2012 Indian Grand Prix

Fine, Dry, a little hazy and a little dusty [ 2 ] Air Temp 30 °C (86 °F) [ 2 ]

The 2012 Indian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2012 Formula 1 Airtel Indian Grand Prix ) [ 1 ] was a Formula One motor race held on 28 October 2012 at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida , Uttar Pradesh , India . [ 4 ] The race was the seventeenth round of the 2012 championship , and marked the second running of the Indian Grand Prix .

Ferrari was the centre of controversy over the course of the weekend when they displayed the flag of the Italian Navy on the nose of the F2012 in support of the Italian sailors held by Indian authorities over a shooting incident that resulted in the deaths of two Indian fishermen in February 2012. [ 10 ]

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre. [ 11 ]

The first practice session was run without incident. Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time, despite having spent most of the ninety minutes of the session in his garage. Jenson Button was second, three-tenths of a second behind Vettel, with Fernando Alonso in third, a further tenth of a second behind. [ 13 ] Vettel was fastest in the second session as well, setting a time one tenth of a second faster than teammate Mark Webber and six-tenths of a second faster than Fernando Alonso . [ 14 ] The un...

Seven teams were represented in Q3, but the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg elected not to run and consequently took tenth place on the grid. Sergio Pérez and Pastor Maldonado did well to qualify their cars in eighth and ninth positions; the Lotus of Räikkönen was in front of them in seventh. The session was split into two informal phases, with cars choosing to make two attempts at a good time. Sebastian Vettel made a mistake on his first flying lap and ran across turn 7, but he set a lap worthy of pol...

Sebastian Vettel took a dominant win, which was his 4th consecutive one ahead of Ferrari 's Fernando Alonso who got past Mark Webber when the latter suffered from a KERS problem in his Red Bull . Lewis Hamilton closed up to Webber but couldn't get past and had to settle for 4th place. After this race Vettel extended his Championship lead to 13 points over Alonso. [ 17 ]

There was speculation in the media that the chaotic Indian customs regulations might have cost Fernando Alonso the race. This was because Ferrari could not get certain crucial auto parts and equipment flown into India because of the complex paperwork associated with Indian customs. [ 18 ]

There was also some discontent between Ferrari technical director Pat Fry and Alonso, when Fry stated on Twitter that "In order to be where we wanted and where we were capable of being, we needed to be perfect today and we weren't", after Alonso qualified fifth behind the Red Bulls and the McLarens . Alonso apparently took this as a jibe against his driving skills, and the Ferrari management had to prevent him from responding to it publicly. [ 18 ]