Abu Dhabi, 4 November

Two great drivers, two double world champions, both fighting tooth and nail to secure a third title this year: Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel both produced stunning performances this afternoon, the Spaniard finishing second in a car that definitely was not the class of the field and the German, making the most of the superiority of the Red Bull to come from last to third at the flag. It means that having trailed Vettel by 13 points after India, Alonso leaves the Gulf just ten points down. Before this race, Kimi Raikkonen was an outside chance to be World Champion and today’s result means he is out of the running. However, the Finn took his and the Lotus team’s first win of the season. In the second F2012, Felipe Massa’s race was compromised after a spin following contact with Mark Webber and the Brazilian eventually finished seventh.

Late on Saturday night, the Stewards ruled that, having stopped on track through Force Majeure at the end of qualifying, Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull did not comply with the fuel sampling rules and the Red Bull moved from third on the grid to the back. The team opted to make changes on his car and the German started the race from pit lane. This promoted those behind him by one place, so that Fernando watched the lights go out from sixth place and Felipe from eighth. The two Ferrari men immediately made up a place at the start and then the Spaniard also got past Webber to take fourth after some nerve wracking wheel to wheel action. Rosberg pitted the Mercedes with damage and continued, while Hulkenberg retired the Force India having gone off at Turn 1.


At the front, pole man Hamilton had a slender lead over Raikkonen, who had got ahead of Webber when the lights went out, with Maldonaldo third, 0.7 ahead of Fernando. Then came Webber, Button and Felipe seventh ahead of Kobayashi. Coming from the back, the championship leader Vettel was up to eighteenth by lap 2 and fourteenth on lap 4 and he was one of the few drivers to have started on the harder tyre.

By lap 6, Hamilton’s McLaren had a 3 second advantage over Raikkonen in the Lotus, with Maldonaldo a further 1.8 behind, holding up Fernando who was right up with the Williams. Then came Webber in the Red Bull, with Button still sixth in the second McLaren, 1.2 seconds ahead of Felipe’s F2012. The Brazilian had a one second cushion to Perez’s Sauber. At this point, the top ten was completed by Kobayashi in the Sauber and Schumacher in the Mercedes. Vettel? He was now thirteenth.

Lap eight saw the Safety Car appear after a huge crash involving Karthikeyan in the HRT and Rosberg in the Mercedes: it looked as though the Indian driver slowed for Turn 16 earlier than expected and the German launched his car over the HRT and into the barrier. Vergne was the first to make a stop under the safety car, coming in on lap 9 from thirteenth to take on Prime tyres. Grosjean did the same in the Lotus. While still behind the Safety Car Vettel appeared to damage the front wing on the Red Bull on Senna’s Williams and pitted for a new nose on lap 13.

At the restart on lap 14, Webber mounted a vigorous attack on Fernando, but the Spaniard held him off, although this cost the Ferrari a bit of time to third placed Maldonaldo, while Vettel’s visit to the pits had dropped him to 21st, but he was soon up to seventeenth, in a serious dog fight with Grosjean’s Lotus. Webber was still dangerously within the one second gap required to activate DRS as he chased Fernando, while Felipe was having a relatively quiet race in seventh. With Webber on his tail, Fernando was pushing hard, which meant the gap to Maldonaldo was beginning to come down although it was still around 3.5 seconds.

The lead now passed to Raikkonen on lap 20, as Hamilton had to park his car at the side of the track with a mechanical problem. It promoted Fernando to third, just 0.6 behind Maldonaldo, while Webber was still a threatening half second behind the Ferrari. That all changed on lap 21, as Fernando passed the Williams with a straightforward move to go second. Felipe was up to sixth. The threat from Webber diminished as he spun trying to take third place off Maldonaldo, which dropped him to seventh, so that Felipe now found himself fifth, still between Button on fourth and Perez in sixth.

On lap 24, Button got his McLaren ahead of Maldonaldo to take third, but it was at this point that Perez managed to squeeze past Felipe, thus relegating the Ferrari man back to sixth. Felipe was clearly struggling as Webber was now right on his tail. Lap 25 and Kobayashi pitted, with most of the front runners apparently planning to make just one tyre change all race. Lap 26 and Webber tried to go round the outside of Felipe, the two men collided and as the Australian came back on the track in front of the Ferrari, Felipe spun and the team immediately called him for his pit stop, which he took at the same time as Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso. Schumacher came in from eighth on lap 27, as Vettel put in a race fastest lap to run seventh behind his team-mate. Felipe was down in fifteenth.

Fernando changed to the Medium Pirelli on lap 29 and Button and Maldonaldo also came in for fresh rubber. Perez and Webber came in from second and fourth on lap 30. Race leader Raikkonen finally pitted on lap 31, so that all the front runners apart from seventh placed Senna had made at least one pit stop. On lap 32 of 55, the order was Raikkonen, 1.4 ahead of Vettel, who was 5.9 in front of Fernando, who had Button now breathing down his neck. The question was now how well everyone could get to the flag, given that Vettel, having had an early stop because of that nose damage, would be on much older tyres than Fernando. Vergne, who had pitted under the safety car had got up to sixth, but made a stop in the Toro Rosso on lap 33. Massa’s earlier problems meant he was down in 13th place.

With 20 laps remaining, Button was putting Fernando under serious pressure which was actually pushing the Ferrari closer to second placed Vettel who was called into the pits for a second stop on lap 37. A thrilling battle for fourth led to the Safety Car making its second appearance, as Perez tried to pass Di Resta, with Grosjean and Webber also getting involved in the multi car pile-up that signalled the end of the race for the Australian and the Frenchman. Behind the SC, the order on lap 40 was Raikkonen, Alonso, Button, Vettel, Maldonaldo, Kobayashi, Schumacher, with Felipe eighth, which then became seventh as Schumacher changed tyres.

Lap 42 and Fernando was 1.9 behind the leader Raikkonen and had Button 0.8 behind him and in terms of the championship, Vettel was right up with the Englishman in the sole remaining McLaren. With ten laps remaining, Raikkonen extended his lead to 3 seconds over Fernando, but it was the battle behind that held everyone’s attention, with Button drifting to 1.2 off the Spaniard has he put all his effort into fending off Vettel. Felipe was seventh, just under a second behind Kobayashi with fellow countryman Senna closing on him as his tyres began to fade. Fernando really put the hammer down in the final laps, the gap to the Finn in front dropping to 2.2 with six laps to go. Three laps from the end, Vettel despatched Button and from then on the podium order remained unchanged. This had probably been the most exciting race we had seen in the short history of the Abu Dhabi circuit. In terms of the title race, Fernando has edged three points closer to Vettel so that the gap between them is now ten points, with a further fifty up for grabs as we tackle the final pair of back to back races in Austin and Sao Paolo, starting in a fortnight’s time in Texas. Felipe moves up two places to seventh in the Drivers’ standings. In the Constructors’ classification, the Scuderia is still second – it cannot aspire to first place – extending its lead over the third team.