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25px UAE  2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Race details[1]
Race 18 of 20 in the 2012 Formula One season
Circuit Yas-Island.svg
Date 4 November 2012 (4 November 2012)
Official name 2012 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Location Yas Marina Circuit
Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Course Permanent racing facility
5.554 km (3.451 mi)
Distance 55 laps, 305.355 km (189.739 mi)
Weather Dry[2]

Air Temp 29C (85.2F)[2]
Track Temp 34C (93.2F) dropping to 29C (85.2F)[2]

Pole position
Driver 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:40.630
Fastest lap
Driver 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
Time 1:43.964 on lap 54
Podium
First 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault
Second 25px Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari
Third 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault

The 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (formally known as the 2012 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix)[1] was a Formula One motor race that was held at the Yas Marina Circuit on 4 November 2012.[3] The race was the eighteenth round of the 2012 championship, the fourth running of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the final race in Asia before the teams return to the Americas for the Grands Prix in the United States and Brazil.

The race was won by Kimi Räikkönen, driving for Lotus, after Lewis Hamilton retired from the lead.[4] It was Räikkönen's first win since his Formula One comeback. Fernando Alonso finished second, ahead of current championship leader Sebastian Vettel, who started from the pit lane.[5][6]

Report[]

Background[]

Like the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its white-banded medium compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.[7]

Race[]

At the start of the parade lap, Pedro de la Rosa stalled on the grid in his HRT which caused him to have to start from the pits behind Sebastian Vettel. When the race began, Hamilton led into the first corner, while Kimi Räikkönen passed Mark Webber and Pastor Maldonado to take 2nd. Contact between Bruno Senna and Nico Hülkenberg caused the Force India driver to retire from the race. During the first lap, Fernando Alonso overtook both Button and Webber. Briefly, Hamilton allowed Räikkönen to challenge him for the lead on the straight between turns 10 and 11 as he went off the track, but Hamilton stayed ahead. While this was happening, Vettel took some slight damage to his front wing as he had made contact with Senna while attempting to overtake.

On Lap 5, Romain Grosjean made a move on Nico Rosberg at Turns 8 and 9, but ended up with a puncture on the right front which made contact with Rosberg's front wing. Both drivers had to pit - Grosjean for a set of tyres and Rosberg for a new nosecone.

Four laps later, on Lap 9, Rosberg and Narain Karthikeyan were involved in a collision. Karthikeyan braked due to a steering problem, causing Rosberg who was right behind him to crash into him, bringing both out of the race but unharmed, and sending out the safety car. During the safety car period, when Daniel Ricciardo was weaving and braking, Sebastian Vettel was unaware, and he swerved to avoid the Toro Rosso and hit the DRS board at the side of the track, causing more damage to his front wing. Red Bull soon gave the instruction to fit a new front wing on Vettel's car, along with a set of soft tyres.

On Lap 20, the race leader Lewis Hamilton slowed to a halt as a technical issue with his McLaren put him out of the race. Kimi Räikkönen inherited the lead as a result. No safety car was required as he had parked his car in a safe position. On the next lap, Fernando Alonso managed to overtake Pastor Maldonado with the assistance of DRS. On lap 23, while attempting the same move on Pastor Maldonado, Mark Webber made contact with the Williams, causing him to spin and lose places to Button, Felipe Massa and Sergio Pérez, dropping from fourth to seventh. By this time, Sebastian Vettel had fought his way up to tenth place. Lap 24 saw Jenson Button pass Pastor Maldonado for third. By lap 31, Vettel was up into second, about twenty seconds behind Kimi Räikkönen, and his subsequent pit stop on lap 37 put him down to fourth.

Drama continued on lap 38 as Paul di Resta and Sergio Pérez tried to overtake Romain Grosjean. Pérez ran wide, and when entering the track again, he collided with Grosjean who then collected Mark Webber, taking the Lotus and Red Bull out of the race and earning Pérez a ten-second stop and go penalty. This sent out the safety car once more.

In the closing laps, Fernando Alonso put in quick laps to catch Kimi Räikkönen, as Vettel took advantage of the safety car to close up to Jenson Button and get past on lap 51. Räikkönen, however, managed to do just enough to hold off the Ferrari to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, his only win of 2012, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.

Classification[]

Qualifying[]

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Grid
1 4 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:41.497 1:40.901 1:40.630 1
2 2 25px Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:41.933 1:41.277 1:40.987 2
EX 1 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:42.160 1:41.511 1:41.073 PL 1
3 18 25px The flag of Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:41.981 1:41.907 1:41.226 3
4 9 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:42.222 1:41.532 1:41.260 4
5 3 25px Great Britain Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:42.342 1:41.873 1:41.290 5
6 5 25px Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:41.939 1:41.514 1:41.582 6
7 8 25px Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:41.926 1:41.698 1:41.603 7
8 6 25px Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:41.974 1:41.846 1:41.723 8
9 10 25px France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:42.046 1:41.620 1:41.778 9
10 12 25px Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:42.579 1:42.019 10
11 15 25px Mexico Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:42.624 1:42.084 11
12 11 25px Great Britain Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:42.572 1:42.218 12
13 7 25px Germany Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:42.735 1:42.289 13
14 19 25px Brazil Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1:43.298 1:42.330 14
15 14 25px Japan Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:43.582 1:42.606 15
16 16 25px Australia Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:43.280 1:42.765 16
17 17 25px France Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:44.058 17
18 20 25px Finland Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:44.956 18
19 25 25px France Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:45.089 19
20 21 25px The flag of the Russian Federation Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1:45.151 20
21 24 25px Germany Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:45.426 21
22 22 25px Spain Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:45.766 22
23 23 25px Flag of India Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:46.382 23
107% time: 1:48.601
Source:[8]
Notes
1 — Sebastian Vettel, who set a 1:41.073 qualifying time in Q3 and subsequently would have started from third position, was excluded from the qualifying results for violating the rules by not having enough fuel to return to the pits. However, the stewards allowed him to start the race from the last grid position. Red Bull opted to make set-up changes before the race, which meant that Sebastian Vettel had to start from the pit lane.[9]

Race[]

2012 Abu Dhabi GP Winner

Kimi Räikkönen scored his first win since his return to F1.

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 9 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 55 1:45:58.667 4 25
2 5 25px Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 55 +0.852 6 18
3 1 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 55 +4.163 24 15
4 3 25px Great Britain Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 55 +7.787 5 12
5 18 25px The flag of Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 55 +13.007 3 10
6 14 25px Japan Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 55 +20.076 15 8
7 6 25px Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 55 +22.896 8 6
8 19 25px Brazil Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 55 +23.542 14 4
9 11 25px Great Britain Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 55 +24.160 12 2
10 16 25px Australia Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 55 +27.463 16 1
11 7 25px Germany Michael Schumacher Mercedes 55 +28.075 13
12 17 25px France Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 55 +34.906 17
13 20 25px Finland Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 55 +47.764 18
14 24 25px Germany Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 55 +56.473 21
15 15 25px Mexico Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 55 +56.768 11
16 21 25px The flag of the Russian Federation Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 55 +1:04.595 20
17 22 25px Spain Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 55 +1:11.778 22 2
Ret 25 25px France Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 41 Engine 19
Ret 10 25px France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 37 Collision 9
Ret 2 25px Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 37 Collision 2
Ret 4 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 19 Fuel pressure 1
Ret 23 25px Flag of India Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 7 Collision 23
Ret 8 25px Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 7 Collision 7
Ret 12 25px Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 0 Collision 10
Source:[10]

Notes:

  • 2 — Pedro de la Rosa failed to start the formation lap when a cord from one of his tyre blankets became caught up in the wheel, and he therefore started in the pit lane behind Sebastian Vettel.

Championship standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos. Driver Points
1 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel 255
2 25px Spain Fernando Alonso 245
3 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen 198
4 25px Australia Mark Webber 167
5 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton 165
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos. Constructor Points
1 25px Austria Red Bull-Renault 422
2 25px Italy Ferrari 340
3 25px Great Britain McLaren-Mercedes 318
4 25px Great Britain Lotus-Renault 288
5 25px Germany Mercedes 136
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 "2012 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One Management. http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail/abu_dhabi_881/circuit_diagram.html. Retrieved 29 October 2012. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "2012 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX (Race)". formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 4 November 2012. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2012/881/7179/live_timing_popup.html#. Retrieved 22 February 2013. 
  3. Collantine, Keith (7 December 2011). "United States Grand Prix remains on unchanged 2012 F1 calendar". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collantine). http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/12/07/united-states-grand-prix-remains-unchanged-2012-f1-calendar/. Retrieved 29 October 2012. 
  4. "Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012: live". Daily Telegraph. 4 November 2012. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/9653958/Abu-Dhabi-Grand-Prix-2012-live.html. Retrieved 7 November2012. 
  5. "Kimi Raikkonen wins classic ahead of Fernando Alonso". BBC Sport. 4 November 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20197874. Retrieved 7 November2012. 
  6. "Kimi Raikkonen hopes Abu Dhabi win will boost self-belief of Lotus". Guardian UK. 4 November 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/nov/04/kimi-raikkonen-abu-dhabi-lotus. Retrieved 7 November2012. 
  7. "Pirelli reveal tyre choices for final three rounds". Formula One. 16 October 2012. http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/10/13931.html. Retrieved 22 February 2013. 
  8. Beer, Matt (3 November 2012). "Lewis Hamilton beats Mark Webber to pole position". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/103974. Retrieved 3 November 2012. 
  9. "Red Bull take tactical option of starting from pitlane". Sky Sports (BSkyB). 3 November 2012. http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12475/8223331/Red-Bull-to-take-tactical-option-of-starting-Sebastian-Vettel-from-Abu-Dhabi-pitlane. Retrieved 3 November 2012. 
  10. "Raikkonen wins for Lotus as Vettel finishes third". Autosport.com (Haymaket Publications). 4 November 2012. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104019. Retrieved 5 November 2012. 


Previous race:
2012 Indian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
2012 season
Next race:
2012 United States Grand Prix
Previous race:
2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Next race:
2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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