Bahrain – Race: Vettel, Prince of the Desert

It is under a gray/blue sky and at an ambient temperature of 32°C that the drivers line up on the starting grid, with Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton in the front row. Most of the drivers start on soft tires except for Kamui Kobayashi who opted for medium tires on his Sauber C31.

At the lights out, Sebastian Vettel gets the best start while Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso propel themselves towards the front. At the next corner, the Frenchman battles against Webber for 3rd place while Kimi Räikkönen duels with Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg.

At the end of the first lap, Heikki Kovalainen, starting from the 16th position, is forced to pit due to a punctured left rear tire. At the start of the 3rd lap, after a very good start, Felipe Massa overtakes Kimi Räikkönen. On the following lap, Romain Grosjean takes 3rd place at the braking zone, at the expense of Mark Webber, while after five laps, Sebastian Vettel has built a lead of over 4 seconds. At the same time, Kimi Räikkönen regains the advantage over Felipe Massa.

Leading the pack, Romain Grosjean comes within DRS range of Lewis Hamilton and proves to be the only driver able to keep up with the pace set by the reigning double world champion, leading the race.

At the start of the seventh lap, the Lotus driver overtakes Lewis Hamilton despite the Brit’s maneuver onto the dirty part of the track. By the 7th lap, Vettel is ahead of Grosjean, Hamilton, Webber, Alonso, Räikkönen, Button, Massa, Rosberg, and Di Resta. Over the radio, Jenson Button complains about understeer while Daniel Ricciardo is forced to pit to change his front wing after a sluggish start to the race.

On the 9th lap, Massa, Button, and Rosberg enter the pit lane. Only the Mercedes driver keeps the soft tires, while the other two switch to medium tires. Hamilton, Webber, Alonso, and Perez follow suit: the Englishman and the Spaniard opt for medium tires, while the Australian and the Mexican prefer to go out with the yellow sidewall soft tires. Once again, the Woking team struggles in the pit lane, with the 2008 world champion losing precious seconds and coming out behind Jenson Button’s car. Upon exiting the pits, Lewis Hamilton has to defend his position against Nico Rosberg by moving onto the shoulder: both drivers will be summoned after the race.

On the 11th lap, Romain Grosjean enters the pits, followed on the next lap by his teammate and Sebastian Vettel. The Frenchman and the German come out on medium tires while the Finn prefers the soft ones.

Paul di Resta thus inherits the lead of the race, which he soon has to give up to Sebastian Vettel. Behind, Kimi Räikkönen takes the fifth place from Mark Webber at the end of the back straight.

After Paul di Resta’s stop, overtaken by Grosjean before the pit entrance, Sebastian Vettel is ahead of the Lotus driver and Räikkönen. They are followed by Webber, Button, Hamilton, Alonso, Rosberg, Massa, and Perez. The threat from Räikkönen, the only driver on soft tires among the top 7, becomes clearer: the Finn sets the fastest lap on the track on the 17th lap.

After being forced to start 22nd, Michael Schumacher is in 13th position. Paul di Resta, who is ahead of him, complains over the radio about the behavior of his car. At turn 4, the Scotsman takes advantage of the battle between Maldonado and Perez to seize 10th place.

In the lead, Vettel has, by the 23rd lap, more than a 5-second advantage over the Grosjean/Räikkönen duo, while Button, Rosberg, and Massa pit for the second time. The three drivers come out fitted with medium tires. On the following lap, Webber, Hamilton, and Alonso follow suit, as once again Lewis Hamilton’s MP4-27 is delayed by an extended tire change. Exiting the pits, the Spaniard finds himself battling with Nico Rosberg, who takes the advantage.

On the 25th lap, Kimi Räikkönen goes through the pits to switch to medium tires after Romain Grosjean yielded second place to him on the previous lap. Behind them, the battle between Alonso and Rosberg is intense, with the recent Chinese Grand Prix winner forcing the Ferrari driver off track limits: the Spaniard is furious in his seat and on the radio. Just behind, Maldonado spins and heads to the pits with a blown left rear tire: it’s retirement for the Venezuelan.

At the front, Vettel and Grosjean have in turn gone through the pits. On soft tires, the German is threatened by Kimi Räikkönen, who is second ahead of Grosjean, while Paul di Resta, on an alternative strategy, is in 4th place ahead of Mark Webber, Button, Kobayashi, Rosberg, Alonso, Massa, and Hamilton.

The post-race will be busy for Nico Rosberg as he will be summoned to clarify the two incidents he was involved in with Hamilton and then Alonso, and potential penalties are to be feared for the Mercedes driver.

On the 31st lap, Fernando Alonso seems to want to enter the pit lane in Kamui Kobayashi’s diffuser but suddenly returns to the track. Ahead, Räikkönen, on medium tires, gets within DRS range of Vettel, who is on soft tires. On the 36th lap, the Finn makes a first attempt, but the German shuts the door on him at the braking point. A small wheel lock-up at turn 10 prevents the Lotus driver from having another go on the following lap, while Romain Grosjean takes the opportunity to gradually close the gap.

At the same time, Rosberg and Hamilton go through the pit lane for the third time and come out both fitted with medium tires. Button and Alonso, then Pérez and Schumacher, do the same on the next lap. The latter leave the pit lane side by side, with the Mexican having to yield to the German. Just before, the Sauber driver saw Alonso’s Ferrari get past him again: the stewards will look into this after the race.

At the 40th lap, the two leading men pit and both come out on medium tires, handing over the reins of the race to Romain Grosjean, who leads his first Formula One Grand Prix. The Franco-Swiss only keeps the lead for one lap and returns to 3rd place after taking his turn through the pit lane to come out on medium tires.

From the start of the relay, Sebastian Vettel takes the fastest lap in the race with a time of 1:36.379 and extends his lead at the front. On the 42nd lap, only Kamui Kobayashi is on soft tires among the top 15. Vettel leads Räikkönen, Grosjean, Webber, Di Resta [with one less stop], Rosberg, Button, Alonso, Hamilton, and Massa. Behind the Brazilian, Michael Schumacher takes the eleventh place from Kobayashi, who also lets Sergio Pérez pass. In 15th place, Vergne is ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.

In the lead, Kimi Räikkönen is once again slowly but surely making up his deficit to Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull. But the German responds in the following laps and widens the gap again.

On lap 52, Nico Rosberg gains the advantage by outbraking Paul di Resta’s Force India, which has only made two stops. The Scot then finds himself under threat from Jenson Button, but the Briton makes a fourth stop due to a suspected puncture. The McLaren driver switches to soft tires and rejoins in 13th position but returns to the pits on lap 56 to retire.

Under the checkered flag, nothing can stop Sebastian Vettel’s victory, his first in 2012. The German drives only a few hundred meters and stops his RB8 at the pit exit. “Abbey” is quickly joined by Nico Rosberg’s W03, who is overtaken at the starting line by Paul di Resta and Fernando Alonso but has indeed crossed the finish line, located a few hundred meters before, in fifth place. In his 4th Grand Prix since his return, Kimi Räikkönen is back on the podium for the first time since the 2009 Italian Grand Prix. Romain Grosjean climbs onto his first F1 podium while the tricolor flag flies over the podium during the ceremonial, for the first time since the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix.

Results of the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix: