The Bahrain Grand Prix 2012 was the 4th round of the 2012 F1 season, and took place at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, on April 22nd.

Sebastian Vettel won the race from the pole, followed by Kimi Räikkönen, and Romain Grosjean completing the podium.

Final results

1
-
VET
Sebastian Vettel
Red Bull
1:35:10.990
Finished
2
9
RAI
Kimi Räikkönen
Lotus F1
+3.333
Finished
3
4
GRO
Romain Grosjean
Lotus F1
+10.194
Finished
4
1
WEB
Mark Webber
Red Bull
+38.788
Finished
5
-
ROS
Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
+55.460
Finished
6
4
DIR
Paul di Resta
Force India
+57.543
Finished
7
2
ALO
Fernando Alonso
Ferrari
+57.803
Finished
8
6
HAM
Lewis Hamilton
McLaren
+58.984
Finished
9
5
MAS
Felipe Massa
Ferrari
+1:04.999
Finished
10
12
MSC
Michael Schumacher
Mercedes
+1:11.490
Finished
11
3
PER
Sergio Pérez
Sauber
+1:12.702
Finished
12
1
HUL
Nico Hülkenberg
Force India
+1:16.539
Finished
13
1
KOB
Kamui Kobayashi
Sauber
+1:30.334
Finished
14
3
VER
Jean-Éric Vergne
Toro Rosso
+1:33.723
Finished
15
9
RIC
Daniel Ricciardo
Toro Rosso
+1 Lap
16
2
PET
Vitaly Petrov
Caterham
+1 Lap
17
1
KOV
Heikki Kovalainen
Caterham
+1 Lap
18
14
BUT
Jenson Button
McLaren
Exhaust
19
4
GLO
Timo Glock
Marussia
+2 Laps
20
-
DLR
Pedro de la Rosa
HRT
+2 Laps
21
3
KAR
Narain Karthikeyan
HRT
+2 Laps
22
7
SEN
Bruno Senna
Williams
Vibrations
23
2
MAL
Pastor Maldonado
Williams
Puncture
24
5
PIC
Charles Pic
Marussia
Engine
Show all

Race evolution

Pit Stops

0
1
KOV
2
3
4
5
6
7
RIC
8
BUT
MAS
ROS
9
HAM
WEB
ALO
PER
SEN
MSC
HUL
DLR
10
GRO
VER
PET
GLO
KAR
11
VET
RAI
MAL
12
PIC
13
KOV
14
DIR
KOB
15
16
17
18
19
HUL
20
21
PER
KAR
22
BUT
ROS
MAS
DLR
23
WEB
HAM
ALO
MAL
MSC
PET
RIC
GLO
24
RAI
SEN
25
VET
GRO
VER
KOV
26
27
28
29
30
31
KOB
32
KAR
33
DIR
34
35
36
ROS
HAM
HUL
37
BUT
ALO
PER
MSC
38
MAS
SEN
RIC
KOV
GLO
DLR
39
VET
RAI
WEB
PET
40
GRO
VER
41
42
43
44
45
KAR
46
47
48
49
50
KOB
51
52
53
BUT
54
55
56
57

There were a total of 71 pit stops during the race.

The most popular pit stop windows were:

  • Laps 7-14: 24 stops
  • Laps 21-25: 20 stops
  • Laps 36-40: 19 stops

The fastest pit stop was Mark Webber's, stopping the clock at 21.705 seconds during his pit stop on lap 39, while the slowest one was was Lewis Hamilton's, who stopped the clock at 30.622 seconds, 8.917 seconds slower than Webber, during his pit stop on lap 23.

These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.

Strategy

We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 3 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, 2 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 3 drivers tried a 4 stops.

The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 3 stops strategy.

1 stop

  • 5
    Charles Pic

2 stops

  • 2
    Pastor Maldonado
  • 4
    Paul di Resta

3 stops

  • 9
    Daniel Ricciardo
  • 5
    Felipe Massa
  • -
    Nico Rosberg
  • 6
    Lewis Hamilton
  • 1
    Mark Webber
  • 2
    Fernando Alonso
  • 3
    Sergio Pérez
  • 7
    Bruno Senna
  • 12
    Michael Schumacher
  • 1
    Nico Hülkenberg
  • -
    Pedro de la Rosa
  • 4
    Romain Grosjean
  • 3
    Jean-Éric Vergne
  • 2
    Vitaly Petrov
  • 4
    Timo Glock
  • -
    Sebastian Vettel
  • 9
    Kimi Räikkönen
  • 1
    Kamui Kobayashi

4 stops

  • 1
    Heikki Kovalainen
  • 14
    Jenson Button
  • 3
    Narain Karthikeyan

Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 4 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 1.29 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions.

Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 3 stops strategy as the optimal for this race.

It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Bahrain International Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.

Incidents

There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 4 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.

These included, Jenson Button, who suffered from problems with the exhaust on lap 55, Bruno Senna, who suffered from unhandable vibrations on lap 54, Pastor Maldonado, who had a puncture that could not be repaired on lap 25, and Charles Pic, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 24.

Exhaust

  • Jenson Button
    Lap 55

Vibrations

  • Bruno Senna
    Lap 54

Puncture

  • Pastor Maldonado
    Lap 25

Engine

  • Charles Pic
    Lap 24

Qualifying

#1
VET
#2
HAM
#3
WEB
#4
BUT
#5
ROS
#6
RIC
#7
GRO
#8
PER
#9
ALO
#10
DIR
#11
RAI
#12
KOB
#13
HUL
#14
MAS
#15
SEN
#16
KOV
#17
MAL
#18
MSC
#19
VER
#20
PET
#21
PIC
#22
DLR
#23
GLO
#24
KAR

Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.098 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:32.422. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Lewis Hamilton.

Q1

  • Sergio Pérez
    1:33.814
  • Daniel Ricciardo
    1:33.988
  • Mark Webber
    1:34.015
  • Romain Grosjean
    1:34.041
  • Kamui Kobayashi
    1:34.131
  • Sebastian Vettel
    1:34.308
  • Felipe Massa
    1:34.372
  • Bruno Senna
    1:34.466
  • Kimi Räikkönen
    1:34.552
  • Nico Rosberg
    1:34.588
  • Nico Hülkenberg
    1:34.601
  • Pastor Maldonado
    1:34.639
  • Fernando Alonso
    1:34.760
  • Jenson Button
    1:34.792
  • Lewis Hamilton
    1:34.813
  • Heikki Kovalainen
    1:34.852
  • Michael Schumacher
    1:34.865
  • Jean-Éric Vergne
    1:35.014
  • Vitaly Petrov
    1:35.823
  • Paul di Resta
    1:36.624
  • Charles Pic
    1:37.683
  • Pedro de la Rosa
    1:37.883
  • Timo Glock
    1:37.905
  • Narain Karthikeyan
    1:38.314

Q2

  • Lewis Hamilton
    1:33.209
  • Nico Rosberg
    1:33.219
  • Romain Grosjean
    1:33.246
  • Mark Webber
    1:33.311
  • Fernando Alonso
    1:33.403
  • Jenson Button
    1:33.416
  • Paul di Resta
    1:33.510
  • Sebastian Vettel
    1:33.527
  • Daniel Ricciardo
    1:33.556
  • Sergio Pérez
    1:33.660
  • Kimi Räikkönen
    1:33.789
  • Kamui Kobayashi
    1:33.806
  • Nico Hülkenberg
    1:33.807
  • Felipe Massa
    1:33.912
  • Bruno Senna
    1:34.017
  • Heikki Kovalainen
    1:36.132

Q3

  • Sebastian Vettel
    1:32.422
  • Lewis Hamilton
    1:32.520
  • Mark Webber
    1:32.637
  • Jenson Button
    1:32.711
  • Nico Rosberg
    1:32.821
  • Daniel Ricciardo
    1:32.912
  • Romain Grosjean
    1:33.008
  • Sergio Pérez
    1:33.394

Track evolution

Q1
-0.825
seconds faster
Q2
-0.59
seconds faster
Q3

As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and 15 out of the 16 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.

The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.