SEBASTIAN  Vettel led a Red Bull one-two which secured the constructors’ championship after an intriguing race at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso completed the podium for Ferrari and takes an eight-point lead from Mark Webber into the final race in Abu Dhabi next weekend.
Lewis Hamilton has a mathematical chance of the driver’s title after finishing fourth, but after finishing behind his three main rivals his odds are long.
Jenson Button pitted at just the right moments to improve from his starting position of 11th to take fifth place in his McLaren, but failing to win ends his slim chances of defending his world championship.
Nico Hulkenberg, whose Williams began the race on pole, slid down the field and eventually finished in eighth behind the two Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.
Vettel made a blistering start, getting to the first corner ahead of his fellow German, and he never relinquished the lead thereafter.
Webber, desperate not to let his team-mate and fierce rival out of his sight, managed to negotiate Hulkenberg’s Williams midway through the first lap.
Alonso was not so fortunate, and the Red Bulls built an early lead as the queues built behind Hulkenberg.
Seven laps in Alonso got past to take third place, and the three front-runners for the title were rarely troubled by each other or anyone else thereafter.
Button’s early switch to medium tyres looked to have paid dividends immediately. Showing good pace, he inspired several other drivers to pit, and he surged through the field.
The top three opted to leave their stops a while longer, and emerged unscathed in the same positions.
As the race settled into a rhythm after the halfway stage at Interlagos, Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed his Force India at turn two and the safety car had to be deployed.
The field bunched behind Vettel and some enterprising pit stops from the McLarens got their drivers out for the final twenty laps on super-soft tyres without dropping a position.
But once the safety car went back in Vettel set two fastest laps in a row to re-stamp his authority on the race and quash any hopes that Webber might have had of reeling him in.
Alonso, once clear of the traffic, set the pace in the dying laps but there was too great a gap to Webber ahead.
There was delirium in the pit lane for the Red Bull staff who were able to celebrate their first victory in the constructor’s championship.
But for the drivers the race continues, with a mouth-watering title showdown ahead in the United Arab Emirates.(Eurosport)