The 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix is regarded by many as one of the most exciting races in history. “What makes it so great?”, you may ask. Well, for one, it was the final race of a very dramatic year. The championship was up for grabs, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso just 13 points behind Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. 2012 had six world champions on the grid: the wonder-kid Vettel, the returning Kimi Räikkönen, the talented Lewis Hamilton, the evergreen Alonso, the experienced Jenson Button and the legend Michael Schumacher. Three of the slowest teams, Caterham, Marussia and HRT were fighting for 10th place in the standings, which would give them enough money to continue racing. Schumacher, a household name all over the world, was retiring from the sport. Hamilton was leaving his beloved McLaren team. All subplots to the main agenda, the battle between Alonso and Vettel. Alonso needed at least a third-place finish in the 71-lap race to win the championship if Vettel did not score points.
Vettel was starting 4th, with teammate Mark Webber for a company and the two McLaren drivers locked out the front row. Alonso was further back in the 7th and had it all to do. All the drivers were on dry weather tyres but the drizzle had just begun. One, two, three, four, five lights were on. And then it was green. Vettel had a mediocre start and dropped back into the pack as Alonso surged ahead. Hamilton led the race from his teammate Button. The cars all went through to turn 4 when it happened. Vettel collided with the Williams of Bruno Senna and was suddenly facing the wrong way. All hope seemed lost for the German as the Red Bull had serious damage to its left sidepod but was able to continue on. Vettel was stone dead last and he had a monumental task at hand.
Upfront, Hamilton led from Button and Alonso moved into the magic third place. An error from the Spaniard dropped him down into fourth as Force India’s Nico Hülkenberg swooped through. Meanwhile, the other Williams of Pastor Maldonado crashed out and that meant both Williams cars were out of the race. The rain began to get slightly worse and several cars pitted for wet weather tyres, including race leader Hamilton. Button and Hülkenberg stayed out on dries however and stayed upfront. The slower cars of Caterham, HRT, and Marussia stayed out as well and were in much better positions than their cars were realistically capable of.
Vettel had charged through the field in the uncertain conditions and was already up into fifth place, behind his main rival. Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes faced a puncture thanks to the debris on the circuit. On lap 23, due to excess debris on the track, the safety car was brought out and the race was neutralized. So, Hülkenberg in the lead, ahead of the McLarens and Vettel 5th behind Alonso. The rain began to ease up and when the race restarted, Vettel was immediately overtaken by Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa.
Hamilton, on a charge, overtook Button and set after Hülkenberg in light speed. Alonso also fell behind Kobayashi, down into 5th but not for long. The Ferrari man would have none of it and overtook Kobayashi in style to get back up to 4th. Meanwhile, further back, Kimi Räikkönen put up an amazing display of racecraft with the retiring Schumacher and both champions showed their class. On lap 48, Hülkenberg, inexperienced to leading a race, slid into the grass and Hamilton soared past. The Force India, however, kept on going and was determined to win. In hot pursuit, Hülkenberg closed right up to Hamilton’s rear end and made a valiant attempt to pass. This soon turned disastrous and ruined both their races. Hamilton was out on the spot and Hülkenberg had lost a heap of time. This meant Button was in the lead of the race. In all this, Räikkönen spun out and in trying to get back on track, somehow managed to get lost, providing some comedic relief to this epic drama.
As the rain became heavier, Vettel was back into the pits for wet weather tyres but his pit crew was not ready for him. Another large chunk of time was lost and Vettel was again disadvantaged. A radio malfunction meant Vettel could not even speak to his team. Could anything else go wrong for the German? Alonso also stopped for new tyres and rejoined fourth behind his teammate Massa. Hülkenberg was given a penalty for the incident with Hamilton which gave Alonso third place. Ferrari wasted no time in asking Massa to get out of Alonso’s way and Massa performed his task dutifully. Alonso was up into second place. With Vettel out of the points, the championship would be his for sure.
But the German was on a roll. He diced through the pack and was up into 7th, behind Schumacher. Michael, out of affection for his countryman and friend, moved out of the way to let Vettel into 6th place. As things stood, it would now be the Red Bull who would win the title. Alonso charged after Button in an attempt to win the race, which was his only hope to win the championship. Meanwhile, Caterham’s Vitaly Petrov made a crucial pass on Marussia’s Charles Pic for 12th, which had immense importance as it would allow Caterham to jump Marussia in the standings. The other Marussia of Timo Glock was in front of both but contact with another car pushed him down the order.
Button began the penultimate lap with Alonso chasing after him, trying to win the race. The race had one final twist left however and with 2 laps left Force India’s Paul di Resta crashed on the main straight, which ended his race and brought out the safety car. This meant that the race would end under safety car conditions and the unlucky Alonso was denied a chance at going for the victory. Vettel would win the championship. An anticlimactic end to such a mental race but I believe that it’s just another ironic turn of events by the racing gods.
The agonizing race was finally over, a rollercoaster of emotions for Vettel and Alonso and the pendulum had swung Sebastian’s way. In a season featuring 8 different race winners and with the championship lead exchanging between 4 different drivers, Sebastian Vettel was to be the world champion. Alonso, in the slower Ferrari, fought valiantly to take the championship to the very end of the wire but in the end, Vettel prevailed.
Caterham would end up ahead of Marussia and HRT and with it, it would bring in more prize money than the other two. HRT collapsed financially after the race and would never be seen racing again. Schumacher ended his racing career with seventh place, helping his compatriot to a championship. Hamilton left McLaren on a sour note, losing a possible race victory. As things would turn out, this would be Button’s last win in his career and McLaren’s last win to date. As fate would have it, Hülkenberg, who had a shot of winning the race, would end his stay in F1 in 2019 with no top 3 finishes in his entire career. But the most jubilant of them all were Red Bull and their man of the moment Sebastian Vettel, triple world champion! After such a tumultuous year injected with a higher-than-average dose of drama, the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix was truly the perfect finale.
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