Heavy rain clearing to cloudy and dry[2] Air Temp 26 °C (79 °F)[2] The 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix (officially the 2012 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 25 March 2012 at the Sepang International Circuit in Selangor, Malaysia.

It was the fourteenth running of the Malaysian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship, and the thirty-second time the event has been held.

Red Bull driver Mark Webber remained fourth, 1-point behind Button, whilst Pérez moved himself up to fifth place.

[9] On the Thursday before the race the FIA rejected all claims that the system was illegal, allowing Mercedes to compete with an unaltered car.

[10] Caterham driver Heikki Kovalainen was given a five-place grid penalty for the race for being in breach of Article 40.8 of the sporting regulations.

Kimi Räikkönen was also given a five-place grid penalty after his team changed the gearbox in his car after Friday practice.

[15] HRT driver Pedro de la Rosa expressed confidence that his team would qualify for the race.

[16] Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas replaced Bruno Senna for the first practice session on Friday morning.

Ferrari's difficult start to the season continued with Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso finishing thirteenth and fifteenth respectively, while HRT encountered further difficulties, with Narain Karthikeyan's car crippled by transmission problems; both Karthikeyan and de la Rosa finished the session seven seconds slower than Hamilton.

[22] The circuit was declared damp for the third and final practice session on Saturday afternoon after light rain fell during the GP2 support race.

The damp conditions saw several drivers – most notably Lewis Hamilton – running wide early on, before a dry line was established.

The two HRT drivers continued to languish five seconds off the pace, but were within sight of the Marussias of Timo Glock and Charles Pic.

Significantly, both the HRT Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan were within the 107% time needed to qualify because of Webber's lap.

A front right wheel lock-up going into the braking zone of turn 1 resulted in severe vibration and effectively eliminated Toro Rosso's Jean-Éric Vergne on his final timed run.

Pastor Maldonado had a minor off before turn 11 and was the quickest driver not to make the final session; his Williams teammate Bruno Senna was 13th.

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa (who had a new chassis for the weekend) was 12th, closing the gap between himself and Fernando Alonso from one second, as it had been in Australia, to four tenths.

Despite a front left wheel lock-up at the final corner, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time by four tenths of a second upon his first attempt.

Michael Schumacher demonstrated the improved pace of the Mercedes car since 2011 by achieving his highest qualifying position since his return to the sport, with third place.

Pérez stopped after the first lap to change to full wets in a move that would elevate him to an eventual podium scoring position.

This worked in favour of Jean-Éric Vergne, the only driver still running on intermediates, who was able to change to full wets (as required by race officials) without the necessity of a pit stop.

The race suspension last around fifty minutes and in that time many drivers opted to leave their car and some (Rosberg) changed footwear.

On lap 15, Jenson Button clumsily locked up the rear wheels and made contact with Karthikeyan, forcing him to pit again to change the front wing, ending his podium chances.

An image of Hamilton's front tyre revealed that drivers were essentially racing on slicks anyway as the intermediate tread had worn off.

Controversially on lap 50, Pérez was told on the radio "be careful, we need this position" referring to the 18 points on offer for 2nd place.

Pastor Maldonado, who was running 10th, was forced to retire on the penultimate lap when his engine gave way, allowing Michael Schumacher his first points of the season.