2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix result

2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Pos#DriverCarLapsGapDifferenceReason
19Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault55
25Fernando AlonsoFerrari550.8520.852
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault554.1633.311
43Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes557.7873.624
518Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault5513.0075.220
614Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari5520.0767.069
76Felipe MassaFerrari5522.8962.820
819Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault5523.5420.646
911Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes5524.1600.618
1016Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari5527.4633.303
117Michael SchumacherMercedes5528.0750.612
1217Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari5534.9066.831
1320Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault5547.76412.858
1424Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth5556.4738.709
1515Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari5556.7680.295
1621Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault5564.5957.827
1722Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth5571.7787.183
Not classified
25Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth4114 laps14 lapsEngine
10Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault3718 laps4 lapsAccident
2Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault3718 laps1.729Accident
4Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1936 laps18 lapsFuel pressure
23Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth748 laps12 lapsAccident
8Nico RosbergMercedes748 laps2.074Accident
12Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes055 laps7 lapsAccident

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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48 comments on “2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix result”

  1. Kimi wins first race since comeback, but doesn’t get to celebrate with champagne.

    1. He drank it all.

    2. I noted the same on Facebook before seeing yours and it is currently getting the likes. :D

  2. Fantastic, well deserved win for Kimi and the Enstone boys.
    And a great recovery drive from Vettel.
    Caterham jump ahead of Marussia again.

    Hamilton DNF though… grr! Haha.

    1. No infact, it’s the same because Glock got a 12th place in Singapore so Caterham need to match that with at least one 12th place and then they will have more 13th places and so then they will get ahead of Marussia but not after this race!

      1. Just came back to correct that mistake, I thought the key result was a 14th for Marussia in Singapore, but yeah, it was 12th.

  3. Those were champions’ drive from Kimi, Alonso, Vettel. It’s shame Hamilton, Webber, Massa were a bit unlucky especially Hamilton. Good to see Kimi wins again. Aloso, Vettel, Kimi did all they can do. Button was good but not that impressive as three. Good to see Vettel fight through whole race but also he was a bit lucky with septup change and 2 SC. Still I have to admit he did very well. as Alons fan, this is quite bitter sweet. I really hope Ferrari brings good qualifying updates in USA so could fight with Vettel close.

    1. ruth517 (@spanishconnection)
      4th November 2012, 16:27

      This is why Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mclaren. He was gutted. He dominated the whole race weekend and then gets zilch! This team is incompetent. They manage to shoot themselves in the foot all the time. Get out of there Lewis you deserve better!

      1. Yes Hamilton does deserve better, but he does not go to such a place. He goes to a team that – apart from one gimmick in the first half of 2009 – consistently battled for staying midfield.

  4. Nick Jarvis (@)
    4th November 2012, 15:08

    HAHA! at vettel! firstly saying ‘we managed not to **** it up’ then proceeding to pour rose water on Coulthard’s head!

  5. Mclaren can go peep themselves

  6. Great drive from Vettel.

    It is easy to say that he benefited from the Safety Car. But don’t forget that after the first safety car, he was 21st and before the second safety car, he was 4th. While making up 17 places, he also made one pit stop as did everyone else.

    1. not just SC. Many drivers could have been able to make him stuck behind made too much error and open door to him. without doubt he drove very well though but if this is usual Abu Dhabi, Vettel’s maximum would be 6th.

      1. Vettel gained only one place – Massa – because of the Webber-Massa incident. All other incidents – Maldonado-Webber, Perez-Webber-Grosjean – did not benefit Vettel as he was already ahead of them.

        Like I mentioned above, without the second safety car, he was still finishing 4th. Without the 1st safety car, he was 6th like you said. Is last to 6th in a race with no safety cars and a track that is difficult to overtake bad? Just accept it! Vettel drove magnificently today. Even Alonso would have been proud of such a drive.

        1. davidnotcoulthard
          4th November 2012, 15:42

          Perez-Webber-Grosjean – did not benefit Vettel as he was already ahead of them.

          It brought out the 2nd Safety Car period so I can’t agree 100% with you.

          1. And that 2nd safety car helped him gain just 1 position later on – Button. Vettel would have still come last to 4th without that. Is last to 4th nothing special too?

    2. With 7 retired drivers, 2 SC periods, a working DRS and a fastest car in his hands, all of which worked in his favour, we can easily say LADY LUCK was indeed with him today…

      1. I am not denying that it was lucky. I am denying that it was ‘all’ luck.

        Most of the 7 retired drivers retired behind him.

        And how the hell can “a working DRS” classify as LADY LUCK? A non-working DRS can classify as “unlucky” no doubt. But a working DRS is not lucky. And if it is, then every driver on the grid had that “luck”.

  7. Of all the races, I never thought Valencia and Abu Dhabi would be the most exciting. Incidentally, both involved plenty of retirements. Take away what you will from that statement.

    1. davidnotcoulthard
      4th November 2012, 15:52

      I’ll take away the last sentence.

      1. Ba dum tss.

  8. Nice for Kimi, Alonso and Vettel. Hamilton again with technical problems it’s a shame, he could’ve won. McLaren’s third place in the consrtuctors championship is well deserved. Ferrari and Red Bull are definitely superior.

    1. It seems same problem what Button suffered in Monza. Mclaren said they don’t know what is cause but with just change to new one, it would be OK and then…

  9. Kimi: “Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing!”
    I love Kimi… he just doesn’t care what you think of him.
    If Lewis were to say that on radio, the media would CRUSIFY him.

    1. The great mystery regarding the mindset of Kimi fans. Any other driver doing what he does (regularly berating his own engineer, the puerile jokes, the occasional fits of anger, acting indifferent to the point of thumbing his nose at the world in general, and even his own fans in particular etc.) would be considered an asshole for it, but if it’s him then it’s so cool.

      1. Kimi’s exciting on track and its funny how he mocks the media for their annoying questions. He doesn’t censor himself which is refreshing these days.

        1. I know someone else who didn’t, or at least forgot :)

      1. +1 it would be all about how Lewis had forgotten who put him where he is bla bla!

        Kimi is great! no B***hit! Just says what he thinks! Imagine he had smedley as his race engineer? He tells Massa how to drive his car half the time!

      2. Rob Smedley and Kimi, that would be an interesting combo :D
        Would McLaren not have been better off going for Kimi instead of Perez?

    2. Fikri Harish (@)
      4th November 2012, 17:51

      Unlike Hamilton, Kimi started out that way.
      Hamilton, on the other hand……

  10. Driver of the Weekend has got to be split four ways here.

    Raikkonen – clean race, perfect drive, perfect start. Alonso – consistent, pushing that car miles beyond the limit (he was throwing that car all over the place during the last lap), gave 120% once again. Vettel – solid drive, made the most out of all the situations he was involved, climbed 21 positions, Hamilton – stellar, if it wasn’t for the mechanical issue he would have won it, no question. Singapore all over again for him.

    Good to see Maldonado and Senna not getting seriously involved in all the chaos even though they had their fair share of scares here and there, Kobayashi being the cleanest of the bunch and Vergne scoring a point again.

    Unpleasant weekend for Webber, being downright stupid on two occasions (Maldonado, Massa) and downright unlucky in the third. No-brainer moves from Di Resta at the start and Perez later on.

    Rosberg wasn’t far off either. His HRT-moment was a bit reminiscent of Kovalainen and Webber in Valencia 2010 but he wasn’t the brightest of the bunch in his clash with Grosjean at the start tough. Add Schumacher’s slow puncture to the equation and guess who didn’t score even a single point, once again? :)

    What I was expecting to see and didn’t quite happen afterall was Caterham grabbing 12th place or better and pushing their way in front of Marussia in the WCC. But I guess they simply are not at that level.

    1. I would love to have seen how much higher Senna might have finished were Williams not atrocious in the pits. 6.3 second stop! I’m pretty sure they’ve consistently been the slowest of the midfield in the pits, faster only than Marussia/Caterham/HRT. That’s just painful to watch.

      1. @leucocrystal: Between his team mate and Koba, in 6th, I think.

        I doubt he would have had the pace to beat Maldonado. And as much as Williams botched up his race, I can’t help but put some of the blame on Senna’s own poor quali performance, once again. A couple of spots further up the grid and we wouldn’t have been a victim of that Force India sandwich at the start and he could have made a one stopper work. And all that could have translated into a (much needed) 4th or 5th place at the end of the race.

        However, if we look strictly at those 55 race laps, credit where it’s due. Senna drove a strong race and generally made good use of the circumstances. This is were Williams should be on a regular basis, with both their drivers, every other weekend.

        1. @tony031r Quali is definitely his weakest area, no one denies that. He just seems to be way more sensitive to setup and the tire temperatures over the single flying lap (a bit like Button at times) than his teammate, probably because of his less aggressive driving style.

          And Bruno, amazingly, only pitted once, despite that very hard knock on the first lap.

      2. and he could have made a one stopper work

        Or? I might be wrong here. Did he stop once or twice? Can’t remember at all whether he pitted after that clash with Hulkenberg, Di Resta and Perez or not / couldn’t pay close attention with all the chaos being unleashed on track every 4 or 5 laps. :)

      3. @leucocrystal – how can those pit stops possibly still be slow, despite the invaluable input from Michael Johnson and crew! ;)

        Senna drove a great race in Abu Dhabi, I thought. When I saw him spinning on the opening lap, I thought it was all over. Very impressed that he finished eighth, 3 places behind Maldonado, who qualified 12 places ahead of him.

        1. @dot_com That’s what makes it so sad and yet hilarious. They made this fuss over bringing in someone to coach more speed into them, and yet all they’ve done since is get slower and slower…

          I was sure it was over on lap one too, so I was delighted to see him recover so well, in spite of everything. I believe, at least according to James Allen’s stats, he remains one of the highest up in the list of drivers who recover the most positions each race.

    2. @tony031r You can’t blame Rosberg for that incident, Karthikeyan’s steering broke and he had to brake so it was completely unexpected and Rosberg had no time to react being that close to him.

      1. That’s exactly what I was saying. It wasn’t his fault for that one. However, at the start he sort of knocked Grosjean senseless and that was his fault…

  11. Wow, just wow… Been waiting for this over 3 years, lost my hope completely many times during that period but now Kimi has returned where he belongs: P1!!!

    Long Live the Iceman, Long Live the King!

  12. Kimi put himself in a position to win with a great start. Intereesting race all the way around.

  13. As a Hamilton fan, the silver lining today was Kimi taking his first win of the season. It was long coming, and well deserved.

    This race also showed, in my opinion, that if McLaren are to fight for the WDC next year, they had better build a car that Jenson can consistently get the best out of (and of course that doesn’t break down when it’s leading the race..). Button isn’t going to beat Vettel and Alonso next year if keeps being mystified by lack of grip.

  14. Sort of out of topic, but the rose water was a lot more energetic this year. The past two years it wouldn’t even fizz and spray. This year it did.

  15. Wow, so much for “attention to detail” at McLaren. Really (?), they must be joking since they are trying hard to be midfielders

  16. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    4th November 2012, 18:01

    This race woke me up completely!!!!! Great race with good overtakings in NO-DRS places. What a thrill, I felt the race like it was 10 hours because anything could happen right away… Amazing drive by Kimi, Alonso (he’s from outer space right?) and Vettel (another outstanding driver). Poor Hamilton, but the race kept its thrill even without him.

  17. I’m kinda glad that Caterham didn’t beat Glock today, I wanna see what Marussia can do with that extra money for next year.

  18. Reading thru the comments, it’s exactly as expected. Vettel drove very well thru the race but he is indeed lucky boy – even with a few mistakes. Just thinking two numbers of starting position and finishing position from 23rd to 3rd may decorate it as super outstanding but not so fast.
    His car setup change has definitely played huge role here considering the overall pace of WEB in overtaking, 2 SC sessions, and some fore-runner’s retirement for various reasons. Consider KOB from 15th to 6th whose car was only able to fit in the rear end and no change at all for race trim. Still he was able to finish 6th. Yeah he also drove very well. If Vettel was undoubtedly superb here so was KOB too with way less capable car. That’s it, no need to get too much excited about this proof or that proof.

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