The Canadian Grand Prix 2012 was the 7th round of the 2012 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada, on June 10th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Romain Grosjean, and Sergio Pérez completing the podium with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 15th position of the grid.
Sebastian Vettel started from the pole position, but only managed to finish 4th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 37 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 15-19: 10 stops
- Laps 40-44: 8 stops
The fastest pit stop was Jean-Éric Vergne's, stopping the clock at 14.641 seconds during his pit stop on lap 47, while the slowest one was was Timo Glock's, who stopped the clock at 25.520 seconds, 10.879 seconds slower than Vergne, during his pit stop on lap 24.
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
The race was not obvious in terms of pit stop strategy, with different teams and different drivers choosing to make anywhere from 1 to 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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2Fernando Alonso
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5Romain Grosjean
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1Bruno Senna
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2Kamui Kobayashi
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-Timo Glock
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3Charles Pic
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9Pastor Maldonado
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4Kimi Räikkönen
-
12Sergio Pérez
2 stops
-
4Felipe Massa
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3Paul di Resta
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13Michael Schumacher
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3Sebastian Vettel
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1Lewis Hamilton
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3Mark Webber
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-Daniel Ricciardo
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1Heikki Kovalainen
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1Vitaly Petrov
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1Nico Rosberg
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1Nico Hülkenberg
3 stops
-
6Jenson Button
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4Jean-Éric Vergne
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 4 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1.4 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option, even if Lewis Hamilton managed to win the race making 2 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 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, Timo Glock, and Narain Karthikeyan, both suffered a suspension problem, Michael Schumacher, who took damage to the rear wing of the car on lap 43, and Pedro de la Rosa, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 24.
Suspension
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Timo GlockLap 56
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Narain KarthikeyanLap 22
Rear wing
-
Michael SchumacherLap 43
Brakes
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Pedro de la RosaLap 24
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.303 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:13.784. 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 17 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 6 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.