Pit Stop Strategies

Perez pitted 1st of course, switching to the hard compound tires and immediately lapped 1 second faster than race leader Alonso. The 2 Red Bulls pitted next, Webber 1st (after being stuck in Massa’s dirty air for too long), then Vettel who’d been trailing Schumacher until lap 8. Kobayashi pitted in lap 9 and came back on track in front of Webber as well as Perez who was trailing in P24 now. Hamilton continued to fly past backrunners, still driving on the soft Option tire. Ferrari performed a brilliant pitstop for Alonso, tossing hard tires onto his car in under 3 seconds which put Alonso back on track in P3 behind Raikkonen and ahead of Hamilton in P4. Maldonado and Raikkonen pitted simultaneously in lap 12 and came out in the same order behind Alonso in the lead.

Lap 12:

1 Alonso
2 Maldonado
3 Raikkonen
4 Hamilton
5 Kovaleinen
6 Rosberg
7 Grosjean
8 Senna
9 Schumacher
10 Vettel
11 Button
12 Kobayashi
13 Webber

Hamilton finally pitted during a yellow flag in lap 15 but unknowingly drove into the old LR tire on his way out of the box which slowed his overall pit time a smidge.

DNF for Mercedes & Williams – aka Schumy Gets Impatient

Senna still hadn’t pitted, driving on the soft Option tires that had already done 13 laps (the options have a “max” of 15 laps) when Schumacher (on a fresh set of hard tires) came barreling into the Williams’ gearbox. Both cars retired and the yellow flag came out.

Maldonado Leads The Race

Maldonado regained the lead in lap 27 when Alonso pitted a 2nd time and came back on track behind the remaining Williams. Maldonado had just completed the fastest lap of the race thus far – 1:27.906 – which helped the Venezuelan driver get past pit lane before Alonso re-entered the field.

Penalties

Meanwhile, the decision came down from race control that both Vettel and Massa failed to slow for yellow flags and thus received a drive-thru penalty.

Charles Pic also earned a drive-thru penalty (announced in lap 37) for ignoring the blue flags and holding up Alonso earlier in the race.

Kobayashi KnifeHandChops Through Competition

Kobayashi tore a path through Button’s racing line in lap 34 and got past the McLaren which just the slightest of contact. After a few laps of nose to tail racing between Rosberg, Button and Kobayashi in 6th, 7th & 8th place respectively, the Sauber attacked swiftly and Button was forced to concede.

A few laps later, Vettel sailed past Button as if passing him on the street putting the Red Bull in 7th behind Kobayashi and Rosberg.

Hamilton’s move into points position was confident & graceful at the same time – splitting the 2 Toro Rosso cars and passing Verne on the outside in lap 40.

End-Of-Race Tire Strategies

The final segment of the Spanish Grand Prix was of course tire management. The top 3 dogs pitted one after the other starting with Maldonado in lap 44 who resumed the race behind Kimi. Kimi held his position despite worn-out tires and kept Maldonado behind him until the DRS zone. Alonso pitted next and also took his place behind Kimi and received the same treatment. Could it be that The Iceman was purposely wasting the Williams and Ferrari tires while driving on tires he would soon replace? Kimi returned to P3 with a set of freshies in lap 49. Alonso and Maldonado had to drive more conservatively to preserve their tires after each spent so much time in Lotus’ dirty air while Kimi was able to go full throttle on 5-lap fresher tires. Alternately, the first 2 cars would have to pit again, which would guarantee Kimi the lead if he was able to manage these tires until the end.

The battle between Maldonado and Alonso continued as the 2 cars followed each other fiercely weaving through slower traffic, even Alonso’s teammate Massa moving aside without a fight to let both cars pass. Meanwhile though, Kimi was gaining more than 1 second per lap, quietly pushing towards the front with no competition from behind.

2012 Grand Prix de Espana Final Results

While Kimi nearly catches Alonso in the final 2 laps of the race, Maldonado prevails and becomes the 1st Venezuelan to win a Grand Prix, the 5th driver for the 5th team to win the 5th race of the 2012 F1 season and the 2nd driver of the season to win his 1st ever Grand Prix!! He fended off 6 World Champions to stand at the top of the podium. Congrats to Williams, it’s a well-deserved and long-awaited victory for the veteran team.

Grand Prix de Espana 2012 Grid Lineup

Pastor Maldonado – Williams-Renault
Fernando Alonso – Ferrari
Romain Grosjean – Lotus-Renault
Kimi Räikkönen – Lotus-Renault
Sergio Perez – Sauber-Ferrari
Nico Rosberg – Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull Racing-Renault
Michael Schumacher – Mercedes
Kamui Kobayashi – Sauber-Ferrari
Jenson Button – McLaren-Mercedes
Mark Webber – Red Bull Racing-Renault

The official FIA decision according to Formula1.com states:

“The Stewards determine that this is a breach of Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the Competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the Qualifying Session. The Competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid.”

Read more @ Hamilton excluded from qualifying; Maldonado on pole on The Official F1 Website

How close do you think the team came to taking the win?

When Kimi got past Romain he was visibly faster than Sebastian (Vettel) thanks to having new tyres vs. Vettel’s scrubbed set. It was quite enthralling watching him close the gap, and he came very close to pulling off a pass, but it was not quite enough. With slightly better grid slots and no front wing damage for Kimi then the victory could well have been ours. As it was we had to settle for a really dominant P2 and P3. We will have to wait for the E20 to score a maiden win, but I think we can do it.

Were there any moments in the race where you were slightly nervous?

There were a couple; Kimi gave us a scare in the opening laps when he lost a place to a much slower Felipe (Massa) and in doing so also damaged his front wing. We could see from the data that this impact lost us some aerodynamic performance which Kimi then had to carry for the remainder of the race. Then of course there was the battle between our own drivers; never an easy thing to watch from the pit wall! As expected, with new rubber on every stint, Kimi was devastatingly fast and was able to close down both Romain and Sebastian (Vettel). Romain was doing an extremely good job, only slower as a result of running scrubbed tyres to Kimi’s new rubber. Luckily both drivers behaved themselves!

What were the real highlights for you of the team’s performance from your perspective?

Aside from the obvious satisfaction of watching our drivers sail past the traditional front runners, I took huge pleasure from watching our pit crew deliver 6 really good quality stops to ensure that we could let the pace of the car speak on the track. We have made several improvements to the pit stop kit since the early races, but it is still very difficult for the crew to make a good job of changing our wheels in a competitive time. When we get some wheels / nuts / sockets that allow us to compete with the front runners our crew is going to be mighty – they have been altitude training so far this year, once we get them down to sea level I think we are going to see some really excellent times.

Vettel

Vettel made a clean break at the start of the race, Hamilton was not able to get around him before turn 1 and thus the chase began. Hamilton stayed on Vettel’s tail like a hound to a rabbit while Button fell behind Webber, Grosjean and Alonso all in the 1st stretch.

Massa

Massa had a fantastic start: diving through traffic, sailing past Perez on the outside line before commanding the inside of the next turn. (Perez had to work just to avoid contact with the Ferrari.) Then, Massa and Raikkonen both flew past Rosberg before turn 10.

Kovalainen

Kovalainen barely made it thru the first lap before his Caterham limped into the pits with a punctured tire. Thus the top 10 lineup after the 1st lap was:

Vettel
Hamilton
Webber
Grosjean
Alonso
Button
Raikkonen
Massa
Rosberg
Perez

Massa

Massa continued his bloodlust into lap 3 as he attacked Kimi – bouncing the Lotus off the racing line, onto a kerb, plus what looked to be numerous little taps off each other. Kimi swatted at Massa like a fly but Massa prevailed and jumped into P7 (that didn’t last long however). Grosjean drove thru the 1st DRS zone of the race then took on Webber to jump into P3.

An Inspired Iceman + 2 Strong Lotus Cars

The 2 Lotus cars passed the 2 McLaren cars so smoothly it looked effortless. Raikkonen passed Massa with a beautiful maneuver in a tight turning zone then got past Button who complained of grip problems in his rear tires. Meanwhile, Grosjean opened up the throttle and just gunned it past Hamilton to put the Lotus in P2.

Kimi started putting the pressure on Alonso in lap 9: he held back a touch in the turns – (conserving quite a bit more tire than Alonso who was locking up his brakes every time) then closed the gap in the straights, slipped past him and drove away like it was nothing. Raikkonen in 5th.

The race continued on like this until the 2 Lotuses were chasing Vettel in the 15th lap:

Vettel
Grosjean
Raikkonen
Webber
Button
Hamilton
Alonso
Rosberg
Massa
Perez

Raikkonen

Kimi sets fastest lap after fastest lap for another 10 laps yet Grosjean maintains his position until Kimi finally gets by his teammate into P2.

And of course, once The Iceman made it to P2, he launched that Lotus towards his goal, threw the car around the circuit with precision until Vettel was clearly in his sights. With Vettel only 1 second ahead, Raikkonen locked onto him like a jet fighter and didn’t let go. One wonders if Raikkonen would’ve been able to get past Vettel too if he hadn’t wasted so much time/rubber/fuel etc. fighting with his teammate for position.

Rosberg

Rosberg also drives aggressively presumably with new-found confidence after beating all the big dogs last weekend in Shanghai. The Mercedes driver barely toes the line of what is allowed for holding your line, forcing first Hamilton and later Alonso wide into the dirt as they tried unsuccessfully to pass.

Hamilton

Hamilton experienced the agony of being delayed during a routine pit stop again this week, suffering the same issue that slowed him down in Shanghai just 7 days prior – the LR wheel nut malfunctioned during a wheel change. Hamilton lost a few positions and ended up in 11th mid-way thru the race. All-in-all Hamilton lost 17 seconds during the pit stops and wasn’t able to find that time again out on track.

Button

Button’s McLaren started sounding right ragged at the tail end of the race and with only a few laps to go, pitted for mechanical work to the engine or gearbox and DNF’ed rather than take a grid penalty for changing the gearbox/engine change between races.

2012 Bahrain Race Results

Click image to see it bigger…

With less than a 3 second gap, Vettel claimed the checkered flag, the Lotus cars right behind him. DiResta’s tire strategy was sound enough to earn him a spot in 6th. And Schumacher rounded out the top 10 with Perez too far behind for a top 10 finish. McLaren suffered too many setbacks today and couldn’t bounce back. Hopefully they sort out the problems with both cars before the next practice.

As one of our commenters pointed out on our last post, we may have underestimated one of the rookie drivers reaching for a Grand Prix win – Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso didn’t make our list (see Who Will Be The Next F1 Driver To Win Their 1st Grand Prix Ever?) yet there he is in P6 on the grid, right next to last week’s victor Nico Rosberg!

Qualifying Results and Grid Positions For The Race In Bahrain

1 Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull Racing-Renault Laps = 18
2 Lewis Hamilton – McLaren-Mercedes Laps = 13
3 Mark Webber – Red Bull Racing-Renault Laps = 17
4 Jenson Button – McLaren-Mercedes Laps = 12
5 Nico Rosberg – Mercedes Laps = 10
6 Daniel Ricciardo – STR-Ferrari Laps = 17
7 Romain Grosjean – Lotus-Renault Laps = 13
8 Sergio Perez – Sauber-Ferrari Laps = 17
9 Fernando Alonso – Ferrari Laps = 11
10 Paul di Resta – Force India-Mercedes Laps = 15
11 Kimi Räikkönen – Lotus-Renault Laps = 6
12 Kamui Kobayashi – Sauber-Ferrari Laps = 13
13 Nico Hulkenberg – Force India-Mercedes Laps = 12
14 Felipe Massa – Ferrari Laps = 14
15 Bruno Senna – Williams-Renault Laps = 14
16 Heikki Kovalainen – Caterham-Renault Laps = 10
17 Pastor Maldonado – Williams-Renault Laps = 8
18 Michael Schumacher – Mercedes Laps = 5
19 Jean-Eric Vergne – STR-Ferrari Laps = 8
20 Vitaly Petrov – Caterham-Renault Laps = 7

Red Bull-McLaren + Lotus-Sauber + Ferrari-Force India Shootout In Bahrain

Now here is what we think will be the most interesting part at the beginning of the race – an old-fashioned shootout between some of the best cars in F1. We’ve got 2 Red Bulls nose-to-tail as well as 2 McLarens nose-to-tail at the very front of the field, battling it out with each other before the 1st corner. Will Hamilton get ahead of Vettel immediately (Hamilton has had much stronger starts than Vettel this season) and how will Webber fare against Button? Then we have Perez positioned next to Grosjean with both of them in great cars with their teammates side by side not far behind. That adds up to a 1-on-1 battle between Red Bull & McLaren in the first two rows AND a 1-on-1 battle between Lotus & Sauber in 2 different rows in the mid-field!! While we’re at it, Ferrari and Force India are in the same situation with Alonso next to di Resta and Massa next to Hulkenberg right behind Perez and Kobayashi, respectively.

Get ready for another INCREDIBLE F1 grand Prix race!! My co-worker said it best after Rosberg secured the win in China – “Someone held a Grand Prix and we ended up with a race!”

The Key Players

We figure there’s a limited list of drivers with the potential to win a Grand Prix race in 2012:

Sergio Perez
Romain Grosjean
Kamui Kobayashi
Paul di Resta
Vitaly Petrov
Pastor Maldonado
Bruno Senna

and just for kicks, we thru in a wild card that almost certainly won’t be played:
Alvaro Parente

The Top Dogs

Sergio Perez received the most votes and seems the most likely choice based on his excellent performance in Malaysia when he made it to the 2nd step of the podium. He’s proven that he has what it takes to be at the front and his Sauber is very well suited to his driving style.

Sauber teammate Kamui Kobayashi came in 2nd among our racecar techs, primarily because he has more experience in Formula 1 than the rest of our candidates and is superior at passing the top-tier cars which is essential to reach the top of the podium. The Sauber is undeniably a strong car and it’s no surprise that the 2 Sauber drivers made the top of our list. In Kamui’s case, I think spectators would like to see such an exciting driver who has been so much fun to watch finally enjoy the spoils of winning a Grand Prix.

Paul di Resta tied with Kobayashi in our debate because he has consistently finished races and his Mercedes-powered Force India car is a solid, dependable vehicle (like its driver).

Romain Grosjean didn’t receive the most votes, but came in from our wisest F1 fans, so he’ll definitely be one to watch this season. The former GP2 champ is cool under pressure and the Renault Lotus is a quick car. If Kubica can drive the car to the front of the pack, we think Grosjean can too.

Vitaly Petrov is smallest fish in a huge pond. He’ll have to work hard to prove he deserves his seat at Caterham, but his fans think the car is good and Petrov will become an F1-eating shark by season’s end.

That’s our take on the current season – and we’re thrilled to even be having this conversation after last year’s uneventful race results left us speechless…

Surely you have an opinion on the matter – drop us a line or leave a comment to vote for who YOU think will be F1′s next newbie winner!

Shanghai China Grand Prix Race Results

Play-By-Play Action By Our F1 Fan Club

We posted what we could during the race, but most of the time we couldn’t take our eyes off the action long enough to type 140 characters, so not as thorough as usual. Like when Kimi was passed by 5 cars in succession during the 50th lap… :(

can’t WAIT to see the 1st few seconds of F1 race! will def be exciting w/ Hamilton on grid next to Perez and Kobayashi next to Raikkonen!!

Fantastic start by Perez even tho Hamilton got ahead of him. #F1

The Saubers are looking strong, nose to tail in 6th & 7th. Vettel not even in top 10!

huge gap between Rosberg & everyone else – almost 5 seconds! #F1

what a show from Raikkonen out of his pit stop! drag raced Hamilton in pit lane… #F1

then Kimi corners mere inches away from Webber’s Red Bull! #F1

Schumacher out after wheel nut fiasco & Perez takes the lead! #F1

is Perez having a problem with his Sauber? looking slow & Vettel easily passed him. #F1

[ed. note - apparently he was having trouble - after the race, he tweeted this: @SChecoPerez We expected lot more today, suddenly in the 2nd stint we lost Downforce in the front so car was very difficult to drive! This is racing]

Kimi in 3rd Perez in 7th. plenty of tight, tire to tire action all thru the field! #F1

Kimi up to p2 but still 11 seconds behind Rosberg!

Perez wows crowd by draping Hamilton in clouds of white smoke as he locks brakes in every turn

Webber too stirs up the fans with a wild wheelie!

an unbelievable 22 second gap between P1 & P2 in lap 44 and possibly Rosberg’s 1st F1 win!!

Kimi drops 10 spots in just 2 laps, down to p12 in lap 50 :(

Rosberg WINS! i can’t believe it, congrats to him & Mercedes! historic F1 race

Rosberg’s fastest lap in the new-and-improved (f-duct?) front wing Mercedes was 1:35.121 – half a second ahead of Hamilton’s fastest 1:35.626 and Schumacher’s was 1:35.691! Fantastic!! Plus Vettel was left behind in Q2 when his fastest lap of 1:36.031 didn’t stack up.

The Shanghai China Formula 1 Grid Line Up:

Rosberg – Schumacher
Kobayashi – Raikkonen
Button – Webber
Hamilton – Perez
Alonso – Grosjean

And just look at the grid line-up: with Rosberg shoulder to shoulder with Schumacher and Hamilton right next to Perez, there will be loads of action at the start of the race! Watch Perez especially, we may see a trick or two he learned in GP2 where he used to carve his own path through the field…

The official Formula1.com qualifying lap times for the rest of the top 10 are:

In the end Kamui Kobayashi was fourth after a great lap of 1m 35.784s for Sauber, with Kimi Raikkonen fifth for Lotus on 1m 35.898s ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button on 1m 36.191s, Red Bull’s Mark Webber on 1m 36.290s, Sauber’s Sergio Perez on 1m 36.524s, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso on 1m 36.622s and Lotus’s Romain Grosjean failing to register a time.

Exceptional Results For Sergio Perez & Sauber

As we’ve come to expect, Sergio Perez used a keen tire strategy combined with his fearless driving skills (though this time his hands weren’t as steady as usual and his car did fly off the circuit at least once). Almost like watching a rookie Gilles Villaneuve test himself for the first time on a wet track while striving to find his own special technique for such treacherous conditions.

Sure enough, Perez was leading the race by lap 16!! That’s right, the young Mexican driver proved that he has what it takes to run with the big dogs and drove to the front of the pack before the race was half over.

He had outrun 6 world champions in the 2nd race of his 2nd season as a Formula 1 driver…. What a show!

I like this shot because it shows Sergio’s race line…

This shot more clearly shows the Sauber and Ferrari cars

The Battle Between Ferrari And Sauber

Alonso wasted no time overtaking Perez, displaying his own prowess on the field. The Spaniard’s driving was solid and steady, true champion style. The excitement continued as these 2 maintained their positions (with a 2 second gap between them) and raced their own race many car lengths ahead of Hamilton in P3 and the rest of the pack which included Vettel, Button, Raikkonen, Webber, et al.

Perez chased Alonso, never letting him out of his sight while keeping a decent gap between himself and Hamilton, lap after lap after lap. The gap between Alonso and Perez grew smaller while the gap between Perez and Hamilton grew wider. By lap 30-32, the 2 Saubers, Perez and Kobayashi, were taking turns producing Fastest Laps in the area of 1:57.

Just look at how far ahead these 2 are – not a single car is visible anywhere on the field around them!

By lap 40, Perez brought the gap down to less than 1 second and was nearly ramming Alonso’s Ferrari from behind! Sauber had never had a car higher than 3rd on the podium and here was their newest driver battling for 1st place against a world champ!

If Perez had stayed off the wet kerb in lap 51, he might have won his first Formula 1 Grand Prix. That error set him 5 seconds behind Alonso, a gap he wasn’t quite able to close before the race ended 5 laps later. Nonetheless, he continued to lap 1/2 second faster than Alonso.

WELL DONE CHECO!!!!!!!!