Background The Grand Prix was contested by twelve teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known as
constructors) were
Red Bull,
McLaren,
Ferrari,
Mercedes,
Lotus,
Force India,
Sauber,
Toro Rosso,
Williams,
Caterham,
HRT and
Marussia.
Tyre supplier
Pirelli brought two types of tyre to the race; two dry compounds (soft "options" and medium "primes"). The Medium compound was distinguished by a white-band with the Soft compound being denoted by a yellow-band. The rules of the 2012 Grands Prix stipulated that all cars should use both types of tyre during the race unless the driver used any one of the two wet-weather compounds. Each driver was limited to eleven sets of dry tyres for the weekend. The
drag reduction system (DRS) had two activation zones for the race; one was on the straight between turns seven and eight and the second on the straight linking turns ten and eleven. 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. 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. 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. 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 held on Saturday evening was split into three parts. The first part ran for twenty minutes and eliminated the cars that finished the session eighteenth or lower from qualifying. During this session, the
107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107% of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. The second part of qualifying lasted fifteen minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions eleven to seventeen. The final part of qualifying determined the positions from first to tenth and decided
pole position. Cars which competed in the final session of qualifying were not allowed to change tyres before the race; these started the race fitted with the tyres with which they set their quickest lap times. 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". 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. 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. Hamilton complained of cold tyres and locked up heading into turn eight on lap two allowing Räikkönen to gain advantage but Hamilton withstood pressure from the Lotus driver to retain the lead. Racing resumed at the end of lap 14 when the safety car drove into the pit lane with Hamilton leading Räikkönen. Alonso drove slower than Webber, allowing the Red Bull driver to pull alongside Alonso, but the Ferrari driver maintained third position. Vettel moved up to 19th place after he overtook di Resta and de la Rosa. On the following lap Maldonado was passed by Button (who took the inside line) for third position, Alonso was pleased with his second-place result but also felt Ferrari was not the most competitive team over the race weekend. He also felt the modifications that Ferrari brought helped him to become quicker. Hamilton said that he was disappointed after the race, having been the leader until he retired with a loss of fuel pressure on lap 20. The McLaren driver stated: "I'm gutted; I'd had really good pace all weekend and I feel certain we could have won today." Nevertheless, he also said that he would like to try and win the final two races of the season. Vettel later represented the incident as less important and admitted that Ricciardo caught him off guard, "Maybe I should have paid more attention but I went to the right and I wasn't very lucky that there was the DRS board, which I took head-on." ==Classification==