The Spanish Grand Prix 2012 was the 5th round of the 2012 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain, on May 13th.
Pastor Maldonado won the race from the pole, followed by Fernando Alonso, and Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 67 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 6-11: 18 stops
- Laps 13-15: 4 stops
- Laps 22-30: 19 stops
- Laps 37-45: 15 stops
The fastest pit stop was Felipe Massa's, stopping the clock at 13.259 seconds during his pit stop on lap 28, while the slowest one was was Sergio Pérez's, who stopped the clock at 28.531 seconds, 15.272 seconds slower than Massa, during his pit stop on lap 37.
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 3 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, 3 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 3 drivers tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Pastor Maldonado, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
16Michael Schumacher
2 stops
-
1Narain Karthikeyan
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16Lewis Hamilton
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1Charles Pic
3 stops
-
15Sergio Pérez
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-Mark Webber
-
4Kamui Kobayashi
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1Nico Rosberg
-
1Jenson Button
-
2Paul di Resta
-
-Fernando Alonso
-
1Romain Grosjean
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2Jean-Éric Vergne
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3Nico Hülkenberg
-
1Vitaly Petrov
-
-Pastor Maldonado
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1Kimi Räikkönen
-
2Daniel Ricciardo
-
3Heikki Kovalainen
-
3Timo Glock
4 stops
-
1Sebastian Vettel
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1Felipe Massa
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3Pedro de la Rosa
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 16 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 1.07 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy gained 1.67 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, even if Pastor Maldonado managed to win the race making 3 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 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, Sergio Pérez, who had problems with a wheel nut on lap 37, Charles Pic, and Narain Karthikeyan, both suffered from an unidentified mechanical problem, and Bruno Senna, and Michael Schumacher, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Wheel nut
-
Sergio PérezLap 37
Mechanical
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Charles PicLap 35
-
Narain KarthikeyanLap 22
Collision
-
Bruno SennaLap 12
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Michael SchumacherLap 12
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.578 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:21.707. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Pastor Maldonado.
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 all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
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 7 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.