Sebastian Vettel may have finished just one position behind him, but Fernando Alonso still ate into the Red Bull’s points lead in a truly dramatic Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Ferrari finished second and is now ten points behind with two races remaining in 2012.
From sixth on the grid following Vettel’s late-night demotion to the back, Alonso made up one spot at the start and immediately overtook Mark Webber on the opening lap. He then took advantage of a selection of incidents in front and charged towards winner Kimi Räikkönen over the final handful of laps – finishing within a second of the Lotus.
“I’m very happy!” Alonso said after the race. “We had to fight for the whole race because we weren’t really super-competitive this weekend. We had good overtaking and a good strategy and that even gave us the chance to fight for the win. After starting sixth, second was the maximum we could do and we’ll keep fighting for this title until the very end.”
Having caught Räikkönen, Alonso’s collection of 18 points reduces Sebastian Vettel’s championship-leading margin to ten, with two races now remaining in the USA and Brazil.
“We just concentrated on our own race, but Seb did a very good job and used the performance of his car, plus taking advantage of two Safety Cars to help him,” the Spaniard began to sum up. “There’s nothing we can do about that, but just focus on ourselves and maybe still have a chance to win.”
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:45:58.667 |
| 2. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +0.852 |
| 3. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | +4.163 |
| 4. | J. Button | McLaren | +7.787 |
| 5. | P. Maldonado | Williams | +13.007 |
| 6. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | +20.076 |
| 7. | F. Massa | Ferrari | +22.896 |
| 8. | B. Senna | Williams | +23.542 |
| 9. | P. di Resta | Force India | +24.160 |
| 10. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | +27.463 |
| Full results | |||
| Fernando Alonso | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Fernando Alonso photos | |||
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