Sebastian Vettel once again led from start to finish to win his fourth consecutive race, lead for over 200 consecutive laps and extend his lead over Fernando Alonso. It could have ended better for Vettel who had Mark Webber behind him for most of the race until a KERs issue allowed Alonso to gain and ultimately overtake the stricken Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton also came close to catching Webber, but the Australian managed to find enough speed when he needed it to hold on to secure that final podium place.
The start of the race was eventful but not so much for any incidents which many are used to. With Ferrari so much quicker on the straight, Alonso had managed to overtake both McLaren cars to get into third. Jenson Button regained his place from Alonso on the next corner but Hamilton couldn't overtake the Ferrari.
The start wasn't wholly incident free and it was Michael Schumacher who suffered a puncture to instantly end any chance of the veteran winning any points. The puncture was suffered after he contacted the front wing of Jean-Eric Vergne. The damage sustained caused Vergne to pit as well as Schumacher, but both were able to continue.
By the fourth lap, Alonso had managed to make his straight line speed count by overtaking Button to gain that third place. Two laps later, Button had lost another place as he just didn't seem to have any real race pace, it was Hamilton who had gained the fourth place.
There were battles towards the bottom end of the points throughout the race. One of those was between Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez which saw the Force India overtake the Sauber on lap-14 to gain eighth. Six laps later, Perez ended up suffering a puncture after contact with Daniel Ricciardo in a carbon copy incident to Schumacher. The Mexican did manage to continue but ultimately had to retire on lap-22 for unforeseen damage to the suspension.
Lap-29 just highlighted the pace of the Ferrari when Kimi Raikkonen overtook Felipe Massa for fifth place. But the Brazilian soon regained the place by overtaking the Finn on the straight. Pastor Maldonado became the third driver to suffer a puncture on lap-31 after contact with Kamui Kobayashi, but the Venezuelan was also able to continue.
Pedro De La Rosa wasn't so fortunate as he became the second retirement of the race on lap-45. The Spaniard suffered a brake failure that caused him to spin off and hit the barrier. It was around that time that Webber announced his loss of KERs and the Ferrari team jumped on it straight away. By lap-48, the Ferrari had completely caught up and managed to overtake the Red Bull to secure that second place.
The battle for the final point ended with Bruno Senna overtaking Nico Rosberg on lap-52. It also ended miserably for the other Mercedes car, Schumacher ended up having to retire on lap-57, his eighth in his final ever season and to make matters worse, he is to be investigated for ignoring blue flags. Race result:
1.Vettel (Red Bull), 2.Alonso (Ferrari), 3.Webber (Red Bull), 4.Hamilton (McLaren), 5.Button (McLaren), 6.Massa (Ferrari), 7.Raikkonen (Lotus), 8.Hulkenberg (Force India), 9.Grosjean (Lotus), 10.Senna (Williams), 11.Rosberg (Mercedes), 12.Di Resta (Force India), 13.Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 14.Kobayashi (Sauber), 15.Vergne (Toro Rosso), 16.Maldonado (Williams), 17.Petrov (Caterham), 18.Kovalainen (Caterham), 19.Pic (Marussia), 20.Glock (Marussia), 21.Karthikeyan (HRT) DNF: Perez (Sauber), De La Rosa (HRT), Schumacher (Mercedes)
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