The Hungarian Grand Prix 2012 was the 11th round of the 2012 F1 season, and took place at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary, on July 29th.
Lewis Hamilton 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 58 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 14-22: 21 stops
- Laps 34-36: 4 stops
- Laps 38-43: 16 stops
- Laps 45-47: 5 stops
The fastest pit stop was Michael Schumacher's, stopping the clock at 13.199 seconds during his pit stop on lap 4, while the slowest one was was Pedro de la Rosa's, who stopped the clock at 22.332 seconds, 9.133 seconds slower than Schumacher, during his pit stop on lap 22.
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 8 drivers tried a 3 stops, and 1 driver tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
-
3Kamui Kobayashi
-
1Nico Hülkenberg
-
2Bruno Senna
-
3Nico Rosberg
-
-Paul di Resta
-
1Fernando Alonso
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
2Felipe Massa
-
1Narain Karthikeyan
-
1Timo Glock
-
1Romain Grosjean
-
3Kimi Räikkönen
-
1Charles Pic
-
-Sergio Pérez
-
1Pedro de la Rosa
3 stops
-
7Michael Schumacher
-
3Daniel Ricciardo
-
2Jenson Button
-
5Pastor Maldonado
-
1Sebastian Vettel
-
2Heikki Kovalainen
-
1Vitaly Petrov
-
3Mark Webber
4 stops
-
-Jean-Éric Vergne
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.36 positions, the ones on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.14 positions, while those on a 4 stops strategy didn't gain or lose any 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 Hungaroring, 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 2 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Suspension
-
Narain KarthikeyanLap 60
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.413 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:20.953. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Romain Grosjean.
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. That being said, the changing conditions of the track made it difficult to find these limits, and only 3 drivers were able to improve their Q2 times.