The Italian Grand Prix 2012 was the 13th round of the 2012 F1 season, and took place at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy, on September 9th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Sergio Pérez, and Fernando Alonso completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 31 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 17-24: 16 stops
- Laps 37-40: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sebastian Vettel's, stopping the clock at 15.008 seconds during his pit stop on lap 34, while the slowest one was was Narain Karthikeyan's, who stopped the clock at 31.745 seconds, 16.737 seconds slower than Vettel, 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 1 stop. Only Timo Glock, Pastor Maldonado, Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher, Heikki Kovalainen, Charles Pic, Vitaly Petrov and Sebastian Vettel decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
2Kimi Räikkönen
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1Felipe Massa
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7Fernando Alonso
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1Kamui Kobayashi
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9Mark Webber
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1Paul di Resta
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21Jenson Button
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5Pedro de la Rosa
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-Lewis Hamilton
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2Narain Karthikeyan
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2Daniel Ricciardo
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3Bruno Senna
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3Nico Hülkenberg
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2Jérôme d'Ambrosio
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10Sergio Pérez
2 stops
-
2Timo Glock
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11Pastor Maldonado
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1Nico Rosberg
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2Michael Schumacher
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3Heikki Kovalainen
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4Charles Pic
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3Vitaly Petrov
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17Sebastian Vettel
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 2.67 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2.86 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 1 stop 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 Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, 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 5 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Mark Webber, who suffered from unhandable vibrations on lap 51, Nico Hülkenberg, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 50, Sebastian Vettel, who had a problem with the alternator on lap 47, Jenson Button, who suffered a fuel pressure loss on lap 32, and Jean-Éric Vergne, who suffered a suspension problem on lap 8.
Vibrations
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Mark WebberLap 51
Brakes
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Nico HülkenbergLap 50
Alternator
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Sebastian VettelLap 47
Fuel pressure
-
Jenson ButtonLap 32
Suspension
-
Jean-Éric VergneLap 8
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.123 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:24.010. Jenson Button was right behind him, helping McLaren score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
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 5 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.