Michael Schumacher received a ten-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Jean-Éric Vergne during the Singapore Grand Prix,[7] while Jenson Button and Nico Hülkenberg were both demoted five places for making unscheduled gearbox changes.

After his three podium finishes for the Sauber team, it was announced that Sergio Pérez would be Hamilton's replacement, and accompany Button, at McLaren.

[12] The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg set the fourth fastest time of the session, despite having to abandon his car out on track at the Esses with one minute remaining.

[14][15] Williams' reserve driver Valtteri Bottas filled in for Bruno Senna and finished the session eighteenth; Giedo van der Garde did the same for Heikki Kovalainen at Caterham and set the twenty-third fastest time.

[13][17] The Force India of Paul di Resta was the first car out on track for the first part of the qualifying session, initially using the harder compound prime tyres.

[18] The Sauber team also adopted that tactic, and their driver, Sergio Pérez, ran wide at the end of the Esses and bounded across the gravel before wrestling the car back to track.

[18] Later in the session, after Sebastian Vettel provisionally set the fastest time on prime tyres as well, Bruno Senna, in his Williams, was impeded by the Toro Rosso of Jean-Éric Vergne.

[18] Vergne was issued with a three-place grid penalty for the race after he made the cut for the second part in qualifying in seventeenth.

Di Resta complained over his pit-to-car radio after he had to weave in and out of Webber and Grosjean on a flying lap approaching the final chicane.

[20][23] The Toro Rossos failed to progress in the session in sixteenth and seventeenth, with Daniel Ricciardo out-qualifying Vergne for the eleventh time in 2012, and the Mercedes duo of Schumacher – attempting to save tyres again with a last minute effort – and Nico Rosberg in thirteenth and fifteenth respectively,[19][24] with the Williams of Pastor Maldonado splitting them.

[25] Felipe Massa was the last man out on track at the end of the session, and looked likely to beat Nico Hülkenberg's tenth place time but abandoned his lap and was eleventh.

Webber was two tenths behind, hampered by an error at the hairpin; Button was third, followed by the Lotus cars of Grosjean and Räikkönen and Hamilton's McLaren, who despite being on a scrubbed set of tyres, was still one and a half seconds slower than Vettel.

Kamui Kobayashi took an impressive fourth place for Sauber, but immediately after he set the time it was suggested that he had not slowed down in the yellow flag area.

Every driver except Jean-Èric Vergne, Charles Pic and Michael Schumacher started the race on the softer compound 'option' tyres.

Räikkönen's teammate, Romain Grosjean, was too busy attempting to stay in front of the fast-starting Sauber of Peréz on his outside at the first corner, so he ran into the back of third-placed Mark Webber, spinning him round at Turn 2, breaking his own wing in the process.

At the end of the safety car period, and the beginning of lap 3, Vettel sprinted away from Kobayashi, quickly establishing a three-second lead and building on it.

Kobayashi pitted on lap 16 to promote Felipe Massa to second place, but kept Button behind him as both were temporarily held up by drivers yet to stop, before promptly overtaking them.

He spent much of the remainder of the race behind the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo, fighting for tenth place, but never eventually gaining it due to some impressive defending.

Button spent the final stint of the race closing to within one second of Kobayashi, but never managing to overtake the Sauber driver.

Felipe Massa ended the longest streak a Ferrari driver had ever had without a podium by finishing second, taking his first since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix.

Michael Schumacher and Paul di Resta (who had a clutch failure at the race start) just missed out in eleventh and twelfth.