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The European Grand Prix 2012 was the 8th round of the 2012 F1 season, and took place at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain, on June 24th.
Fernando Alonso won the race with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 11th position of the grid, followed by Kimi Räikkönen, and Michael Schumacher completing the podium with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 12th position of the grid.
Sebastian Vettel started from the pole position, but didn't manage to cross the finish line, as he experienced issues with the gearbox, and had to retire on lap 33rd.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 49 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-17: 18 stops
- Laps 19-20: 5 stops
- Laps 23-29: 18 stops
The fastest pit stop was Bruno Senna's, stopping the clock at 14.659 seconds during his pit stop on lap 24, while the slowest one was was Felipe Massa's, who stopped the clock at 39.041 seconds, 24.382 seconds slower than Senna, during his pit stop on lap 34.
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 2 drivers tried a 1 stop, 1 driver tried a 3 stops, and 2 drivers tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Fernando Alonso, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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5Jean-Éric Vergne
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3Paul di Resta
2 stops
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1Jenson Button
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6Sergio Pérez
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8Charles Pic
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2Heikki Kovalainen
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17Lewis Hamilton
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15Kamui Kobayashi
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3Kimi Räikkönen
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9Pastor Maldonado
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3Nico Hülkenberg
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6Daniel Ricciardo
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4Pedro de la Rosa
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10Fernando Alonso
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20Sebastian Vettel
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16Romain Grosjean
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9Michael Schumacher
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15Mark Webber
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-Nico Rosberg
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4Bruno Senna
3 stops
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4Narain Karthikeyan
4 stops
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3Felipe Massa
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7Vitaly Petrov
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 3 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 4.43 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 4 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy gained 2 positions on average.
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 Valencia Street Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There were some incidents during the race, with 6 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Lewis Hamilton, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jean-Éric Vergne, all of whom retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, Romain Grosjean, who experienced problems with the electornics of the car on lap 40, Sebastian Vettel, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 33, and Timo Glock, who withdrew on lap 0.
Collision
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Lewis HamiltonLap 55
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Kamui KobayashiLap 33
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Jean-Éric VergneLap 26
Electronics
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Romain GrosjeanLap 40
Gearbox
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Sebastian VettelLap 33
Withdrew
-
Timo GlockLap 0
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.324 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:38.086. 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 14 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 4 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.