[3] The race was the twentieth and final round of the 2012 Formula One World Championship, and marked the forty-first running of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

[5] Tyre supplier Pirelli provided teams with early prototypes of their compounds for the 2013 Formula One season during Friday practice for testing and review.

[8] During free practice on Friday and Saturday, it was Lewis Hamilton and McLaren who set the pace, closely followed by championship contender Vettel and his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber.

Ferrari looked stronger during the long run trials with Felipe Massa putting in the most consistently fast lap times, 0.1 seconds ahead of Hamilton.

In Q1, Romain Grosjean collided with the slower running HRT of Pedro de la Rosa and lost his front wing.

While he succeeded in nursing the car back into the pit lane, he was unable to change his tyres and was therefore left in a disappointing 18th position on the grid.

Massa helped his teammate overtake Mark Webber on lap two going into the Senna-S, giving the Spaniard the crucial third position he would need to win the title.

[19] Rain began to fall during the next few laps and the first cars made pit stops for intermediate tyres, including the two title contenders, while Button and Hülkenberg stayed out.

The damage on the Red Bull car slowed Vettel down considerably more in dry conditions, and Massa helped his teammate by overtaking the German shortly after.

Hülkenberg pursued the McLaren but slid into him on lap 54, leaving Hamilton out of the race with damage to the left front suspension and himself with a drive-through penalty, handing Button the lead.

Former world champion Kimi Räikkönen had an eventful race as well, almost crashing into Vettel after the start and later trying to use an escape road only to find it to be a dead end.

[21] He also had a close contest with the retiring Schumacher, who finished seventh after recovering from an early puncture but gave up sixth to Vettel in order to help him extend his small point advantage over Alonso in the championship.

[33][34] At age 25, Vettel became the youngest triple world champion of the sport, six years younger than Ayrton Senna had been in the 1991 Formula One season.

[29] Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner praised his driver, saying: "Sebastian has driven better than ever this season and has fought his way back into this championship, he's never given up and you saw that in today's race.

"[35] The Daily Mirror lauded Red Bull designer Adrian Newey for making the decision to change the engine mapping on Vettel's car after reviewing photos of the damage sustained in the first lap accident.

"[42] Commenting on the outcome of the season, former team owner Eddie Jordan said he believed Alonso would have deserved the title more, considering the "less competitive machine".

[43] BBC columnist and former Formula One driver Jaime Alguersuari took a different viewpoint, saying the German deserved the title, having gone into the last race with "the most difficult position ... – he had everything to lose".

[44] Three days after the race, Ferrari announced they were contemplating filing an appeal with the FIA due to video footage allegedly showing Vettel overtaking Jean-Éric Vergne under yellow flags.

Should the allegations have proven valid, the FIA could have added 20 seconds to Vettel's finishing time, demoting him to 8th in the race result, handing the driver's title to Alonso.

[45] Just two days later, Ferrari opted not to appeal the result after receiving additional information from the FIA clarifying that Vettel's overtake on Vergne happened under green flags.