The Midfield
After overcoming an early incident with team mate Sutil, Paul di Resta drove a solid race to take eighth place ahead of Grosjeans podium-quality Lotus and temporary leader Hulkenberg. Adrian Sutil was taken out of the race on lap five after Gutierrez in the Sauber over-cooked his braking into the hairpin whilst duelling with Perez, hitting the back and breaking the rear wing off. It was a disappointing way to end the race after their pace had been strong all weekend, but at least Force India banished the wheel nut demons that ruined their race in Malaysia. Sergio Perez had an eventful race at times whilst battling with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen on their way back through the field after the first stops as he held to McLarens two-stop approach. With some questionable moves that led to Raikkonens nose being put out of place in more ways than one, he eventually finished in 11th place, just short of the points and was perhaps lucky not to be cited for his defensive tactics. He did demonstrate however that his smooth style can look after tyres, doing a 25-lap opening stint and 24-lap final stint, using the option tyre for 6 laps briefly in the middle of the race. Jean-Eric Vergne had an eventful race in colliding with Mark Webber on lap 15, though it was more the Australians fault than his own and he suffered damage to the floor that hampered his pace for the rest of the race, meaning he was unable to challenge for the points which his team mate demonstrated were on offer. The Williams cars were unable to move forward from their poor qualifying, languishing in 13th and 14th places and lacking any pace to make an impact on the rest of the midfield, and generally had an uneventful race that must have given the team on the pit wall plenty of time to wonder where their 2012 pace went.