Abu Dhabi – Race: Räikkönen wins a race of titans

The weather is obviously perfect as the 23 cars staggered on the grid take off for the warm-up lap. More precisely, 22 cars, since Pedro de la Rosa’s HRT refuses to start and will therefore leave from the pit lane. It will consequently join the 24th car, Sebastian Vettel’s, parked at the end of the pit lane due to his penalty from yesterday, and which also has not had the chance to taste the asphalt heated to 34°C, while the air temperature is 30°C and the sun is shining — for a few more minutes — over the Yas Marina circuit.

Sebastian Vettel will indeed only have the opportunity to discover his modified Red Bull – with a new gearbox with extended ratios and new suspension settings – once the green light is on at the end of the pit lane, marking the start of his race, with his tires and brakes cold due to the lack of a warm-up lap. With these modified settings, the German hopes to take advantage of the two DRS zones, between turns 7 and 8, then 10 and 11, and the strategic opportunities offered by the Soft and Medium tires, to climb as high as possible in the pack. In fact, the Red Bull is fitted with Medium tires and will therefore have an extended first stint, just like Schumacher and Senna.

When the lights go out, Hamilton gets the best start, and it’s a surprising Kimi Räikkönen who moves up to second, with Mark Webber once again missing his start. Alonso moves into 5th and tries to overtake Mark Webber in the second DRS straight, which he succeeds in doing with a bold maneuver, moving up to 4th.

The first lap claimed victims, with both Sahara Force Indias, Hülkenberg being forced to retire, and Bruno Senna, going four-wide with Sergio Pérez on the way to the first corner, as well as Romain Grosjean, with a punctured right front tire after contact with Rosberg, who in turn has to pit to change his nose at turn 9. Sebastian Vettel managed to finish the first lap in 20th position and is battling with an HRT at the hairpin. But the German also reports a damaged front wing on the radio after contact with Bruno Senna, but the damage seems minimal as he doesn’t pit to change it.

After 3 laps, Hamilton, who had made a small mistake at the end of the first straight on the second lap, putting himself under direct pressure from Kimi Räikkönen, starts to widen the gap with the Finn by setting the fastest lap of the race at 1:48.809. Vettel, meanwhile, has moved up to 16th, then 14th a lap later, behind the surprising Heikki Kovalainen. He is already over 20 seconds behind the race leader.

The 2008 World Champion continues to widen the gap, reaching 3.5 seconds after 7 laps, by setting a new fastest lap of the race at 1:48.148. Vettel moved up to 13th place, 23.1 seconds behind the Englishman, and his life should be made easier by Vergne and Ricciardo, his next targets, who drive for the sister team Toro Rosso.

But the first significant event of the race occurs: Karthikeyan and Rosberg collide violently in turn 16, causing the safety car to be deployed on lap 9. The Indian driver had an issue that forced him to slow down significantly, which surprised Rosberg, who was at full speed. As a result, the Mercedes took off over the HRT, coming within mere centimeters of disaster and crashing violently into the Tecpro barriers. Fortunately, no one is injured in the accident, which will be investigated after the race. Jean-Eric Vergne and Romain Grosjean are the only ones to take advantage of the neutralization by making pit stops.

Under neutralization, the ranking is as follows: Hamilton, Räikkönen, Maldonado, Alonso, Webber, Button, Massa, Pérez, Kobayashi, and Schumacher for the Top 10. Followed by Ricciardo, Vettel, Kovalainen, Senna, Vergne (1 stop), Glock, Petrov, Pic, de la Rosa, Grosjean (2 stops), and di Resta (2 stops).

During this calm period, Guillaume Rocquelin informs Vettel that the data regarding his front wing is correct. However, the German suggests that his wing, damaged on the right side, should be changed at his first stop. Moreover, the double reigning World Champion comes very close to an incident under the yellow flag: he almost hits Daniel Ricciardo, who is warming up his tires, and has to go off-track, tearing off the polystyrene board indicating the start of the DRS zone and passing close to the wall, to maintain the integrity of his RB8.

Vettel is finally called back to the pits at the end of the 13th lap, and puts on Soft tires and a new front wing. But it’s all to do again for the German who rejoins in 21st place behind di Resta and Grosjean, just as the Safety Car is about to come in.

At the restart, Fernando Alonso makes a small mistake in the last corners, putting him under direct pressure from Mark Webber. But although the Spaniard manages to maintain his 4th place, he loses some ground to Maldonado ahead of him. After the first straight, Vettel is already 19th, ahead of de la Rosa and di Resta, and sets his sights on Romain Grosjean. The double World Champion goes on the attack in the next lap, casually passing Pic who didn’t join in the fight, but Grosjean tries to reclaim his position at the right chicane, unsuccessfully as Vettel finally manages to pass on the second straight, in a rough battle but without contact.

That said, Vettel prefers not to take any risks: his overtaking was done outside the track limits (on the blue asphalt section), so he chooses to give the position back to Grosjean before eventually passing again on the second straight and resuming his progress. Ahead, the gap between Hamilton and Räikkönen is 3 seconds, while Maldonado, Alonso, and Webber are each within a second of each other, with the two followers able to use DRS.

As night begins to fall, on the 20th lap, another twist: Lewis Hamilton’s car comes to a stop! Everyone gains a position, and Räikkönen takes the lead! Vettel is consequently in 12th, and Alonso, at the same time, manages to overtake Maldonado in the second DRS zone and takes second place. The gap between the Spaniard and the Finn is then 5.4 seconds. A lap later, Webber fails to do the same and sees Button coming up close behind him. Simultaneously, Kimi Räikkönen, informed of the gaps by his engineer, snaps back: “Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing!”

On lap 23, Webber attempts again, outside the track in the second DRS zone, but Maldonado doesn’t give up, and the RB8 is sent into a spin. The Australian drops to 7th, while his teammate moves into the points, 22.1 seconds from the leader. The incident is under investigation by the stewards. Jenson Button, on the other hand, has more success, with his inside move at the same spot on the following lap allowing him to pass the Venezuelan and temporarily take a podium position. At the same spot, Sergio Pérez takes 5th position from Felipe Massa, who sees a charging Webber closing in on his gearbox.

After 25 laps, Kamui Kobayashi is the first to dive into the pit lane. This allows Vettel, after overtaking Michael Schumacher, to move up to 8th place with his next target being his teammate Mark Webber. Moreover, the Australian, in his battle with Massa, collides with the Brazilian, who then spins trying to avoid a second contact, all happening right in front of Vettel, who passes without any issues. This incident is also put under investigation by the stewards before being quickly cleared of any suspicion. The Brazilian makes his first pit stop on the following lap. And just as it is announced that the incident between Webber and Maldonado will also result in no penalty, Vettel sets the fastest lap of the race at 1:47.053, closing the gap to the leader to 22.6 seconds.

At the end of the 28th lap, Fernando Alonso makes his first stop to switch to Medium tires, and comes back out a few seconds behind Vettel. On track, Pérez passes Maldonado for a provisional 3rd place at the end of the second DRS zone, while Button heads into the pits, followed by Maldonado. Vettel is then right behind Mark Webber, and the instruction is given to Webber not to fight if Vettel attacks. But to avoid any issues, Webber is called into the pits—at the same time as Sergio Pérez—and Vettel has a clear path.

The main question is whether the German, now in 2nd position while only Räikkönen, still in the lead, and Bruno Senna have not stopped, will be able to finish the race on the Soft tires he fitted on the 13th lap, which means a 42-lap stint. In any case, after Räikkönen’s stop, Vettel is only a second and a half from the lead, right behind the Finn. Alonso, on the other hand, is under pressure from Jenson Button, who is within DRS range but not yet in a position to attack the Spaniard.

In the 33rd lap, Räikkönen sets the fastest lap of the race in 1:46.066, compared to 1:46.690 for Vettel on tires 17 laps older. Vettel loses 7 tenths in the next lap but concedes much less time compared to Alonso or Button. Further back, Grosjean in 5th and di Resta in 6th are on an alternate strategy after their first-lap troubles and are holding back Pérez and Webber.

Little by little, Vettel is left behind by Räikkönen and sees Alonso closing the gap. An interesting piece of information, according to Paul Hembery, interviewed by Ted Kravitz, a journalist for Sky Sports, is that the Soft tires can last a maximum of 36 laps, which is 6 fewer than what the German’s set of tires could achieve. However, Vettel eventually comes to his senses and dives into the pit lane at the end of the 37th lap. The stop is average, but he emerges in 4th place, ahead of the pack led by Romain Grosjean. Vettel thus has 18 laps left to catch up with Button and Alonso.

Just behind, Paul di Resta and Sergio Pérez overtake Grosjean at the end of the second DRS zone, but they clash in the chicane, both going off track. Grosjean then moves to the inside at the next corner but spins Pérez, and is hit by Webber, who cannot avoid him and tears off his right rear suspension. The Safety Car is therefore forced to return to the track, which brings Vettel, who was almost 20 seconds behind, back into Button’s exhausts in 4th place, with fresh tires. At the same time, the officials announce that the incident is under investigation.

Under neutralization, the ranking is therefore: Räikkönen, Alonso, Button, Vettel, Maldonado, Kobayashi, Schumacher, Massa, Senna, and Vergne for the Top 10. Followed by Ricciardo, Kovalainen, Pérez, Glock, Petrov, Pic, and de la Rosa.

And while Charles Pic is forced to retire, Räikkönen again shows frustration with his engineer who reminds him to properly heat his tires. At the same time, Pérez is deemed responsible for the chaos and will have to serve a 10-second stop-and-go penalty.

The race resumes on the 43rd lap, 12 laps from the end. The restart is cautious and everyone manages to hold their position, as DRS is deactivated. Räikkönen takes advantage and breaks away, setting the fastest lap of the race at 1:45.403, almost a second quicker than any other driver. Vettel is then right on Button’s tail, but cannot launch a real attack.

DRS is activated from the 45th lap, while Pérez serves his penalty and drops to 17th and dead last. Alonso, Button, and Vettel are wheel to wheel but cannot mount an attack, even though they are each within a second of each other. In the following lap, Vettel takes aggressive lines to speed up his corner exit but cannot capitalize on them to overtake. Räikkönen is once again the fastest with a time of 1:44.963, extending the gap to 3.2 seconds.

Further back, Heikki Kovalainen took advantage of the seven retirements to finish 13th: another retirement would place him 12th and return the 10th place in the Constructors’ Championship to Caterham, a source of significant financial resources for the team’s development. Meanwhile, at the front, Alonso increases his pace and responds to Räikkönen by setting the fastest lap twice, which allows him to shake off the threat of Button and close the gap to Räikkönen to 2.8 seconds.

Vettel tries everything to pass Button but remains stuck behind the 2009 World Champion, with 6 laps remaining. Meanwhile, Alonso feels victory getting closer: there’s only a 2.2-second gap, with a 5 km/h advantage in top speed, then exactly 2 seconds a lap later, and 1.7 seconds with 4 laps to go. Finally, in the 52nd lap, Vettel manages to narrowly pass Jenson Button, on the outside of the track at the chicane following the second DRS zone, while Fernando Alonso closes the gap with Räikkönen to 1.4 seconds with only 3 laps remaining.

More than a full second with two laps to go with a fastest lap in the race by Fernando Alonso at 1:44.090! But the gap is slightly over a second: the Spaniard therefore does not have DRS and ultimately loses two tenths over the entire lap.

So it’s a victory for Kimi Räikkönen, the first victory for Lotus in the Genii era. Vettel, well-assisted by the safety car, climbed back to 3rd and limited the damage to 3 points lost, thus keeping the lead in the championship by 10 points.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012 Results: