Vettel finished ahead of McLaren's British pair of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in the UAE to win the championship by four points from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.
Alonso could only finish in seventh having started the day as clear favourite but the Spaniard was let down by a poor strategy and a mediocre drive.
The race started badly for Alonso and got worse. Having qualified third, the two-time champion had already lost a place to Button by the first corner but, at this stage, he was still in control of his destiny.
Indeed, the early part of the race seemed to suit Alonso. Although Vettel was streaking away at the front, his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber was off the pace and in between the two Ferraris of Alonso and Felipe Massa.
The game-changer came on lap 11 when Webber pitted, struggling with his tyres. That effectively killed off the Australian's attempts of landing a first world crown for himself, as he emerged in heavy traffic.
However, Webber did not take only himself out of the championship chase with his stop. Ferrari reacted perhaps too rashly to Webber, pitting Massa on lap 13, and then Alonso on lap 15.
Both Ferrari men also inevitably got caught up in traffic although at least Alonso, unlike Massa, was ahead of Webber.
But the more vital issue was who Alonso was behind. The answer had its roots back on the first lap of the race and Michael Schumacher's frightening head-on crash with Force India's Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi after Schumacher had been clipped by Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
The crash caused the safety car to make a seemingly habitual early appearance and many of the mid-table drivers took the chance to change their tyres in the pits.
It meant Alonso, down in seventh and needing to finish fourth, was behind Rosberg and Russia's Vitaly Petrov in terms of actual track position. Alonso knew a third world championship relied on him making these two passes.
Unfortunately for the Alonso, he could not even overcome his first opponent as Petrov drove the race of his life in the Renault vacated last winter by the Spaniard.
Alonso barely launched a single attack on Petrov and hardly endeared himself to the wider F1-watching public by gesturing petulantly towards the Russian as the cars crossed the line.
Indeed, Petrov drove so well that by the end of the race Alonso's position had deteriorated further as Kubica in the other Renault built a big enough gap to make it in and out of the pits and still take fifth place.
All the while Vettel made hay at the front with clearly quicker race speed than either of the two McLarens, the only men who had been within striking distance.
And so, the 23-year-old German was able without much fuss to convert his 10th pole position into a fifth race win of the season.
At one stage in the season, his conversion rate was even worse and the failure to replicate Saturday success with 25 points on a Sunday looked set to cost him this championship.
But, with wins in three of the last four races - in Japan, Brazil and Abu Dhabi - in addition to his two early-season victories in Malaysia and Valencia, Vettel was able to make yet more history.
He already held F1 records for the youngest man on pole and the youngest race winner, both achieved in the Italian GP in Monza in 2008 with Red Bull's sister team, Toro Rosso.
Now, Vettel has the biggest prize of all and, while he showed throughout the season he is fallible, he is also young enough and good enough to win it again.
PODIUMS
Bahrain GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari
3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
Australian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault
3 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari
Malaysian GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
3 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes
Chinese GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes
Spanish GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
Monaco GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
3 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault
Turkish GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
Canadian GP (Pole: Lewis Hamilton)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
European GP (Valencia) (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
British GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes
German GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
Hungarian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
Belgian GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
3 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault
Italian GP (Pole: Fernando Alonso)
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari
Singapore GP (Pole: Fernando Alonso)
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
Japanese GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
Korean GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari
Brazilian GP (Pole: Nico Hulkenberg)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
Abu Dhabi GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
7 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
8 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
FINAL STANDINGS
Drivers' Championship
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault 256 (5 wins)
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 252 (5 wins)
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 242 (4 wins)
4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 240 (3 wins)
5 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 214 (2 wins)
6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 144
7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 142
8 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault 136
9 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes 72
10 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams-Cosworth 47
11 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Mercedes 47
12 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) BMW Sauber-Ferrari 32
13 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 27
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Williams-Cosworth 22
15 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Force India-Mercedes 21
16 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 8
17 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) BMW Sauber-Ferrari 6
18 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber-Ferrari 6
19 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 5
(20 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus-Cosworth, 21 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus-Cosworth, 22 Bruno Senna (Bra) Hispania-Cosworth, 23 Lucas di Grassi (Bra) Virgin-Cosworth, 24 Karun Chandhok (Ind) Hispania-Cosworth, 25 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin-Cosworth, 26 Sakon Yamamoto (Jpn) Hispania-Cosworth, 27 Christian Klein (Aut) Hispania-Cosworth failed to score)
Constructors' Championship
1 Red Bull-Renault 498 (9 wins)
2 McLaren-Mercedes 454 (5 wins)
3 Ferrari 396 (5 wins)
4 Mercedes GP 214
5 Renault 163
6 Williams-Cosworth 69
7 Force India-Mercedes 68
8 BMW Sauber-Ferrari 44
9 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 13
(10 Lotus-Cosworth, 11 Virgin-Cosworth, and 12 Hispania-Cosworth failed to score)
Youngest winners of the F1 World Drivers' Championship
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) 23 years, 134 days (2010)
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) 23 years, 300 days (2008)
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) 24 years, 59 days (2005)
4 Emerson Fittipaldi (Bra) 25 years, 303 days (1972)
5 Michael Schumacher (Ger) 25 years, 314 days (1994)
6 Niki Lauda (Aut) 26 years, 197 days (1975)
7 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) 26 years, 200 days (1997)
8 Jim Clark (Gbr) 27 years, 174 days (1963)
9 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) 28 years, 4 days (2007)
10 Jochen Rindt (Aut) 28 years, 140 days (1970)
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