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| Post the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix performance, Ferrari F1 team reports its performance and place in the drivers' and constructors' championships |
Two great drivers, two double world champions, both fighting tooth and nail to
secure a third title this year: Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel both produced
stunning performances this afternoon, the Spaniard finishing second in a car that
definitely was not the class of the field and the German, making the most of the
superiority of the Red Bull to come from last to third at the flag. It means that
having trailed Vettel by 13 points after India, Alonso leaves the Gulf just ten points
down. Before this race, Kimi Raikkonen was an outside chance to be World Champion and
today’s result means he is out of the running. However, the Finn took his and
the Lotus team’s first win of the season. In the second F2012, Felipe
Massa’s race was compromised after a spin following contact with Mark Webber and the
Brazilian eventually finished seventh.
Late on Saturday night, the Stewards ruled that, having stopped on track through Force
Majeure at the end of qualifying, Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull did not comply with
the fuel sampling rules and the Red Bull moved from third on the grid to the back.
The team opted to make changes on his car and the German started the race from pit
lane. This promoted those behind him by one place, so that Fernando watched
the lights go out from sixth place and Felipe from eighth. The two Ferrari men
immediately made up a place at the start and then the Spaniard also got past Webber
to take fourth after some nerve wracking wheel to wheel action. Rosberg pitted the
Mercedes with damage and continued, while Hulkenberg retired the Force India having
gone off at Turn 1.
At the front, pole man Hamilton had a slender lead over Raikkonen, who had got ahead of
Webber when the lights went out, with Maldonaldo third, 0.7 ahead of Fernando. Then
came Webber, Button and Felipe seventh ahead of Kobayashi. Coming from the back, the
championship leader Vettel was up to eighteenth by lap 2 and fourteenth on lap 4 and
he was one of the few drivers to have started on the harder tyre.
By lap 6, Hamilton’s McLaren had a 3 second advantage over Raikkonen in the
Lotus, with Maldonaldo a further 1.8 behind, holding up Fernando who was right up
with the Williams. Then came Webber in the Red Bull, with Button still sixth in the
second McLaren, 1.2 seconds ahead of Felipe’s F2012. The Brazilian had a one
second cushion to Perez’s Sauber. At this point, the top ten was completed by
Kobayashi in the Sauber and Schumacher in the Mercedes. Vettel? He was now
thirteenth.
