The 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (formally the 2012 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 4 November 2012 at the Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It was the eighteenth round of the 2012 Formula One season and the fourth Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The 55-lap race was won by Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen after starting from fourth position. Fernando Alonso finished second in a Ferrari with his championship rival Sebastian Vettel third for Red Bull, having started from the pit lane.
The victory was Räikkönen's first of the season, his first since he returned to Formula One at the start of the year, and his first since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. It was the first time a Lotus had won a race since Ayrton Senna's victory in Detroit in 1987. Räikkönen's radio communications during the race were widely reported, particularly his comment to his engineer on lap 23: "Just leave me alone, I know what to do."
Despite winning the race, Räikkönen was mathematically eliminated from championship contention alongside both Webber and pole-sitter Hamilton. Räikkönen amassed a total of 198 points, but his deficit towards championship leader Vettel of 57 points was too large to catch up, considering that a maximum of only 50 points could have been awarded for the final two races of the season. Meanwhile, Alonso's second place allowed him to reduce Vettel's lead in the World Drivers' Championship to ten points. In the Constructors' Championship, the result also saw third-placed McLaren let their title hopes slip away, meaning that Red Bull and Ferrari were left as remaining contenders for the Constructors' title. The result allowed Ferrari to narrow the gap to the leaders to 82 points, but Red Bull had the opportunity to clinch the title at the next round in Austin, needing just four more for their third title (overall and consecutively).
Background Heading into the eighteenth race of the season, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel led the Drivers' Championship with 240 points, ahead of championship rival Fernando Alonso on 227 points and Kimi Räikkönen with 173. Vettel's teammate Mark Webber was in fourth place on 167 points and Lewis Hamilton was a close fifth on 165 points. Red Bull were leading the Constructors' Championship with 407 points; Ferrari (316 points) and McLaren (306) were vying for second place. Lotus were fourth on 288 points and Mercedes were a further one-hundred and fifty two points adrift in fifth. The championship had so far been tumultuous, with seven different drivers winning the first seven races of the season. Räikkonen, his Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean, along with Sergio Pérez and Felipe Massa had finished in second and both Michael Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi had finished in third.
After finishing in second place behind Vettel in the Indian Grand Prix Alonso stated it was crucial that he stayed within reach of the Red Bull team and hoped his Ferrari team would finish strongly and not become inflicted with mechanical failures. Despite winning the last four Grands Prix Vettel felt that his lead in the Drivers' Championship remained "vulnerable" and did not believe his Red Bull team had proven themselves as the fastest in the field.
Some teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event. Williams drivers Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado tested a new front wing during the Friday practice sessions which had three small flaps on its upper section but opted to run an older specification for qualifying and the race. Ferrari introduced upgrades for the F2012 as part of a strategy to remain in contention for the championship. The upgrades included a new front wing with updated main planes, flaps, and endplates, along with a revised front wing design. Additionally, the car's forward bargeboards were modified. Ferrari were allowed to break one of their four allocated curfews on the Thursday night before the race to allow mechanics to fit the updates onto the team's car. The team broke their second curfew one day later when a team member walked into the Ferrari garage early by mistake and did not work on both cars. Mercedes continued to evaluate a new "double DRS" system. Force India introduced a new chassis for Paul di Resta who had struggled with handling issues with his previous monocoque. Caterham revised their chassis which had modified exhausts, bodywork, new front brake ducts, revisions to their floor, diffuser and front wing to stay with Marussia in their battle for tenth place in the Constructors' Championship.
Practice and qualifying Conditions were hot and dry for the Friday practice sessions with air and track temperatures falling as sunset emerged meaning lap times were faster in the evening. Drivers had to cope with a tailwind between turns eight and nine. Hamilton set the pace in the first practice session with a lap of one minute and 43.285 seconds on medium compound tyres, three-tenths of a second quicker than teammate Jenson Button in second. Vettel was third fastest with his Red Bull teammate Webber in fifth; they were sandwiched by Alonso. Michael Schumacher, Maldonado, Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas and Räikkönen rounded out the top ten fastest drivers of the session. Pérez ran wide at the pit lane entry onto the run-off area whilst turning right and attempting a full-speed race entry but avoided contact with the barriers with twelve minutes of the session remaining. In the second practice session, Vettel set the fastest lap of the day with a time of one minute and 41.751 seconds which was recorded late in the session; Hamilton finished with the second-fastest time and traded the fastest lap with Vettel. His teammate Button was third quickest, with Webber fourth despite losing time towards the end of the ninety-minute period with a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) cooling leak. Grosjean was fifth and his Lotus teammate Räikkönen took sixth. The two Ferrari drivers were seventh and eighth (with Alonso ahead of Massa). Maldonado and Pérez followed in the top ten.
Conditions remained hot and dry for the Saturday afternoon practice session. Hamilton set the fastest lap of the third session at one minute and 42.130 seconds on soft compound tyres, nearly three-tenths of a second faster than teammate Button. Vettel was in his garage for fifty-five minutes because his mechanics rectified a problem with his brake callipers; he managed to do one flying lap with the fastest time in the track's second sector to secure the third quickest-time overall. Vettel's time meant his teammate Webber was fourth and Nico Hülkenberg fifth. Grosjean was sixth in the faster of the two Lotus cars despite losing track time as his brakes were bled in the pit lane. Maldonado took seventh having led the timesheets early in the session. Alonso, Räikkönen and di Resta completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. At the end of the session, Webber was driving slowly into the pit lane when Räikkönen closed towards the Red Bull driver who took evasive action to avoid a collision.
The qualifying session was held on Saturday evening. The conditions were hot; the air temperature was between and the track temperature was . Hamilton set the fastest time in all three sessions and clinched his sixth pole position of the season with a lap of one minute and 40.630 seconds. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Webber who recorded a time three-tenths of a second off Hamilton's pace. Vettel secured third position but was ordered by Red Bull via radio to stop on his in-lap because his car was running low on fuel. Officials from Formula One's governing body the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile were unable to extract a one-litre fuel sample required for analysis and Vettel was moved to the back of the grid. As a result, every driver who qualified behind Vettel was promoted one position. Maldonado inherited third and avoided elimination in the second part of qualifying and adjusted his balance for the final part of the session. Räikkönen started fourth and said his qualifying session was "good".
Qualifying classification Driver Constructor Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 1 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:41.497 1:40.901 1:40.630 1 2 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:41.933 1:41.277 1:40.978 2 3 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:41.981 1:41.907 1:41.226 3 4 9 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:42.222 1:41.532 1:41.260 4 5 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:42.342 1:41.873 1:41.290 5 6 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:41.939 1:41.514 1:41.582 6 7 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:41.926 1:41.698 1:41.603 7 8 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:41.974 1:41.846 1:41.723 8 9 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:42.046 1:41.620 1:41.778 9 10 12 Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:42.579 1:42.019 10 11 15 Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:42.624 1:42.084 11 12 11 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:42.572 1:42.218 12 13 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:42.735 1:42.289 13 14 19 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1:43.298 1:42.330 14 15 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:43.582 1:42.606 15 16 16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:43.280 1:42.765 16 17 17 Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:44.058 17 18 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:44.956 18 19 25 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:45.089 19 20 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1:45.151 20 21 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:45.426 21 22 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:45.766 22 23 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:46.382 23 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:42.160 1:41.511 1:41.073PL107% time: 1:48.601Source: Notes – 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, violating parc fermé regulations, which meant that Sebastian Vettel had to start from the pit lane.
Race
The race started at 17:00 GST (UTC+4). The conditions on the grid were dry before the race; the air temperature ranged between and the track temperature was between . Most of the drivers started on the soft compound tyres with Vettel, Schumacher and Senna starting on medium compound tyres. Red Bull elected to start Vettel in the pit lane after taking his car out of parc fermé and changed his gear ratios along with his suspension as well as the creation of a low-drag aerodynamic setup to allow overtaking easier for the driver. de la Rosa did the same when a thread on a rear tyre blanket got tangled on his car at the start of the formation lap. As the five red lights went out to signal the start of the race, Hamilton maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first corner. Räikkönen made a quick start and passed Webber and Maldonado to run in second. Force India teammates Hülkenberg and di Resta, along with Grosjean and Senna tangled heading into the first corner. Hülkenberg was forced to retire, while di Resta and Grosjean pitted at the end of the first lap for repairs; Grosjean for a replacement for a right-front punctured tyre. Alonso made a good start when he passed Button and overtook Webber after he got a run on the Red Bull after leaving turn nine. At the completion of the first lap, Hamilton led from Räikkönen, Maldonado, Alonso, Webber, Button, Massa, Kobayashi, Pérez, Schumacher, Ricciardo, Rosberg, Vergne, Glock, Kovalainen, Petrov, Pic, Karthikeyan, Senna, Vettel, de la Rosa, Grosjean and di Resta.