There was an end-of-term feeling at the final podium-finishers’ press conference of the year in Abu Dhabi yesterday. And Britain’s world champion, Jenson Button, was the one getting a ribbing from Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, the two Red Bull drivers who finished ahead of him at the inaugural grand prix at the Yas Marina Circuit.

The joshing was all about Button’s apparently forthcoming marriage to Jessica Michibata, the JapaneseArgentinian lingerie model. “Jenson’s getting married so he’s going to be busy,” Vettel, the race winner and championship runner-up, said. Then Webber, who was chatting with his team-mate off-mike, responded to being politely told to “concentrate” by Button by chipping in with: “We were just talking about your wedding date mate — just trying to clear the diary.”

Button understandably gets a little coy when his personal life comes up, but he sparked some mischievous speculation about his plans when he said in the week that he hopes, one day, to be able to explain to his children what winning the Formula One world championship meant to him.

Last night he tried to put the lid on it, but only made things worse. “I’m not getting married this year,” he said, grinning. “Some things need to be kept private and that’s one of them.”

Whether he remains single or not, the 29-year-old Englishman can reflect on an exceptional year. Button ran away with the title by 11 points from Vettel, while Rubens Barrichello, Button’s Brawn GP team-mate, finished a further seven points behind in third. It has been another exhausting yet compelling season, in which Button’s struggle to stay ahead of the chasing pack was often drowned out by off-track politics and scandal.

In Abu Dhabi, there was little at stake with the drivers’ championship settled as the sport confronted its first end-of-season “dead rubber” since 2005. This gave the weekend in the administrative capital of the United Arab Emirates a slightly empty feel as Formula One settled down in the surreal surroundings of the most expensive race track on earth, complete with its own fleet of hotels built from scratch on an island in the desert.

Money, to put it mildy, was no object on this multibillion pound project, so there was plenty of interest in what sort of race the immaculate new Hermann Tilke-designed circuit produced. It certainly looked good under floodlights, as dusk turned to darkness with the colourful blue wave motif on the roof of the Yas Hotel at its heart, the boats in the marina and a few celebrities dotted around the paddock for light relief, among them Andrew Flintoff, Naomi Campbell and Jay Kay, the singer.

The grand prix was no classic and there was some evidence that the layout tended to spread the cars out, much in the way of the street circuit at Valencia, leading to little in the way of wheel-to-wheel action. Whether this was primarily the fault of the track configuration or the nature of Formula One car design was the subject of some debate, with defenders of Yas Marina pointing out that in all the build-up races to the grand prix there was plenty of overtaking.

Button, for one, was happy with the new challenge, describing it as a “great circuit”, but others were less complimentary. One team official merely rolled his eyes when asked for his assessment.

The race got going in front of an almost full house with Lewis Hamilton screeching away from pole on his way to what looked like a certain victory after dominating all weekend in a McLaren Mercedes MP4/24 that would be a championship winner this year if we had another six races. The game plan for the outgoing king of the Formula One castle was to put a marker down for next season, but he never looked as happy as he had in qualifying and he could not shake Vettel. The Red Bull driver had the pace, strategy and car and it was soon clear that Hamilton was going to be caught.

Having emerged well behind Vettel after his first stop, Hamilton’s bid for a third race win of the season ground to a halt early in his second stint when his car developed a problem with its brakes and he retired. From that moment, Vettel looked nailed on for victory as he dominated from the front, trailed by Webber and Button.

The “Frome Flyer” had come to the Gulf determined to enjoy himself and he drove well from fifth place on the grid, first taking Barrichello for fourth and then, in the closing stages, engaging Webber in an absorbing dogfight for second. Both men were starting to lose rear grip and the amiable Australian just prevailed to secure Red Bull’s fourth one-two of the season.