The story of the 2012 championship battle: How Sebastian Vettel triumphed at the last

Follow the twists and turns in the title chase from Melbourne to the epic Interlagos finale...

Round Five - Spain
The history books will headline the Spanish GP as the weekend Pastor Maldonado when took Williams back to the F1 winners' circle, but in terms of the 2012 title battle it's the event when Ferrari's season starts to gain some serious traction. A vast upgrade to the F2012 sees Alonso qualify third - which became second on the grid when Hamilton was stripped of pole - before the home favourite shadows Maldonado all the way to the flag. With Red Bull struggling after their Bahrain win, Vettel saved tyres in Q3 but only finishes sixth after receiving a drive-through penalty for not slowing for yellow flags. It means that for the first - and, in retrospect, only - time this season, Vettel and Alonso are tied on points at the top of the standings. The battle for the title:
Championship leader: Vettel and Alonso tied on 61 points (Vettel officially ahead on countback)
Round Six- Monaco
Mark Webber claims his second Monaco win in three years but it's Alonso who departs the Principality in sole possession of the World Championship lead after tyre management and sharp Ferrari strategy enable him to run longer than Hamilton in the sole round of pit-stops. Vettel, on the back of another failure to reach the top-ten shootout, runs an even longer first stint to also jump the McLaren to take fourth. When the chequered flag falls, the the top quartet are separated by less than two seconds. The battle for the title:
Championship leader: Alonso (76 points)
Vettel: Second (73 points)
Round Seven - Canada
Amid a highly entertaining, and close, ding-dong battle with Hamilton at the front, both Alonso and Vettel gamble on getting to the end on the race with just one pit-stop after McLaren play safe. The strategy backfires, however, as Hamilton easily passes both cars on his fresh rubber. Red Bull eventually cut their losses by pulling Vettel in for a second stop, but Ferrari are made to pay for their failure to do likewise when Alonso is overtaken by the freshly-rubbered Vettel for fourth place. The battle for the title:
Championship leader: Hamilton (88 points)
Alonso: Second (86 points); Vettel: Third (85 points)
Round Eight - Europe
The pivotal moment of Alonso's championship challenge? Vettel is on course for a comfortable victory until suffering the first of the now infamous Renault alternator failures. But Alonso is nevertheless simply outstanding as he pulls off a string of inch-perfect overtaking moves to go from eleventh to first for his second race victory of the season. And how the home support enjoyed that. The battle for the title:
Championship leader: Alonso (111 points)
Vettel: Fourth (85 points)
Round Nine - Great Britain
Dismal weather conditions at Silverstone present Alonso with the opportunity to make up for Ferrari's single-lap deficit to claim the team's first pole since 2010 before he then very nearly secures back-to-back wins in the dry race. Running a reverse tyre strategy to race-long pursuer Mark Webber, Alonso is only overtaken for the lead by the clearly faster Red Bull with three laps to go. But crucially, he manages to stay ahead of the other RB8 of Vettel, thus increasing his points lead over the reigning Champion to 29.