The organisers of the race invited sport shooter Gagan Narang, who won a bronze medal for India at the London Olympics, to wave the chequered flag.

[7] Sergio Pérez was taken ill ahead of the race, forcing Sauber to run test and reserve driver Esteban Gutiérrez in his place for the first free practice session.

Valtteri Bottas once again ran in place of Bruno Senna at Williams, while Giedo van der Garde drove Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham.

Kimi Räikkönen, Felipe Massa and Bruno Senna set the early pace while the Red Bulls and McLarens stayed in the garage waiting for the track to become more grippy once rubber had been laid down.

Ferrari attempted to improve Fernando Alonso's lap time by making Massa run in front of him on the straight so he could use the slipstream to gain extra top speed.

Narain Karthikeyan qualified in twenty-third place for his home Grand Prix, just one-thousandth of a second slower than Pedro de la Rosa.

The Force India team was disappointed at their home race, with Nico Hülkenberg and Paul di Resta only taking the twelfth and sixteenth spots on the grid respectively.

Daniel Ricciardo out-qualified Vergne for the thirteenth time in 2012, putting his Toro Rosso in fifteenth position on the grid.

Sergio Pérez and Pastor Maldonado did well to qualify their cars in eighth and ninth positions; the Lotus of Räikkönen was in front of them in seventh.

Mark Webber set a lap half a tenth slower, initially in front of Button, Alonso and Hamilton.

Both Red Bulls abandoned their laps at the very end of the session, as Vettel set a too-slow first sector, and Webber ran wide at turn 3 whilst running behind the McLarens.

Sebastian Vettel took a dominant win, which was his 4th consecutive one ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who got past Mark Webber when the latter suffered from a KERS problem in his Red Bull.