Vettel entered the final race of the season with a thirteen-point lead over Alonso. Vettel, too, encountered difficulties throughout the season contact with a backmarker left him to finish outside the points in Malaysia, while alternator failures at the European and Italian Grands Prix cost him valuable points and exclusion from qualifying in Abu Dhabi led him to start from the pit lane. However, costly first-lap retirements in Belgium and Japan allowed his rivals to catch up, and defending World Champion Sebastian Vettel – like Alonso, a two-time title winner – took the lead in the sixteenth race of the season. Alonso maintained his hold on the championship lead for the next seven races, taking his third win in Germany and finishing on the podium in the United Kingdom, Italy and Singapore. It was not until the European Grand Prix in June that a driver, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, won his second race of the year, and with it, emerged as a championship contender. The early season was tumultuous, with seven different drivers winning the first seven races of the championship a record for the series. After being cancelled in 2011 due to civil protests, the Bahrain Grand Prix also returned to the calendar. The 2012 season saw the return of the United States Grand Prix, which was held at the Circuit of the Americas, a purpose-built circuit in Austin, Texas. The championship was contested over twenty rounds, which started in Australia on 18 March and ended in Brazil on 25 November.

It featured the 63rd FIA Formula One World Championship, a motor racing series for Formula One cars, recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) – the governing body of motorsport – as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 66th season of FIA Formula One motor racing.

Kimi Räikkönen finished the season in third place on his return to F1, driving for Lotus.

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