Jenson Button (McLaren) has won a spectacular Brazilian Grand Prix to close the 2012 Formula One season.
Of course, the race within the race was for the world championship, between Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari). That race was broken wide open when Vettel, starting from P4, was turned around by Bruno Senna (Williams) on the opening lap and rejoined the race in last position. Meanwhile, Alonso had made a blinding start and was in P3, the minimum he needed to win the championship.
Yet, there was so much more to come. Light rain was responsible for much of the action with all cars except race leader, Jenson Button, and third place man Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) pitting for intermediate tyres. Hulkenberg inherited P2 after Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) went in for his tyre change and was eventually able to overtake Button to be a shock race leader.
The rain soon eased and dry tyres were the again the order of the day. In a stroke of good timing for the leading pair a Safety Car was called out to clear the track of debris, which had appeared due to several on track incidents. This allowed Hulkenberg and Button to pit for new dry tyres without giving up track position.
Hulkenberg made a clean jump from the restart and established a reasonably comfortable lead. A maiden race win seemed on the cards for the young German. Although, in his final race for McLaren, Lewis Hamilton had other ideas. He drove a very good race to keep in touch with the leaders after switching to intermediates earlier.
Throughout the race the track was slippery off the racing line. Highlighted perfectly when Hulkenberg dipped a wheel just too far off line and slid wide, allowing Hamilton, who had already overtaken his teammate, to drive by for the race lead.
One of the race defining moments was to follow a few laps later. Light rain was again falling and Hamilton was having to carefully tip toe his way around slower cars. This allowed Hulkenberg to regain his lost ground. A gap presented itself going into Turn 1 when Hamilton was approaching two backmarkers. Hulkenberg went for it, there was room, but slid into Hamilton under braking forcing the McLaren driver out of the race.
The stewards handed Hulkenberg a drive through penalty for causing the accident, but he was able to recover and finish his final race with Force India in fifth place.
Jenson Button inherited the lead and didn’t relinquish it for the rest of the race, despite rain again forcing all the cars back onto intermediate tyres.
The retirement of Hamilton and penalty for Hulkenberg had allowed Alonso to work his way into second place, where he finished the race and collected the 18 points on offer. Vettel was back down the field and out of the points when he switched to inters. This meant Alonso was the provisional leader for the title.
Vettel soon worked his way back into a points scoring position and ultimately finished the race in sixth place. The eight points he got for that were enough to give him a three point lead over Alonso. Therefore, Sebastian Vettel won his third world championship. At 25 years, he’s the youngest man ever to achieve the feat, beating Ayrton Senna’s old record.
In the end, the drama for Vettel eased after Paul di Resta (Force India) crashed out of the race going into the second last lap. Di Resta hit the wall on the last corner and his wreckage could not be moved before the end of the race and so the season finished under Safety Car conditions. Vettel could not lose his position or his title.
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) rounded out the podium positions in his home race, while Mark Webber (Red Bull) finished an up and down race in fourth place, although dropped to sixth in the drivers’ standings on account of Button’s win.
Like everyone else, the Toro Rosso drivers were up and down the field. Daniel Ricciardo finished in P13, despite holding a lead of more than 10 positions ahead of his teammate at one stage. Jean-Eric Vergne claimed more points courtesy of his eighth place position.
In his final race Michael Schumacher ended an otherwise awful season in the points, finishing the race in seventh position. He leaves F1 for the second time, with his reputation perhaps not quite as glowing as it was back in 2006. Still, he’s achieved things in the sport that are unlikely to be matched. He is one of the greatest.
As we predicted, thanks to Murray Walker, anything did happen in today’s race. It was a fitting end to a fascinating championship. The season was bookended nicely by Jenson Button who won the first and last race of the year.
Now, the long wait for the 2013 season begins. In the meantime we congratulate Sebastian Vettel for his third championship title, a remarkable effort!
