The United States Grand Prix 2012 was the 19th round of the 2012 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, USA, on November 18th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Sebastian Vettel, who originally had the pole position, and Fernando Alonso completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 24 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 20-26: 15 stops
The fastest pit stop was Lewis Hamilton's, stopping the clock at 20.814 seconds during his pit stop on lap 20, while the slowest one was was Kimi Räikkönen's, who stopped the clock at 24.840 seconds, 4.026 seconds slower than Hamilton, during his pit stop on lap 24.
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 Michael Schumacher and Paul di Resta decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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1Romain Grosjean
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2Kamui Kobayashi
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2Nico Hülkenberg
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1Lewis Hamilton
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4Fernando Alonso
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-Bruno Senna
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1Sebastian Vettel
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-Pastor Maldonado
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4Heikki Kovalainen
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-Timo Glock
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4Sergio Pérez
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4Vitaly Petrov
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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2Pedro de la Rosa
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2Narain Karthikeyan
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7Felipe Massa
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-Charles Pic
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6Daniel Ricciardo
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4Nico Rosberg
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7Jenson Button
2 stops
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11Michael Schumacher
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2Paul di Resta
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 2.15 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 6.5 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit of the Americas, 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, Mark Webber, who had a problem with the alternator on lap 16, and Jean-Éric Vergne, who suffered a suspension problem on lap 14.
Alternator
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Mark WebberLap 16
Suspension
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Jean-Éric VergneLap 14
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.109 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:35.657. 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 6 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.