Formula 1

About the season

Seven different drivers won the first seven races of the season (Button, Alonso, Rosberg, Vettel, Maldonado, Webber, Hamilton), a run of unpredictability never repeated since. Fernando Alonso led the championship for much of the year in a Ferrari that was clearly not the class of the field, still holding a 39-point lead over Vettel with seven races to go. Vettel then reeled him in with four straight wins in Singapore, Japan, Korea and India, before surviving a first-lap spin at the Brazilian finale to fight back to sixth and clinch his third title by just three points over Alonso. The Brazilian Grand Prix finished behind the safety car amid a wet, crash-strewn finale. Sebastian Vettel won the 2012 Drivers' Championship with 281 points (Red Bull), 3 points ahead of the runner-up. Red Bull won the Constructors' Championship with 460 points, 60 points ahead of the runner-up. Across 20 completed races this season, there were 89 retirements. 8 different drivers won a race this season. Sebastian Vettel took the most race wins, 5 in total. Button won the season-opening race, the Australian Grand Prix. The closest finish of the season came at the Monaco Grand Prix, with a gap of just 0.643 seconds. The Monaco Grand Prix saw the most retirements of the season, with 9 drivers failing to finish. The season's biggest upset win came from Alonso at the European Grand Prix, starting from grid position 11. The most dominant win of the season came at the Japanese Grand Prix, with a margin of 20.6 seconds. Vettel made the biggest gain of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, from grid position 24 to finishing 3 (up 21 places). Button won the Brazilian Grand Prix, the final race of the season.