#Drs f1 2012 driver#

#Drs f1 2012 driver#

A new floor arrives on the car for Sakhir and the impact is immediate - Vettel claims his first pole and then race victory of 2012 to become the fourth different driver to top the championship standings. The race when Adrian Newey serves notice that he was beginning to master the RB8's early-season handling difficulties. The battle for the minor positions is won by McLarens over the Red Bulls, Vettel finishing fifth after paying the price for only stopping twice after being eliminated from Q2 the day before.Д¬hampionship leader: Hamilton (45 points)ДЄlonso: Third (37 points) Vettel: Fifth (28 points) While Ferrari endure arguably their worst weekend of the whole season - the Spaniard starting and finishing ninth - Rosberg qualifies on pole by half a second and then wins his maiden race by 20 seconds. Red Bull, in contrast, hardly feature but Vettel is still on course for fourth when he suffers a puncture while lapping Narain Karthikeyan, dropping him out of the points.ДЄlonso's stay at the top of the standings proves shortlived with the Chinese GP utterly dominated by Mercedes and Nico Rosberg. Moving into the lead as Button and Lewis Hamilton fall by the wayside, the Spaniard is chased down by Sauber's Sergio Perez but a small error from the Mexican in the slippery conditions provides Alonso the breathing space he needs to win. McLaren again prove unbeatable over a single lap, but race-suspending levels of rain level the playing field on the Sunday and, from a seemingly unthreatening eighth on the grid, Alonso produces one of the drives of his career. Vettel: Second (18 points) Alonso: Fifth (10 points) In different ways, second and fifth places for Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso therefore represent tremendous race results. The opening weekend proves a damage-limitation exercise for both Red Bull and Ferrari with both teams struggling in qualifying - with the latter missing Q3 altogether with their F2012 more than a second off the pace. McLaren underline their status as the early-season pacesetters by locking out the front row and then, courtesy of Jenson Button, winning the Melbourne curtain raiser.