2012 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Grande Prêmio Petrobras do Brasil 2012 ) [ 1 ] was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo , Brazil, on 25 November 2012. [ 3 ] The race was the twentieth and final round of the 2012 Formula One World Championship , and marked the forty-first running of the Brazilian Grand Prix . The race was won by Jenson Button driving for McLaren , scoring the 15th and last victory of his Formula One...

Tyre supplier Pirelli provided teams with early prototypes of their compounds for the 2013 Formula One season during Friday practice for testing and review. [ 6 ] Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the white-banded medium compound tyre as the softer option tyre, as opposed to 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix when they brought the medium and soft compound dry tyres. [ 7 ]

In order to become world champion for the third time, Sebastian Vettel needed to defend a 13-point advantage over Fernando Alonso , meaning the latter needed at least third place even if the former failed to score. Conversely, a fourth place was sufficient for Vettel even if Alonso won, and thus he was the odds-on favourite. [ 8 ]

The McLarens were fastest all weekend and easily took the front row, with Lewis Hamilton securing his last pole position with the team. Title contenders Vettel and Alonso both struggled, taking 4th and 8th position on the grid respectively. [ 15 ] Pastor Maldonado was handed a 10-place grid penalty for missing the weighbridge in the second part of qualifying. He dropped from sixth to 16th, moving Alonso one place up to seventh. [ 16 ]

With only light rain just 10 minutes before the start, all teams opted to start on slick tyres. Vettel got away poorly, dropping to seventh position, while his rival Alonso moved up into fifth. Vettel and Bruno Senna collided at turn 4 in a racing incident, which saw Vettel spin while Senna ended up hitting the rear of Pérez . Vettel suffered damage to his left sidepod but was able to carry on, albeit in 22nd position. The reigning world champion began to move up the order, as there was close ra...

Rain began to fall during the next few laps and the first cars made pit stops for intermediate tyres, including the two title contenders, while Button and Hülkenberg stayed out. This proved to be the right decision since the rain decreased shortly afterwards and cars on intermediates were forced to pit for slick tyres once again. Hülkenberg continued his strong performance by overtaking Button for the lead at the end of lap 18 (their official time differential at the finish line at the end of t...

With the two cars in front leading the field by almost a minute, debris on the track brought out the safety car on lap 23. At this point, Alonso and Vettel were running in fourth and fifth place. At the restart on lap 29, Kamui Kobayashi took fifth position from Vettel. The damage on the Red Bull car slowed Vettel down considerably more in dry conditions, and Massa helped his teammate by overtaking the German shortly after. [ 20 ] Meanwhile, at the front, Hamilton took second from his teammate a...

When the rain started again, Vettel was one of the first to pit for intermediates. Since his radio had failed, the team was not ready for him, causing a long delay. Ferrari timed Massa's pit stop well, letting Alonso take second position from him. Vettel took sixth position from Michael Schumacher , which proved sufficient to retain the title even with Alonso finishing second. [ 19 ]

"I think everything that could go wrong went wrong. As a matter of fact, though, I think we always kept believing. ... I think they tried everything to make it even harder for us, not just the others but also the circumstances: as I said, with the damage on the car, losing radio, in these conditions, when communication is so crucial, stopping just a lap too early, not having the tyres ready because communication wasn't there. Where do you start, really? I think you guys had your show and we had ...

At age 25, Vettel became the youngest triple world champion of the sport, six years younger than Ayrton Senna had been in the 1991 Formula One season . On drawing level with Senna, Vettel commented: "To win that third title here, where one of my greatest idols, Ayrton Senna, was from, it is very difficult to imagine I join him and other great names by winning three successive titles". [ 29 ] Red Bull 's team principal Christian Horner praised his driver, saying: "Sebastian has driven better than...

The Daily Mirror lauded Red Bull designer Adrian Newey for making the decision to change the engine mapping on Vettel's car after reviewing photos of the damage sustained in the first lap accident. Newey was quoted saying: "So we photographed it going past, saw huge crease in exhaust, which usually means it will soon crack and the bodywork catch fire. ... So we changed the engine mapping to keep the exhaust as cool as we could, even though it meant lost performance." [ 36 ]

"I didn't win the title, but I won so much respect from everybody."

Championship runner-up Fernando Alonso expressed pride for his team, going so far as to call the 2012 Formula One season "the best season of my career". During the podium interview with Nelson Piquet , he asserted: "Obviously we lost the championship now, but I don't think, as you said, that we lost here in Brazil, we lost in some races where we were a little bit unlucky. But this is a sport, but when you do something with your heart, when you do something with 100 per cent, you have to be proud...

Speaking about his victory, Jenson Button congratulated his team, saying: "This is the perfect way to end the season. We have had ups and downs and to end on a high bodes well for 2013." [ 39 ] His victory in this race would turn out to be his last in Formula One. [ 40 ] It would also be McLaren's last victory until the 2021 Italian Grand Prix , which was won by Daniel Ricciardo . [ 41 ]

After losing 10th place in the Constructors' Championship to Caterham , Marussia 's director of engineering Nikolai Fomenko accused driver Charles Pic of deliberately letting Vitaly Petrov pass him due to Pic having already signed a contract with Caterham for the next season. [ 48 ] No actions were taken following these accusations. In August 2018, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed that Vettel felt that his teammate Mark Webber was responsible for his bad start by pushing him tow...