Heading into the very last race of the 2012 Formula 1 Grand Prix season, the driver's championship was Vettel's to lose. Fierce qualifying placed McLaren's double aces Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button at the front of the grid. This is Hamilton's last pole position before leaving for Mercedes next year. The second row on the grid belongs to Webber at third and Vettel at fourth. Massa edges into the top 5 and Hulkenberg squeezes just ahead of Alonso at seventh.
If this were a straightforward race, then the order of the grid stood to significantly lean in Vettel's favor once the track settles. Team orders will likely cause Webber to surrender 3rd to Vettel, while Alonso will have to battle Hulkenberg before Ferrari could find a way to make its two drivers coordinate in the race ahead. What's more, Alonso would have to finish third and Vettel would have to not score any points if Alonso were to win the championship.
A notoriously unforgiving track, the Sunday morning race was further twisted as rain, the great equalizer, came down on Sao Paulo 20 minutes before the hour. That said, team engineers armed with laptops were confident that starting on the slicks were the way to go.
At the start, Lewis Hamilton controlled the pack into turn 1 as Button went defensive to hold Felipe Massa's quick launch at bay. In fact, the Brazilian even got past Button, much to the delight to the home crowd, and even made a try for the lead. Lewis Hamilton did a better job defending his position and Massa never found a way ahead.
Farther behind, Alonso jumped from seventh to fifth thanks to a perfect launch at the start. Alonso briefly edged ahead of Webber to challenge for fourth.
Just as Webber was feeling immense pressure from Alonso, Vettel saw his chances flash right before his eyes when a poor launch pulled him in the middle of the pack. Coming into turn four, Vettel made a bold cut from the outside into the apex, closing his wedge right into Senna's line. Not only did the contact cause Vettel to spin around and fall far down the grid, the impact also caused a puncture in the exhaust right behind his sidepod. The loss of positions, the damage in aero and the compromised heat management gave the team a collective cardiac arrest. Is this the end of Vettel's title fight?
Thankfully, Vettel's Red Bull RB8 was still driveable and the young champion quickly brought the fight to the backmarkers.
Causing more chaos, rain grew stronger as the race continued as teams frantically number crunched to improvise new tire strategies. By lap 11, a number of racers were keen to return to the pits for a new set of intermediate tires as flags waved to warn slippery conditions. On the other hand, Button was capable of staying out of the track and nursing his slick tires despite the wet and greasy surface. Meanwhile, Hamilton started to struggle and dropped behind his teammate before eventually boxing his car for new tires.
An interesting gamble, McLaren hedged their bets by placing the two cars on different strategies. If the rain let off and the track dries out, Button will benefit. If the rain persists, Hamilton's tire change will pay dividends.
A frustrating day for strategies, the track is too dry for inters and too damp to confidently stay out in slicks. Drivers that pit for inters on lap 11 were forced back to the pits on lap 18 after a drying track caused tires to overheat too quickly.
Not too long after emerging from the pits with fresh tires, Nico Rosberg shredded his right rear tire on debris on lap 21, causing a safety car to emerge on lap 23 in order to control the pace while track marshals cleaned the circuit. Thanks to the new development, both Jenson Button and Nico Hulkenberg dived into the pits and emerged with new tires still at the head of the pack.
Chaos returned once again when the safety car left the track. Eager to get a good jump on the green flag, Vettel, Webber, and Kobayashi entered turn 1 three-wide. Fighting for real estate, Webber was forced to side off the track to avoid contact with his teammate. It was Kobayashi that would win the contest, as he dove inside Vettel to pass both Red Bulls. On a rapid stint, the Sauber would even catch and pass Alonso in the Ferrari. Two laps later, Alonso passes Kobayashi back.
Just when Vettel's race seemed over before it started when Senna spun him on lap 1, the two championship contenders barely have a car between them as Vettel battled his way up to 6th by lap 33 while Alonso dropped from the McLarens and Nico Hulkenberg.
By lap 40, damp conditions continue to catch drivers by surprise as Paul di Resta, Mark Webber, Petrov and Hulkenberg managed to spin the cars. Hulkenberg's spin gave his lead back to Hamilton. What's more, the increased rain caused Kimi Raikkonen to fly off the track as well before recovering at a restricted zone of the track, forcing him to double back and lose valuable time.
The most impactful racing incident finally occurred on lap 55, when an ambitious Hulkenberg looked to get around race leader Lewis Hamilton as the two cars approached backmarker traffic. Just as Hamilton looked to get around Timo Glock, Hulkenberg dived into the inside but overshot the braking point, plowing the Ford India into McLaren, taking out Lewis Hamilton from the race.
For the third and last time this 2012 season, Hamilton goes from race leader to DNF. More importantly, this moved Alonso onto the podium. What's more, a malfunction between radio communications caused Sebastian Vettel to come to the pits when the team wasn't ready, causing a lousy and costly tire change.
Fortunes continued to dramatically shift between Alonso and Vettel's favor until the very end. On lap 57, the Ferrari was also battling poor tires as a heart stopping spin on 57 almost spelled the end to Alonso's race. Thankfully, Alonso's quick reactions and quick dab of oppo correction allowed him to save the car.
Eventually, a serious accident on lap 70 ended Paul di Resta's race as he slammed hard into the concrete wall on the last corner. A safety car was immediately sent out and the race would end with Jenson Button in first place, Alonso second, Massa third at his home race, and Vettel in sixth. In the end, Sebastian Vettel would become the youngest driver to ever earn 3 consecutive world championship titles. The difference between Vettel and Alonso? Just 3 points.
Before race finish, back markers Caterham and Marussia were playing for keeps as well as the teams battled for the all-important tenth place in constructor points. An incredible overtake by Vitaly Petrov ahead of Charles Pic allowed Caterham to edge out, giving the team an incredible boost of energy and race rewards.
After the smoke cleared, Vettel celebrated his historic championship with his team while Fernando Alonso accepted a bittersweet second place on the podium.
Ahead of the race, we believed the championship was Vettel's to lose. Even though Vettel did eventually come out on top, the conditions at Sao Paulo reminds us that it's never over until the fat lady sings. When Sky Sports spokes with chief designer Adrian Newey after the race, the modern day Da Vinci already revealed that the team was hard at work finishing the next generation RB9 for next season with the vision to win a fourth title.
