"He must be the luckiest driver in F1": When Lewis Hamilton reacted to Sebastian Vettel's pitlane to podium drive

Lewis Hamilton, back in the day at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, deemed then-Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel the luckiest driver in the world. Back then, the latter made it to P3 at the end of the 55-lap race despite starting from the pit lane.

After the end of Saturday's qualifying, officials found that Sebastian Vettel's car didn't have enough fuel left as per regulations (secured P3 in qualifying). This meant he was dropped to last for the race. In line with this, Red Bull decided to start him from the pit lane to make some changes to the car settings.

The main 55-lap Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was an eventful race. Vettel damaged his front wing on the first lap when the various drivers were jockeying for positions at the Yas Marina Circuit. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Bruno Senna (Williams) even made contact.

Following the incident, Vettel continued with a damaged front wing. On lap 9, there was another incident, this time between Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Narain Karthikeyan (HRT), which allowed the Red Bull driver to close up to the field.

However, he lost this advantage behind the safety car. In order to avoid making contact with Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), who was weaving ahead of him, Vettel made contact with a trackside marker board, further damaging his front wing.

As a result, on lap 14, Sebastian Vettel jumped into the pits for a change of tires and the front wing. Following this, he put in a stellar shift and was running in the front pack (P4).

On lap 38, he came into the pits for a second pit stop (mediums) and dropped 20 seconds back to the leaders. On the same lap, Romain Grosjean (Lotus), Sergio Perez (Sauber), Mark Webber (Red Bull), and Paul de Resta were fighting over fifth place. This eventually led to a collision and a safety car that was out until the end of lap 41.

Following this, it was a dash to the finish line, and Vettel, while running in P4 during the closing stages, made a sensational overtake on Jenson Button on lap 52 to eventually secure a podium finish with P3.

The chaotic race and the way Vettel was able to make his way up in it, then-McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton deemed the former lucky, and via a post-race interview, said the following:

"(It was) incredible how he came up. He must be the luckiest driver in F1." Via The BBC.

Lewis Hamilton, on his end, retired from the race on lap 20 after losing power on his McLaren challenger. Then-Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen won the race.

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Lewis Hamilton secured pole for 2012 Abu Dhabi GP

F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi - Source: Getty

While Lewis Hamilton deemed Sebastian Vettel a lucky chap after his third-place finish in the 2012 Abu Dhabi GP, the former was initially the favorite in the 55-lap race. During Saturday's qualifying, the Brit secured a P1 starting position.

In line with this, after the end of the fiercely contested session, he added the following:

"I'm very excited, very excited. It's the first time for a long time to be ahead of the Red Bulls, and not to be seeing the tail of them at the start of the race, but I know it's going to be, as always, very, very tough in the race because they've got great race pace." (via The Guardian)

In 2012, Sebastian Vettel secured his third F1 world championship with 281 points, and Lewis Hamilton secured a P4 finish in the drivers' standings with 190 points.