Fernando Alonso finished second in a Ferrari with his championship rival Sebastian Vettel third for Red Bull, having started from the pit lane.

Räikkönen's radio communications during the race were widely reported, particularly his comment to his engineer on lap 23: “Just leave me alone, I know what I'm doing.” The Grand Prix was contested by twelve teams with two drivers each.

The teams (also known as constructors) were Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Lotus, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams, Caterham, HRT and Marussia.

[8] Despite winning the last four Grands Prix Vettel felt that his lead in the Drivers' Championship remained "vulnerable" and did not believe his Red Bull team had proven themselves as the fastest in the field.

Williams drivers Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado tested a new front wing during the Friday practice sessions which had three small flaps on its upper section but opted to run an older specification for qualifying and the race.

[13] Force India introduced a new chassis for Paul di Resta who had struggled with handling issues with his previous monocoque.

[5] Conditions were hot and dry for the Friday practice sessions with air and track temperatures falling as sunset emerged meaning lap times were faster in the evening.

Michael Schumacher, Maldonado, Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas and Räikkönen rounded out the top ten fastest drivers of the session.

His teammate Button was third quickest, with Webber fourth despite losing time towards the end of the ninety-minute period with a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) cooling leak.

Vettel was in his garage for fifty-five minutes because his mechanics rectified a problem with his brake callipers; he managed to do one flying lap with the fastest time in the track's second sector to secure the third quickest-time overall.

Grosjean was sixth in the faster of the two Lotus cars despite losing track time as his brakes were bled in the pit lane.

At the end of the session, Webber was driving slowly into the pit lane when Räikkönen closed towards the Red Bull driver who took evasive action to avoid a collision.

The second part of qualifying lasted fifteen minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions eleven to seventeen.

[21] Hamilton set the fastest time in all three sessions and clinched his sixth pole position of the season with a lap of one minute and 40.630 seconds.

[22] Vettel secured third position but was ordered by Red Bull via radio to stop on his in-lap because his car was running low on fuel.

Officials from Formula One's governing body the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile were unable to extract a one-litre fuel sample required for analysis and Vettel was moved to the back of the grid.

[25] Red Bull elected to start Vettel in the pit lane after taking his car out of parc fermé and changed his gear ratios along with his suspension as well as the creation of a low-drag aerodynamic setup to allow overtaking easier for the driver.

[24][27] As the five red lights went out to signal the start of the race, Hamilton maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first corner.

[24] Alonso made a good start when he passed Button and overtook Webber after he got a run on the Red Bull after leaving turn nine.

[28] At the completion of the first lap, Hamilton led from Räikkönen, Maldonado, Alonso, Webber, Button, Massa, Kobayashi, Pérez, Schumacher, Ricciardo, Rosberg, Vergne, Glock, Kovalainen, Petrov, Pic, Karthikeyan, Senna, Vettel, de la Rosa, Grosjean and di Resta.

Hamilton regained the optimum temperature needed for his tyres and began to pull away from Räikkönen after setting a fastest lap of the race.

[27] Rosberg, caught unaware of Karthikeyan's troubles, hit the back of the HRT and was launched into the barrier, scattering debris onto the circuit in the process.

[28] During the safety car period, Vettel was forced to pit when he swerved to avoid Ricciardo and crashed into the polystyrene bollard marking the start of the first DRS zone, further damaging his wing.

[25] Red Bull took the opportunity to pit him early, with the downside being that Vettel would have to do 42 laps on the soft tyre, if he were not to stop again, when supplier Pirelli predicted they could only do 36.

[30] Alonso began to close the gap to Maldonado who was running slower allowing Räikkonen to extend his hold over second place.

[28] Hamilton slowed and pulled over to the side of the track with a fuel pressure problem on the same lap, handing the lead to Räikkönen.

Webber ran wide onto the run-off area, and made contact with Massa who was sent into a spin after hitting the kerb at turn twelve.

Red Bull called Webber into the pit lane for medium compound tyres on lap 31 allowing Vettel into second.

[28] Vettel was called into the pit lane by Red Bull for their mechanics to fit a new set of soft tyres and remerged in fourth in front of Grosjean.

"[35] Vettel later represented the incident as less important and admitted that Ricciardo caught him off guard, "Maybe I should have paid more attention but I went to the right and I wasn't very lucky that there was the DRS board, which I took head-on.