The Ice Man kept cool in hot action packed 2012 Abu Dhabi F1 race

Kimi Raikkonen crosses the finish line and wins the 2012 Abu Dhabi F1 GP with Lotus E20 at Yas Marina circuit

Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen has sealed the first victory of his Formula One comeback: the 19th of his career. The Finn used a one-stop strategy, stopping on lap 31 to move from the soft tyres to the medium tyres. Raikkonen, who started fourth on the grid, took the lead following the retirement of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton on lap 19, and did not relinquish it until the finish. Second place for Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso – who used an identical strategy to Raikkonen, stopping three laps earlier – meant that the Spaniard reduced his gap to the lead of the drivers’ championship to 10 points with two races to go, pushing the Lotus driver all the way to the chequered flag.

The majority of the 24 starters began the race on the soft compound, with the exception of Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher, the Williams of Bruno Senna and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel: who started from the pit lane after having his qualifying times disallowed.

The Red Bull driver used a different strategy to boost himself from last – having been released from the pit lane once the rest of the field was into turn one – to third at the finish. Despite some damage to his front wing endplate, Vettel was already up to 13th by lap seven, when he benefitted from a safety car that closed up the field and altered the tyre strategy. Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne, Force India’s Paul Di Resta and Lotus driver Romain Grosjean were the only drivers who changed their tyres during the safety car period. Vergne and Di Resta changed to the medium tyre while Grosjean changed to the soft tyre (having made his first pit stop on the opening lap from soft to medium tyres following an incident at the start). Vettel also changed tyres from medium to soft on lap 13, when he came into the pits for a nose change, still under the safety car period. Vettel then used the extra speed of the soft compound – worth around half a second per lap – to climb up to second place and he pitted for his final set of softs on lap 37, rejoining in fourth just before a final three-lap safety car period that closed up the field once more.

Alonso was the first driver in the top six to make a scheduled stop on lap 28, moving from the soft to the medium compound, followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button and Williams driver Pastor Maldonado on the following lap. The final one-stopper to pit was the other Williams of Bruno Senna, who went from the medium to the soft tyre on lap 32 and finished eighth.

The race started in track and ambient temperatures of around 30 degrees centigrade, which dropped slightly as the race continued, minimising tyre wear. The smooth track surface of Abu Dhabi also helped to contain the amount of tyre wear, as the teams made the most of their knowledge of Pirelli’s compounds accumulated over the year. Most drivers were able to make a one-stop strategy work, while the highest-placed two-stopper was Vettel in third.

Pit Stop Summary – 2012 Abu Dhabi F1 GP

S = Soft compound | M = Medium compound | N = New compound | U = Used compound | NC = Not classified | SG = Stop&Go

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