Drivers’ championship
| Position | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | 53 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | 49 |
| 3 | Mark Webber | 48 |
| 4 | Jenson Button | 43 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | 43 |
| 6 | Nico Rosberg | 35 |
| 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | 34 |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | 23 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | 22 |
| 10 | Paul di Resta | 15 |
| 11 | Bruno Senna | 14 |
| 12 | Kamui Kobayashi | 9 |
| 13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | 4 |
| 14 | Pastor Maldonado | 4 |
| 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | 2 |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | 2 |
| 17 | Felipe Massa | 2 |
| 18 | Michael Schumacher | 2 |
| 19 | Timo Glock | 0 |
| 20 | Charles Pic | 0 |
| 21 | Vitaly Petrov | 0 |
| 22 | Heikki Kovalainen | 0 |
| 23 | Pedro de la Rosa | 0 |
| 24 | Narain Karthikeyan | 0 |
2012 Bahrain Grand Prix
Browse all 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix articles
akis
22nd April 2012, 14:57
great kimi’s show
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
22nd April 2012, 15:39
I hope, Kimi can fight for the championship this year, though that also depends from Lotus’ rate of development.
Todfod (@todfod)
22nd April 2012, 20:54
I’m hoping for the Lotus to develop better as well. Kimi’s just getting in the groove, I’m sure he’ll get better as the season goes on, especially in quali.
What a comeback Kimi has made. Schumacher looks like he hasn’t found his footing after 2 entire seasons in f1, and Kimi on the other hand, is performing at a higher level just 2 races into the comeback season.
Andy
22nd April 2012, 14:58
Close stuff! Will be even closer at the front if Nico gets penalised after the race
Eggry (@eggry)
22nd April 2012, 15:05
Great. after every race, the leader has been changed. Who’s next?
F1andy83
22nd April 2012, 15:06
Still waiting to see if rosberg will be punished for his ungentlemant like driving with Alonso and Hamilton.
Buttface
22nd April 2012, 19:17
The stewards have since dismissed the incident. Rosberg will not be penalised.
OOliver
22nd April 2012, 15:20
Great Job Withmarsh.
You have dropped off the lead of both Championships, keep it up.
Dan Thorn (@dan-thorn)
22nd April 2012, 15:24
For Alonso to be only 10 points off the top is remarkable. McLaren should be dominating this, but through their own mistakes and some patchy driving from Button and Hamilton, they aren’t. Think they could have spoiled a great chance of both championships.
Franton
22nd April 2012, 15:28
Not entirely sure how you can blame Button for a car failure and Hamilton for two messed up pitstops.
Ian Mark Gondwe (@img343)
22nd April 2012, 15:36
True. I think the drivers have not put a foot wrong this season.
David-A (@david-a)
22nd April 2012, 15:40
Hamilton struggled to stay ahead of Vettel in Melbourne, lagging 10 seconds behind Button, Button hit Karthikeyan in Sepang.
thiago basilio
22nd April 2012, 16:17
Hamilton struggled to stay in front of vettel because he the wrong strategy in pit stops by maclaren.Vettel didnt pass Hamilton in the track he passed in the pits.
David-A (@david-a)
22nd April 2012, 16:40
Hamilton struggled to stay ahead of Vettel because he didn’t carry his qualifying pace on into the race. LH had a car that was faster than the RBR in Button’s hands, but was only 3 seconds ahead. He left himself exposed to any extenal things happening, and it did, with Petrov bringing out the SC.
thiago basilio
22nd April 2012, 17:04
He left himself exposed to any external things happening like today (three pit-stops wrong) hahaha.
David-A (@david-a)
22nd April 2012, 17:17
Today Hamilton’s pace before the pitstops wasn’t too bad, but he was lacklustre in Melbourne and should have been further ahead of Vettel.
matt90 (@matt90)
22nd April 2012, 17:47
Hamilton didn’t have the same pace as Button in Australia, but was deeply unlucky to lose out to Vettel. Perhaps he could have protected himself better by having a bit more pace, but calling him patchy because of that one performance is ridiculous.
David-A (@david-a)
22nd April 2012, 17:57
@matt90 – I don’t think LH has been patchy overall, I just pointed out the performance in Australia wasn’t very good, in order to disagree with the guy who said that neither Mclaren driver had put a foot wrong.
matt90 (@matt90)
22nd April 2012, 18:52
Yeah, it was a reply to the thread in general really, mainly from @dan-thorn ‘s comment about the drivers being patchy.
Overwatch (@overwatch)
22nd April 2012, 15:41
What about Button in Malaysia? Of course he put a front wing wrong…
Dan Thorn (@dan-thorn)
22nd April 2012, 15:48
They haven’t shown the pace after those problems, I feel both have been quite conservative. Button was nowhere today and was clumsy in Malaysia, Lewis has been unfortunate but very reserved in the races, apart from the middle part of today. You’re right the brunt of the issues have been bad luck/the teams fault, but I’m still disappointed in how the drivers have done I the races. Unless Melbourne gave a false reading of their performance, but i suspect it’ll be a while before we know that.
infy (@infy)
22nd April 2012, 17:51
They have the best all round car but fail to get the laptimes it is capable of.
Slr (@slr)
22nd April 2012, 15:27
Nice to see Massa off the mark, solid performance today.
Eggry (@eggry)
22nd April 2012, 16:14
Yes, good to see him doing well.
Eddie (@wackyracer)
22nd April 2012, 15:32
Really poor pitstops at Mclarens, especialy at Hamilton three awful pitstops
Akin Aslan
22nd April 2012, 15:42
I dont know what so say really. I could not watch the race for some reasons but what I’ve read on the web about McLaren failing very hard, Im quite angry at them. Especially pit stops for Hamilton which was driving second at one time but the poor pit stops made up for a 6 place drop, and also very unfortunate for Button
Funkyf1 (@funkyf1)
22nd April 2012, 15:40
Webber in third… Consistency is the key! Impressed with the new Lotus team, disappointed with the old.
ccweblog
22nd April 2012, 15:50
Absolutely, if Webber can finish fourth at every race he might just win the Drivers Championship if this keeps up..!!! Haha
Preekel (@preekel)
22nd April 2012, 16:15
If Hamilton had made the moves that Rosberg did then he would have had a drive through….for sure, McLaren may lose Hamilton if they carry on with these mistakes!!!
matt90 (@matt90)
22nd April 2012, 17:50
I can’t believe they decided to wait until after the race. What basis is there for doing that?
infy (@infy)
22nd April 2012, 17:53
To get both sides of the story.
matt90 (@matt90)
22nd April 2012, 18:55
Dangerous thing to do. They didn’t give any post-race penalties luckily, but when an incident occurs that early on in a race i thought it was the stewards job to make a decision with all the information at hand.
Meander
22nd April 2012, 23:10
Lose Hamilton? Hamilton needs Mclaren more than they need him.
F1 98
22nd April 2012, 16:28
Good for Massa to get some points
Bobby Balboa
22nd April 2012, 17:50
You can put blame on McLaren this season for not having won all 4 races with a 1-2 finish? Is this what you expect & want from a grand prix season. Did you enjoy the 5 years that Ferrari & Shumi dominated?
From what I can see we have had 4 races with 4 different driver wins from 4 different teams. We have seen that different conditions (temp, tyre wear, weather etc) can make some teams strong one race then weak the next.
Renault (Lotus) was strong today & Kimi looked good for the win so I don’t care which team/driver you love or hate or who deserves to be topping the table with wins or not. At the end of the day no one can be dissapointed or hope for anything less with how the season has gone so far.
We have all be praying for this close & unpradictable racing for so long so enjoy it. I don’t want to hear “Ferrari car is an embarrasment” or “McLaren have wasted their chance at both Championships” or “Rosberg will only win 1 race this season”
Lets enjoy it for what it is. My heart will always be with 1 team & 2 drivers but I want to see them win fighting the best on the grid & not just easy lights to flag finish with no drama
Amen
vanja
22nd April 2012, 18:55
If that team is ferrari and two drivers are alonso and hamilton than I agree with you completely
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
22nd April 2012, 23:45
Vettel’s lead is 4 points. Compare that to this time last year, where his lead was 34 points …
tharris19
23rd April 2012, 1:08
There are too many variables in a race to judge drivers in a vacuum. Button and Hamilton are excellent drivers in a competitive car. However, there is a constant at Mclaren over the last couple of years. Poor race management. Check out the strategic and pitstop errors committed by the team. Ask yourself, ‘how many races could McLaren have won’? I think you will find at least four since 2007.
Wooolfy
23rd April 2012, 3:57
At times I’m shocked at ppl’s comments about a driver beings slow. All drivers want to win and so push to near 100%. The car changes characteristics due to many variables within and some beyond his control. In my opinion VMM failed to setup the cars to suit the race conditions. They went for (relative to other cars)low downforce and high top end speed, which is great for quali but makes a car a sitting duck in the race. The setup of one car is affected by the setup of others(the most suitable setup does better in the race).
Lewis or Jenson didn’t choose to drive slow, their package was relatively slow. RedBull seems to have found the right setup this weekend.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
23rd April 2012, 13:22
Massa finally scores! The drivers board looks nice and healthy and you can see that despite Rosberg’s victory in China, Mercedes are feeling it in the constructors due to Schumacher’s terrible luck.