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-   -   2012 F1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand prix - Yas Marina Circuit (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intl-motorsport/128505-2012-f1-etihad-airways-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-yas-marina-circuit-6.html)

Fantastic podium for today's race.

Kimi - Great comeback win!
Alonso - Making the most of the opportunities
Vettel - Storming drive, possibly his best of the season

I think this race showcased why the three guys on the podium are also the 3 leading drivers in the WDC.

Too bad for Lewis. If he was running at the end, the podium would most probably have looked different.

At the end, I think Vettel would be a happier man today than Alonso, even though his lead in the WDC has got marginally smaller.

Easily, the best race I have seen in long time.

While I always liked Vettel, must say, today I became a fan of him. He drove like a true champion. Scathing through entire lineup almost twice is no mean feat (he moved up to 6th and then dropped back to 21st again). If there were 4-5 more laps, I suspect, he would have even challenged Alonso as well.

Though I am not fan of Alonso, he drove quite impressive and of course, Kimi was there as cool as always.

BTW, so many incidents in one race? Rosberg flying over Naren, Webber driving almost like man possessed till he ran out of his luck and so on.

After long long time, I so thoroughly enjoyed a F1 race.

What a race! Kimi back with a win and such a great drive and not to mention that start. Great drives by both Alonso and Vettel. Though in the podium interview he did sound a bit overconfident and even dropped the F-bomb. :) Too bad for Hamilton, McLaren screws up again! No wonder he's leaving (can't win if you don't have reliability).

Great to see the Iceman back on top though! Go Kimi!

Best race of the season, good racing from all three podium guys. Post race interview with Horner revealed that Vettel was very chilled out yesterday, playing drums in his room and damn cocky about being on the podium!

Man, I am so emotionally drained, overwhelmed, bowled over after just sitting and watching it. What a fantastic race. Brilliant show put up by the ensemble of greatest drivers of our time. I want to stick my neck and say this is the best race of the last 3 seasons.
Despite being a Fernando fan, delighted for Kimi the great. "Kimi keep your tyres warm","Yes,yes,yes.am doing all I can" ROFL. what a character this man is!
Great race for Sebastian as well, good fight with Jenson.
Narain was lucky to walk away unscathed after that collision with Nico.

Gritty, yes, but if not for the two safety car period we wouldn't ve seen him anywhere close to podium for sure!! And yes good choice of words btw ;) On the other hand @aussiegrit had a really bad day at the office.
Enjoyable commentary by Karun-pedia! Like he said, I need to go lie down as well!! What a bloody good race!

Possibly one of the best races of the season. Last 10 laps, Kimi, Fernando, Jenson, Seb all going all out trading fastest laps. Can't remember anything like that. Alonso was so close to that 1 second gap to get the DRS, which Kimi managed to hold on to quite well.

Bad luck for Lewis, but once Kimi took the lead, he became a totally different driver and started pulling away from the Alonso. He is the driver of the race for me. Vettel of course had a great result, but he was greatly helped by two safety car periods and drivers self destructing in front of him.

And to top it all we got to hear some classic Kimi on the radio :)

F1 doesn't get better than this. Period.

A race full of incidents, full of exciting clashes. Right from the start, upto the end, teeth-gritting, lip-biting, edge-of-the-sofa-seat action!

By the way we're surely going to see a headline in Abu Dhabi's local newspaper tomorrow morning - "F1 driver Romain Grosjean found strangled in his room; prime suspect is a certain Aussie"!

But seriously, what a race. Seb trailing from the start, catching up with the others, on a 2-stop strategy nonetheless, being helped by the two safety car periods; excellent strategy with a bit of luck and also great driving. Alonso gunning for it furiously, not giving up until the end, even taking on Kimi in the closing laps of the race. Who knows what the results would have been if there were a few more, say 4-5 laps to the race!

And talking about the Iceman himself - clearly in his element today, not a single mistake, calm and composed throughout, (leaving aside the snaps at his engineer via radio :uncontrol!), brilliant getaway at the start of the race, even better at the restart after the 2nd safety car. Fending off Furious Fernando till the end, and finally bringing home a Lotus to the top step of the podium, after 26 long years! Brought back memories! 8th different race winner this season, and the most thrilling Abu Dhabi GP ever!

Podium Ceremony: 'Nando, stoic as ever, no emotion, colder than even the Iceman if that. Kimi, obviously happy. But Vettel confused me the most - his smug happiness saying something maybe? He also said that he expected to be on the podium; clearly a confident man! And humour - DC getting the drink poured by mischievy-Seb onto his head surreptitiously even as he questioned Kimi!

Whew, a completely exhaustive GP. Need to take some time off to catch my breath.

Probably the most amazing race of the season. Not a fan Vettel, but it was just brilliant the way he got into 3rd. No wonder he was the happiest person at the post-race interview.

Exactly, this was indeed dismissed as another boring race :D

And Kimi’s comments on the radio was hilarious!

Good Race: One word, Respect to the Iceman and Alonso. Not to mention a good well executed race plan from Red Bull for Flying seb, Felt sorry for webber and lewis.

Scary incident of NK, was glad to see KN and Nicko out safe.

1987 Lotus won a GP last and now they are back in style :) Welcome back Lotus.

Loved the Pit radio of Iceman, "Leave me alone, I know what to do" and "I dont want any reminders" Well, Iceman is back, cant wait for the U.S. GP now.

-Sajan

Just came across this on another forum. Couldn't resist posting. Pretty hilarious!

I couldn't watch today's race, and when I logged in to check the result I was like "Raikkonen?!! Seriously??!!":Shockked:

Brilliant, Absolutely brilliant result for Kimi and Lotus. Feel sad for Hami though, but what to do, these things happen. It was his race to lose and in the end that's what happened.

And the news doing rounds is that "The Iceman is back !!":thumbs up

Fantastic race!

Poor Hamilton. Felt really bad for him.

I am taking nothing away from Vettel. But he had the RedBull set up for the race and got lucky with 2 safety car periods. That ate away the gap, which was crucial.

For me, the star of the race was Kimi and Alonso. The way Kimi pulled out a fastest lap immediately after the second safety car period and that funny pit radio on warming the tyre was simply brilliant. Kimi built up a decisive gap to move out of DRS attack.

Alonso' duel with Webber was top class. And the way Alonso clawed back on the older tyres to put a 1:44.0 on the penultimate lap was staggering. That F2012 was sliding all over the place and got very close to the wall as well. Amazing race. The best of the season so far.

I guess its a very popular win. Even I am so happy for Lotus and Kimi. Well done. :)

I think that because Vettel started last and there were 2 SC periods, everyone assumes he benefited hugely from them. I actually don't think Vettel gained all that much with safety cars. He was upto 13th on merit before the first SC was deployed. Then he pitted during the SC period and I think he was dead last when the SC came in. As for the 2nd SC, he pitted before the 2nd SC and was 4th already when the SC was deployed. It did help him gain one place.

That was a fantastic race!

Vettel drove brilliantly, safety car or no safety car, Vettel drove an outstanding race.

Kimi, well, vintage Kimi. His comments on the radio were absolutely hilarious! :D

Alonso drove a clinical race and brought in valuable points to kind of bridge the gap in the WDC.

The star of the day for me was Vettel, he was good on track and was bad off it.(He dropped the F-Bomb during the interview with D.C :D)

I can't help feel bad for Lewis though, the car gave up on him when he was had a comfortable lead at the front twice this year now. But appreciate his spirit where he wasn't throwing any tantrums on the pitwall though he's leaving for Mercedes next year.

He may not have gained any place but Vettel gained massively to cut down the gap on track with both the safety car periods. And that was crucial. Starting from the pit lane, he would not have gotten close to the leaders without the safety car.

And the best time to pit is the just before a safety car period and RBR got just that with the second safety car.

And Vettel had fresher soft tyres. If it were not for the heroics of Kimi and Alonso on used hards, Vettel could have got them as well. So, I got to hand it to them.