Kimi Raikkonen will race for Ferrari next season after agreeing a two-year deal that takes the 2007 Formula One World champion back to the glamour team he left in 2009.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Vettel's closest title rival with a 46 point gap to make up, qualified fifth and behind Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa.
The winds of change have swept through Ferrari and even Christmas has a different feel now.
Stefano Domenicali resigned as Ferrari's Formula One team principal on Monday, and the company's North America president and chief executive Marco Mattiacci was appointed as his replacement.
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone expressed disappointment with Fernando Alonso's performance at Ferrari and suggested the Spaniard was looking for a move earlier in the year.
Four times world champion Sebastian Vettel is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season and is set to join Ferrari, the Formula One team said on Saturday.
Fernando Alonso on Thursday refused to categorically rule out leaving current team Ferrari as soon as next season for either former outfit McLaren or reigning champions Red Bull.
Bernie Ecclestone risks losing his decades-old grip on Formula One motor racing this year, when legal action stemming from the sale of a stake in the sport eight years ago reaches a climax.
Luca di Montezemolo's resignation as Ferrari chairman on Wednesday severs an historic link with the company's late founder Enzo and marks the end of an era for Formula One's most successful and glamorous team.
Kimi Raikkonen has plenty of supporters among the passionate Ferrari 'tifosi' as the team's first champion of the post-Schumacher era, and last to date, and his return would a break with Ferrari tradition as much as a blast from the past.
Brazilian Felipe Massa announced on Tuesday he is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season, opening the door for Kimi Raikkonen to return to the Formula One team that took him to the title in 2007.
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