The 2012 Formula One racing season could well go down as one of the greatest of all time, and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix may well be its showpiece. The Yas Marina circuit witnessed the return of the 'Iceman' Kimi Raikkonen to the top step of the podium as the Finnish driver ended a 15 year wait for Lotus to register their first win as a manufacturer since Ayrton Senna won the United States Grand Prix in Detroit in 1987. Fernando Alonso finished just a second behind the Flying Finn, producing another exceptional drive which included a bit of everything to cut the gap in the Drivers' Championship. However, it was the third placed man Sebastian Vettel, who responded to all his critics with perhaps his greatest performance ever as he started the race from dead last to finish on the podium to minimize the damage to his title challenge. Vettel will thus take a 10 point lead with him to Austin, which will incidentally signal the return of the United States GP in the penultimate race of the season.

Sebastian Vettel's qualifying annulment due to the absence of sufficient fuel in his car being made available for testing meant that the fight for the Drivers' Championship between the young German and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was well and truly back on. Instead of starting the race from the back of the field, Red Bull decided to work on Vettel's car overnight and start from pit lane instead allowing him to set the car up to make overtaking a tad easier. He was also one of only three drivers alongwith Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna who started the race on the prime tyres.

Lewis Hamilton took qualifying honours for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with his second pole position at the Yas Marina circuit this evening. The McLaren driver was utterly dominant and left his rivals trailing in his wake by some margin. Red Bull Racing, who have been qualifying kings in recent races were second and third, with Mark Webber beating championship leader Sebastian Vettel to line up on the front row. Vettel did not have the cleanest of sessions with a couple of mistakes early on and was unhappy with his ultimate lap.

He will however be relatively content as his main championship rival Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari had pace enough only for 7th place on the grid.

Last Sunday, Fernando Alonso drove one of the best races of his career to finish second in India, and the Spaniard declared he was still confident that he could win the Drivers' championship this year.

Today in the Yas Marina paddock, he was asked where that confidence came from. "I think we believe and we trust in the team and the job we do," he began. "We have shown that we never give up and know how to fight until the end. When things become stressful and difficult, we can still give 100% and the team has a lot of experience fighting for world championships. Everyone is very motivated and in India we saw some good signs in terms of pace compared to Red Bull, even if we need a couple more tenths, especially on Saturday. On top of that, we have some updates here and there will be some more in the USA. The season has had its ups and downs and we have seen four consecutive "ups" for Red Bull, so we think it has to go down sooner or later!"

As far as this weekend is concerned, the Ferrari man is relying on a combination of factors to get a good result. "We have tried to prepare for this race better than ever," he revealed. "We have some new parts that we will be checking tomorrow. We don't think we will close the gap to Red Bull completely, with only five days between India and Abu Dhabi. There is no magic part in Formula 1 but we are trying to put them under pressure after they had four very easy races. We want to be close enough to them to capitalise on anything they do not do perfectly, while we need to be perfect for these next three race weekends. Mechanical failure is always in the air, not just for them, but also for us. We have to make sure we have a very strong car, so that we can do all three last races with no mechanical problems. We know that Red Bull can be a bit more fragile, like Webber's KERS failure in India, so we need to push them and be on the limit, because if it had been Vettel who had the problem, no one would have noticed because he was ten seconds in front."

Inevitably, the topic of the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was raised, when Fernando looked set to take the title at what was the final round, but fell at the last hurdle, stuck behind a slower car. "We are not thinking about the race here in 2010 when we lost the championship: we want to win the championship at the last race this year in Brazil. Thanks to KERS and DRS we should not have a repeat of the situation in 2010 that lost me the title when I was stuck for too long behind another car. In the last two years we have seen that these elements have produced exciting racing with plenty of overtaking."

Finally, it was time for Fernando to rubbish the idea raised in the media that he and the team's Technical Director had fallen out. "An argument with Pat Fry after the race in India? A nice invention from someone in the Italian media. It was quite creative to be honest! Now or later, I will speak to him to see how he invented this. We know and it's a fact that we are slower than Red Bull: we all agree, me the team, our fans, everyone knows. We are very united in our efforts to fix this situation."

Reigning double world champion Sebastian Vettel completed a perfect weekend in India, completing a pole position to chequered flag victory at the Buddh International Circuit to extend his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 13 points with 3 races to go. Vettel's championship rival, Fernando Alonso, made the most of his Ferrari, climbing up three places from his 5th place starting position to finish an excellent second behind the young German. Mark Webber, who appeared to be struggling with his KERS towards the end of the race, lost second place to Alonso late in the piece, but managed to soak up enormous pressure from Lewis Hamilton to hang on to the final spot on the podium and collect some crucial constructors' championship points for Red Bull Racing.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished fourth and fifth in their McLarens, with Button taking the honours of posting the fastest lap on the very last lap of the race. Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, NIco Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean and Bruno Senna completed the top 10.

Sebastian Vettel came, saw and conquered as the German Double World Champion took a 4th consecutive victory on the bounce in the Indian GP to extend his lead over Fernando Alonso in the chase for the drivers' title to 13 points. The Reigning Double Champion in the process also took his second consecutive Indian GP victory with teammate Mark Webber finishing in 3rd place having weathered the storm to finish ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who was right on the Aussie's tail for the final set of corners.

The Red Bulls starting from the front row for a third successive race had a clean getaway as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were quick off the blocks to ensure they stay away from the DRS zone. German Vettel set the track on fire to open up a 2 second gap to the chasing pack lead by his Aussie teammate Mark Webber.

Sebastian Vettel took his 35th career Pole Position in supreme style as he and teammate Mark Webber locked out the front row of the grid for the third consecutive race. The German was barely troubled in the hour long qualifying session at the Indian Grand Prix as he lead a formations flying starting grid with the McLarens 3-4 and Ferraris 5-6. Lewis Hamilton edged out Jenson Button in the battle for third place while a lackluster showing from Ferrari, who still lack the pace to challenge Red Bull on Saturdays, saw Fernando Alonso predictably out qualify teammate Felipe Massa.

Raikkonen finished best of the rest in 7th place in his Lotus in an incredibly close qualifying session at the Buddh International Circuit, while sentimental favourite Michael Schumacher was down the field in 14th place.

Sebastian Vettel continued to dominate proceedings at the Buddh International Circuit as the Reigning Double World Champion, in hot pursuit of a third title, set a stonking 1:25.842 second lap. The German was in cruise control throughout the hour long session as McLaren's Jenson Button was his closest competitor, the Briton being the meat in a Red Bull sandwich. Button finished in 2nd place with a strong 1:26.034 lap while Mark Webber confirmed Red Bulls pace as he drove a personal best lap of 1:26.108s.

Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen rounded off the top 5, with Bruno Senna in a strong 6th place for Williams, with Vettel's championship rival Fernando Alonso in his Scarlet Ferrari concentrating on a different program, finishing 7th fastest 0.679 s off Vettel's personal best.