Kimi Raikkonen won a thrilling Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for Lotus on Sunday with Fernando Alonso of Ferrari taking second and Sebastian Vettel a remarkable third after starting from pit lane.

Red Bull ace Vettel, seeking to become the youngest ever triple world champion, saw his lead over Alonso shrink from 13 to ten points with only two races remaining.

Raikkonen’s win was his first since the 2009 Belgian GP while the Lotus name was making its first appearance on the top of the podium since the late Ayrton Senna’s victory in the 1987 United States GP.

The Finn, champion in 2007, returned to F1 this year after two seasons in the World Rally Championship and remains third in the points.

There was no change to the order of the top five as both fourth-placed Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton failed to finish.

Red Bull’s Webber crashed out at three-quarter distance, caught up in an incident sparked by three other cars.

Pole sitter Hamilton was out in front and in control until his McLaren lost all power and came to a halt on lap 20.

There was a massive crash on the 9th of the 55-lap race involving Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and Narain Karthikeyan’s Hispania.

Rosberg’s car smashed into the rear end of Karthikeyan’s slower car and took off – flying over the Hispania before landing and hitting the barriers.

Both drivers were unhurt.

Karthikeyan appeared to slow down and was not seen by Rosberg who could not avoid hitting him at close to 300km/h.

There have been eight different winners in the 18 races so far this season, Vettel the most successful with five.