The Chinese Grand Prix 2012 was the 3rd round of the 2012 F1 season, and took place at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China, on April 15th.
Nico Rosberg won the race from the pole, followed by Jenson Button, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 55 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 9-13: 16 stops
- Laps 16-19: 7 stops
- Laps 27-39: 24 stops
The fastest pit stop was Charles Pic's, stopping the clock at 13.981 seconds during his pit stop on lap 48, while the slowest one was was Heikki Kovalainen's, who stopped the clock at 37.748 seconds, 23.767 seconds slower than Pic, during his pit stop on lap 29.
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 2 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, and 8 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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22Michael Schumacher
2 stops
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6Sebastian Vettel
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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10Kimi Räikkönen
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1Vitaly Petrov
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4Romain Grosjean
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5Pastor Maldonado
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3Paul di Resta
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7Bruno Senna
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-Nico Rosberg
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1Narain Karthikeyan
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3Sergio Pérez
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1Pedro de la Rosa
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-Daniel Ricciardo
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1Timo Glock
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1Felipe Massa
3 stops
-
2Mark Webber
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7Kamui Kobayashi
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4Lewis Hamilton
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3Jenson Button
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8Jean-Éric Vergne
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-Fernando Alonso
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5Heikki Kovalainen
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1Charles Pic
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.07 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.75 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Shanghai 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 1 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Wheel nut
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Michael SchumacherLap 12
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg managed to get the pole position by 0.505 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:35.121. 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 16 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 5 out of the 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.