2012 Formula 1 Season Summary: Part II

The crown jewel of Formula 1; Monaco is well known for its fabulous casinos but the drivers would be playing a different game of roulettes, with this round being a high stakes winner-take-all game. There was no doubt that after five different winners that there could a sixth, but the question was who? Schumacher had copped a five place grid penalty because of his collision with Senna in the previous race. This was bad news for Schumacher as he was the fastest in qualifying and would have started from pole position for the first time since his return to F1 in 2010. Instead Webber would inherit pole with Rosberg and Hamilton starting behind him. Previous race winner Maldonado would start P24 after dropping ten places for firstly having a run in with Sergio Perez in Free Practice 3 which left Perez with a damaged car that didn't run in qualifying and another five places for an unscheduled gearbox change. Button's balance woes continued as he was kicked out of Q2 for the second consecutive time, by only going thirteenth fastest overall. Vettel made it into Q3 however chose not to set a time so he can opt for his own choice of tyres come race day. Pirelli had brought their red trim super soft and yellow trim soft tyres to Monaco. Grosjean yet again created first lap chaos but this time taking out Maldonado and Pedro de la Rosa (HRT) with him. Schumacher had sustained at first, light damage to his front end suspension but towards the end of the race he was forced to retire due to a fuel pressure issue. This was his fourth retirement in six races. Kobayashi also took damaged from the first lap carnage and retired on lap 5. With a safety car intervention, Vettel sought to use his alternative strategy to join the front runners, which he did after Hamilton suffered yet again from poor pit strategies and high tyre wear. Meanwhile his team mate was stuck behind Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham) in P14 and then eventually retired because of damaged sustained in an accident. Rain did at one point threaten the ending of the race, however it fell heavily after the chequered flag fell. Webber was victorious, winning his second race in Monaco and also making it hat trick of Red Bull wins there. Rosberg came home in second and Alonso was third which took him to the top of the driver's championship table by only 3 points.

In Montreal, the seventh different winner was crown and it was Hamilton who took the spoils. After strong results earlier in the season, the win was much needed for him to lead the championship once more. Seven different winners from seven different races was a new record for Formula 1. 2012 also marked the 30th anniversary of the death of iconic Canadian driver; Giles Villeneuve. Villeneuve was killed in a crash during a qualifying session at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at the Zolder circuit. He had raced for McLaren and Ferrari from 1977 till his death in 1982, having a total of 67 race starts, 6 race wins and 13 podiums. Villeneuve had not won a world championship and his best result was 2nd in the 1979 when South African; Jody Scheckter triumphed.  There was hope that it wouldn't rain like 2011 and this year it was all clear skies. Vettel had taken his 32nd pole position which meant that he had surpassed 1992 world champion: Nigel Mansell's record. But yet again Red Bull had found themselves in the media for the wrong reasons. Their controversial floor design was last week banned by the FIA after weeks of dispute and talks that rival teams will mount a protest. The holes in the floor of the RB8 allowed for more air flow toward the rear of the car. Without the controversial floor, Vettel was only 0.3 seconds quicker than Hamilton and 0.4 quicker than Alonso. Button barely made into Q3 and only went tenth fastest overall. Felipe Massa put in his best qualifying of the season by going sixth fastest. The race was more like a race of who could make their tyres last and everyone had planned for a one stop strategy but Hamilton showed that to win, you would have to pit twice. That was unfortunate for Vettel and Alonso who were still running on old tyres toward the end. They missed out on what were their podium positions to Grosjean and Perez who both took their second podiums of the season. Hamilton now led Alonso by 2 points and Vettel by 3.

Valencia has always been the 'boring' race on the calendar but Alonso's heroics had made it one of the best Grand Prix of the season. Vettel's 2011 form was now blooming in qualifying but for the first time since 2010, Red Bull suffered from reliability issues. Whilst looking like the race would be his, Vettel's alternator failed which for him unfortunately meant he was out of the race. His anger showed as he got out of his car and threw his gloves at the wall. Alonso had inherited the lead while Hamilton and Räikkönen were behind. In the dying stages of the race, Räikkönen made his move on Hamilton whose tyres were degrading quickly. Then Maldonado came together with Hamilton with only 2 laps remaining which had then put an infuriated Hamilton out of the race and a wounded Maldonado straggling back outside the top 10. Schumacher who had started the race in P12 didn't realise until his engineer told him on the very last lap that he was currently sitting in P3, much to the surprise of the audience and the 7 time world champion. The Maestro had claimed his first podium after his return to Formula 1 in 2010. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) was involved in a serious collision with Kovalainen in the middle of the race which had put both drivers out of the race, however post-race, the stewards had handed Vergne a ten place grid penalty for the next race at Silverstone as well as 25,000 euro fine. Alonso was very emotional after winning and he proudly said that "this is one of my best races in my career." The win meant that Alonso was 20 points ahead of Webber now who was sitting second. The Spaniard was also the first repeat winner of 2012, bringing an end to the streak of seven different winners from seven different races.

The typical English summer had greeted everyone at Silverstone with a downpour of rain which had heavily impacted the Free Practice sessions as well as qualifying. Q2 had been red flagged for almost 45 minutes because of visibility issues and when it was resumed, there was a lot of standing water which had resulted in aquaplaning. In the wet, Alonso was the one to take his first pole position of 2012, Webber was second fastest and the Rain Maestro: Schumacher in third. The local favourites, Hamilton and Button were eighth and eighteenth fastest respectively. McLaren had showed that the momentum they had right at the start of the season was no longer there. The race was not affected by rain which was good for the front runners as they had not saved any fresh sets of the grim trim intermediate tyres. Webber remained within range of using DRS over Alonso, while Paul di Resta (Force India) was out early from damage to his car from an accident. Next to join di Resta was Perez who was taken off by Maldonado. Perez was (and cannot be blamed for being) absolutely outraged with Maldonado's aggressive driving style and called on for the harshest of penalties to be dealt. However the day was belonged to Webber who had beaten Alonso on the final pit stop to crucially take the lead. Webber's silver trim hard tyres had given better balance in the cold than Alonso's yellow trim softs which in regular conditions are the faster tyre. After starting P4, Vettel finished off the podium in third place whilst Massa achieved his best result for 2012 in fourth. Lotus had not such a bad race either with Räikkönen and Grosjean finishing P5 and P6.Räikkönen had said that "qualifying is where we need to improve," in order to be able to win a race. McLaren had salvaged some points with Hamilton only finishing eighth and Button tenth. Maldonado was handed a 10,000 euro fine for his run in with Perez despite Maldonado's claims that it was a racing incident. Webber had also now won his second race of the season and was the only driver to do so apart from Alonso. The mid-season break wasn't too far away now and at that point the two best friends; Alonso and Webber were the hot favourites for the title. The same was said in 2010 going into the final round where instead Vettel came out of the blue to clinch it.

Round 10 of the championship had brought the drivers back to Hockenheim in 2012 for the German Grand Prix. Instead the weather seemed like they were still in Great Britain. The qualifying at Hockenheim produced mostly the same result as Silverstone with Alonso on pole. Despite the F2012 still being underpowered compared to the likes of Red Bull and McLaren, in the wet it was proving to be quicker than them all. Home grown heroes Vettel and Schumacher would start in second and third after Webber had taken a penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. Red Bull was once again under controversy this time for the engine mappings for both cars. The cars this weekend were found to have supposedly produced less torque at the mid-range RPM level which is against FIA regulations according to this year's regulations which had banned several things including the innovative double blown diffuser that saw Red Bull dominate the 2011 season. After starting sixth, Button found himself fighting in the top three with Vettel and Alonso. Vettel had come across several issues that race, one of them being a KERS related problem which prevented him from using it and then after the race he was given a 20 second time penalty for overtaking Button off the track. This had promoted Button into second after the race and Räikkönen into third. Button's second place finish was promising for the McLaren driver because the last time he was on the podium was in China and he had to deliver more podium finishes from now on to stay in the championship. His pit crew also broke the record for the world's fastest pit stop which was 2.31 seconds. Meanwhile Alonso had won his third race of the season and continued to extend his lead in the championship. He was now 34 points ahead of his nearest rival; Webber and 44 points ahead of Vettel who was in third.

Too be continued…