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
Race evolution
Pit Stops
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
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5Charles Pic
2 stops
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2Pastor Maldonado
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4Paul di Resta
3 stops
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9Daniel Ricciardo
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5Felipe Massa
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-Nico Rosberg
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6Lewis Hamilton
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1Mark Webber
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2Fernando Alonso
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3Sergio Pérez
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7Bruno Senna
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12Michael Schumacher
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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-Pedro de la Rosa
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4Romain Grosjean
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3Jean-Éric Vergne
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2Vitaly Petrov
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4Timo Glock
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-Sebastian Vettel
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9Kimi Räikkönen
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1Kamui Kobayashi
4 stops
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1Heikki Kovalainen
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14Jenson Button
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3Narain 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
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Jenson ButtonLap 55
Vibrations
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Bruno SennaLap 54
Puncture
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Pastor MaldonadoLap 25
Engine
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Charles PicLap 24
Qualifying
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.
Track evolution
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.