2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix championship points

2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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49 comments on “2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix championship points”

  1. Oh deer. Alonso really need to qualify well for last 2 races. Bring updates or rain!!

  2. VETTEL so lucky. I feel like he is Moses right now and he can part the sea.

    1. I would mostly agree, both Moses and Vettel have been able take advantage to the max of the evinromental changes around them, Vettel with the safety cars, Moses with a low tide.

  3. KIMI!! WOO!! you can see how much he loves to drink…

    1. Just don’t let Kimi and Seb loose on the fizzy pop or they’ll swear like drunken sailors

  4. Does anyone else agree that VET has been the third best driver in this championship? We all know Alonso has driven like a god all year. But Lewis would probably be leading the championship without factors out of his control.

    1. And without the factors out of his control, it would only be fair to say that LH has had the best car for the majority of the season. Alonso has been superb, Vettel as well, and they have been the top 2, with arguably Alonso being better.

      1. @david-a You mean the quickest car right? And I doubt it has been for the majority of the season. There’s is no way that the McLaren was the best car, the team was horrible in the pits and let’s not start talking about its reliability…

        1. @sid90 – Well, yes, quickest car, then. They’ve had 7 poles (poles being the yardstick people use to say “SV had a huge advantage”, etc.) or 8 if you count the DQ from quali in Spain, so Mclaren have had a fast/fastest car for a lot of this season. But indeed, errors/reliability have cost them dearly.

          1. And in fact, I did say “without the factors out of his control” i.e. if the Mclaren was reliable so indeed I do mean “best car” as well @sid90

          2. @david-a Yeah, no I agree with you, it’s been a frustrating year as a Lewis fan you know, but yeah it’s funny how McLaren have thrown this championship away :(

    2. I’d say 4th best. Kimi would be 3rd after Alonso and Hamilton.

      1. @rits – I’m with @david-a on this one; Vettel’s been the best driver in the second half of the season (his points reflect this). Räikkönen hasn’t really done anything spectacular this season in my opinion. He does merit 4th best driver, but I don’t think he has been better than Vettel.

    3. Were you even watching todays race? Even to go from the pit lane to third (including a change of a broken front wing) in the best car is a remarkable achievement

  5. I cant believe it! Large slice of luck involved in vettels 3rd I feel.

    As a hamilton fan im depressed, that’s 2 pretty much nailed on wins he’s lost because of reliability issues plus the fiasco in Spain when he lost pole (certain he would of won that 1 too) he should be right up there!

    gutting

    1. @aledinho That comment got me thinking so I had a look at what the points table would look like if Hamilton had won in Spain, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. I assumed that he won and everyone who actually finished ahead of him just moved down one place, not exactly super realistic but it’s a ‘what if?’ The top three would look like this:

      Alonso – 246
      Vettel – 243
      Hamilton – 236

      Obviously it hurt Hamilton the most but his mechanical failures plus the team under fuelling the car has actually hurt Alonso as well.

      Also it would have made the championship finish even more exciting with the top three separated by 10 points instead of the top two.

      1. but than you have to add alonso’s points that he lost though no fault of his own, and the outlook would be quite different.

        1. Yeah, over the course of the season everyone has their bad luck and mistakes. I just think from Hamilton’s perspective, he has driven brilliantly this season and it’s come apart frankly because of Mclaren’s team errors at the start of the season (Slow pit stops in several races, under fueling him in spain quali) it must be incredibly frustrating for him. I’d say his only mistake this season has been the incident with Maldonado (and even that is 50-50)

        2. @zimkazimka Adding Alonso’s lost points would make a difference but you would then need to do the same for Vettel. Valencia alone would add 25 points to Vettel and take 7 from Alonso, 10 if you assume Grosjean finished ahead of Alonso. That’s the problem with the whole ‘what if?’ thing I mentioned. There’s just way too many possibilities.

          I checked the Hamilton thing after reading Aled’s comment but maybe one day if I’m bored I’ll look at what happens when all of the top three have no terminal mechanical failures or DNF’s out of their control. I just found it interesting how close Hamilton could have been were it not for a few mechanical problems.

  6. Unless Fernando wins the next 2 races… vettle has this championship wrapped up. Austin is likely to suit the red bulls ever more.

    1. Don’t fret. Hopefully if Hamilton can get a few poles than it could keep Vettel in Alonso’s sight. As we have seen in the last few GPs Ferraris just get faster and faster as the race wears on. Also we have seen, if Red-Bull or Vettel are under pressure they can make mistakes.

      Its still on.

      1. Hopefully, Ferrari finds qualifying pace in the US. They said this updates is big.(well, they always saying it though) If they’re close the gap to the pole man to a couple of tenth, then Alonso can do it.

        1. @eggry – I’m not convinced that Ferrari will actually bring any major upgrades; they just don’t seem to be working. Red Bull will undoubtably keep pushing with development also, so I can’t see Ferrari catching them in qualifying. The race is a different matter though.

          1. @vettel1 You never know tomorrow. for sure Ferrari has gotten better and better except qualifying. the problem is very clear. When problem is clear, it’s way easier to solve than just slow but can’t find anything wrong. However, understanding and solving the problem is very different story from know it. If they can solve it and maintain their race pace, they will be the team to beat.

            the point is, I don’t think it’s impossible even though I can’t say it’s easy task at all. We will see what they can do in qualifying in the US. If they can’t get into second row, then the championship is quite over.

      2. If VET has a DNF then its wide open…. if not then he has the advantage

    2. @aimalkhan … and Abu Dhabi was Hamiltons to win … right until his car died on him. Don’t write it off until its done

  7. Vettel can win this in 2 weeks if he out-scores Alonso by 15 points. So Vettel 1st and Alonso 5th would mean the championship is over. We shall see though. Red Bull will undoubtably win the constructors’ championship though.

  8. Alonso does everything right: finishes second.

    Vettel starts last, hits cars at the back of the grid a few times and runs into a sign: finishes third.

    Does anyone else feel like that isn’t right?

    1. No, because he raced fantastically. Alonso didn’t have to fight anyone really but Vettel probably made about 20 overtakes.

      1. Take the blinkers off.
        It was good but not that good.

    2. He was lucky today no doubt but if he had better luck on Saturday he probably would have won. However if you’d have given Alonso the chance of finishing ahead of Vettel on Friday or even just after quali, I’m sure they would have taken it.

      Red-Bull were lucky and strategically excellent but when all isn’t going their way they are chinks in their armour.

  9. I reckon Sauber should have been miles ahead of Mercedes at this stage, but both their drivers decided to shoot themselves in the foot. Perez with his overconfidence since he signed for McLaren, Kamui with his lack of confidence since his podium in Japan.

    1. I don’t agree on Kobayashi there @tony031r, today he did everything right to get a solid finish, even though the car did not have the speed to do much more.

      1. He did a good job, indeed, but he was well behind Perez the whole time, up until the mexican’s escapade with Grosjean and Webber. It this wasn’t a mental race that took its toll on half the field, almost, I don’t think Koba would have gotten into the points. I can think of 5 retirements that would have classified in front of him, for sure.

  10. With Vettel and Alonso the only 2 folks able to do the title, here’s how they stick up:
    Vettel 255
    Alonso 245

    That’s 10 points between the two.

    The championship leader can always clinch the title at the penultimate round, so Vettel can now. In order for Vettel to do that he must outscore Alonso by 15 points. If he does beat Alonso by 15 points that means Vettel will win countback anyways – so he just has to draw level with Alonso on points. (If Alonso is to beat Vettel on count back, he has to win)

    In order for Vettel to clinch the title in Austin, one of the following must occur:

    If Vettel wins:
    – Alonso finishes 5th or lower

    If Vettel gets P2:
    – Alonso finishes 9th or lower

    If Vettel gets P3:
    Alonso doesn’t score

    Any other outcome means the title goes down to the wire.

    1. It’s possible that any of those could happen, but I don’t think it will given the way they have been driving. This will probably go to the wire, but I think it will definitely be advantage Vettel in Brazil.

  11. Michael Brown (@)
    4th November 2012, 17:04

    Ferrari pulled away from McLaren, and it looks like Sauber will fail to beat Mercedes and Williams will fail to beat Force India.

  12. Yet again, Perez & Mercedes don’t score. Hamilton and McLaren still don’t get a podium.

    All 4 parties got a bad deal? :P

  13. Seriously hope Vettel’s tantrums don’t kill Ricciardo’s career.

    1. Indeed. I’m sure Marko will make sure that they do though.

    2. Vettel later said that it was his mistake and he was just caught in surprise. His immediate reaction was annoyance which made him lash out.. Ricciardo won’t have anything to fear…

      1. He hasn’t been used to having to look out for the guy in front of him

  14. Ten points and Red Bull still the fastest (?) car out there – should be easy for Vettel. But as we saw again, anything can happen. If Alonso manages to finish ahead of Vettel in Austin I think we’re in for a thriller in Interlagos.

    Kimi’s victory almost sealed his 3rd place in the championship, the fight for fourth will be interesting: can Webo get everything out of the RBR and how does the McLaren duo do in the final two races. And Rosberg is still ahead of Grosjean.

    Force India is pretty much out of the WCC midfield fight, it’s just between Mercedes and Sauber now for “best of the rest” title.

  15. Lewis is just having a tepid time, his current car keeps on breaking and next years car is un drivable and keeps on eating its tires.

    1. Can’t help thinking that Lewis’s career is over now that he’s missed out on this year and next year he’ll be in the 4th or 5th quickest car….. he’ll be an annoyed midfield runner next year, fighting with MAL, PDR, MAS, GRO, etc.

  16. It’s almost criminal that Button finds himself only 12 points behind Hamilton. Lewis has obliterated him this year in both qualifying and the races and has shown beyond doubt who is the superior driver. It’s just such a shame that McLaren’s myriad errors have robbed us of a title fight between HAM, ALO and VET that surely would have been one of the best ever.

    1. That is very unfair…. BUT has done a great job on race day… his problem is (and has often been) QUALI where he just can’t get the pace to be higher up the grid. He record on gaining places in the race is better than HAMs and he often has pace in the race.

  17. GO SAUBER!!!

    I’d love to see them beat Mercedes, I think it would be brilliant for them…not so much for Mercedes.

    McLaren are going to be in serious bother from Lotus if they don’t start building cars that don’t fall apart every other race.

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