’s an incredible day," Vettel said. "I had a good start. I saw that Nico had too much wheel spin and used my momentum. There was just enough room there."
Hulkenberg also was overtaken by Webber on the first lap, and then was passed by Alonso on the seventh lap. The 23-year-old German rookie was trying to give Williams its first win since 2004, when Juan Pablo Montoya won at Interlagos. His surprising pole on Saturday was the team’s first in 100 races, since the 2005 European GP.
Vettel and Webber pulled away from the field after getting past Hulkenberg, but they temporarily lost their advantage when the safety car was deployed on Lap 51 because of a crash by Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Hamilton made an extra pit stop under the safety car, but was not able to move closer to the leaders despite the fresh tires.
"I had no grip," Hamilton said. "I feel quite lucky to have finished where I finished. We’ll go to the next race with nothing to lose. We will just keep pushing."
Vettel won the race by 4.2 seconds ahead of Webber and 6.8 in front of Alonso. Hamilton was 14.6 back.
It was Vettel’s fourth win this season, and the eighth overall for Red Bull, which has been the dominant car this season. But the team arrived at the final two races without a comfortable advantage in the standings because of missed opportunities during the season, including driver mistakes and mechanical failures.
"It has been an extremely difficult season for us," Vettel said. "We had people talking us down. It was good to show them what we are made off."
Red Bull reached 469 points to clinch the constructors’ title with one race to spare. McLaren is second with 421.
Webber, who won last year’s race in Brazil, said he was not able to push harder because of an overheating engine, but was satisfied with the result.
"We are absolutely still in the run," he said.
Felipe Massa, a two-time winner in front of his home crowd in Brazil, had problems on the pit lane and fell out of contention early in the race, finishing 15th.
The 29-year-old Alonso is trying to claim his third F1 title, after winning with Renault in 2005 and 2006. He could have won it with a victory on Sunday if Webber finished fifth or worse. A second or third place also could have been enough had his rivals faltered.
"I lost too much ground at the start of the race," said Alonso, who started fifth. "But overall it was a good race for us, being on the podium and overtaking Hamilton and Hulkenberg, which we knew wasn’t going to be easy."
The drivers’ championship had been decided at the Brazilian GP in the last five years. Button won it with Brawn GP in 2009, as did Hamilton with McLaren in 2008 and Kimi Raikkonen with Ferrari in 2007.
The Brazilian GP was marred by an armed attack on a car carrying defending champion Jenson Button, who was not injured thanks to swift action by the undercover police officer driving his armoured car just outside Interlagos after Saturday’s qualifying.
About six heavily armed men approached Button’s car at a traffic light, forcing the undercover officer to take evasive action to get everyone to safety unharmed in what Button called "a pretty scary situation."
The attack happened on the same night three Sauber engineers were robbed just outside Interlagos, heightening security concerns in the country set to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.