Conclusions from the Brazilian Grand Prix
Jenson Button won the final race of the 2012 Formula One season, but it was Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull who had the most to celebrate in Brazil.
By finishing in sixth place the German driver became a triple World-Champion, and only the third man to win three consecutive Driver’s Championships. Fernando Alonso finished second ahead of team mate Felipe Massa, but the Spaniard’s efforts weren’t enough as he lost out to Vettel. Ferrari were left to console themselves with second place behind Red Bull in the Constructors Championship thanks to two podium finishes.
A wild race in Brazil started off badly for the World Champion elect as he found himself at the back of the pack after a collision on the first corner. Showing resilience in ever-changing conditions Vettel worked his way back up into the points and was helped out with two laps to go by a safety car which effectively ensured he would cross the finish line with enough points to win yet another title.
Here’s what we learned from an eventful race in South America....
By finishing in sixth place the German driver became a triple World-Champion, and only the third man to win three consecutive Driver’s Championships. Fernando Alonso finished second ahead of team mate Felipe Massa, but the Spaniard’s efforts weren’t enough as he lost out to Vettel. Ferrari were left to console themselves with second place behind Red Bull in the Constructors Championship thanks to two podium finishes.
A wild race in Brazil started off badly for the World Champion elect as he found himself at the back of the pack after a collision on the first corner. Showing resilience in ever-changing conditions Vettel worked his way back up into the points and was helped out with two laps to go by a safety car which effectively ensured he would cross the finish line with enough points to win yet another title.
Here’s what we learned from an eventful race in South America....
- Sebastian Vettel described himself as being ‘surprised’ by winning a third World Championship, but the German driver deserves credit for holding his nerve during an extremely tense weekend of F1 racing. He made history by becoming the third driver to win three consecutive World Championships and almost certainly write his name into the sport’s folk law. The only two other drivers to complete the back-to-back-to-back feat before Vettel were Juan Manuel Fangio, who went on to win four consecutive titles, and Michael Schumacher who managed to win five in a row.
- Vettel became the youngest driver in the sport’s history to win three World Championships, and like Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton before him, the German claimed the title despite not finishing on the podium.
- Germany celebrated the arrival of a new ‘great’ as the F1 world waved goodbye to a legendary figure in motorsport. After 306 starts Michael Schumacher returned to retirement having failed to add to his tally of 91 Grand Prix wins during his three year comeback.
- Schumacher’s final race finished with him in the points as the seven times World Champion (at the wheel of car number seven) finished his career in seventh place. This was also the position in which he started his career as an F1 driver.
- When Schumacher driver first retired in 2006, his final race which was held in Brazil featured a podium of Massa (1st), Alonso (2nd) and Button (3rd). On this occasion the results were directly reversed.
- McLaren ended their season the way they began it, with a front row lockout. Back at the start of the campaign in Australia Lewis Hamilton began pole and Jenson Button took the chequered flag – the same result came to pass in Brazil.
- Much attention was understandably taken away from Button’s win due to the retirement of Schumacher and Vettel’s history making title win, but in clinching a 15th career win during the Brazilian Grand Prix, the British driver is now 17th on the list of most prolific F1 winners.
- During their three years as team mates at McLaren Jenson Button accumulated more points than Lewis Hamilton. Despite yet another DNF for Hamilton, topping the podium Button ensured that the British pair continued their record of scoring points in every single race that the two were paired together.
- Jenson Button’s feat of winning the first and the last race of the season matches that of Alan Jones who managed to do the same in 1981.
- Lewis Hamilton’s career with McLaren didn’t quite end the way that he might have expected after a collision with Niko Hulkenburg caused serious damage to his car and ended up with him unable to complete the race. His last three victories have all been preceded and succeeded by no-scores, but by starting the race in pole position he secured his 26th for McLaren, equally the tally of former driver Mika Hakkinen.
- Despite finishing the year in fourth place, Hamilton managed to amass the most pole positions (seven) throughout 2012. This doesn’t include the one he secured in Barcelona where he suffered a penalty and lost out on the front slot of the grid.
- The departing British driver is the only driver to make Q3 in every race this season.
- Throughout the campaign Sebastian Vettel finished with the largest number of fastest laps, six, over the course of the season. Second placed Fernando Alonso finished with the most podiums – thirteen – but was still unable to catch the Red Bull driver.
- Heavily involved in the incident which ended Hamilton’s race, and ultimately his career with McLaren, Nico Hulkenberg led a race for the first time in his F1 career. This was the third race ever to be led by a Force India car; the other’s being this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix when Paul Di Resta hit the front and the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix when Giancarlo Fisichella led the way.
- Hulkenberg became the thirteenth different driver to lead a lap this year, the most drivers since 2009.
- Kimi Raikkonen’s season ended with third place in the Championship chase, but his mistake when trying to rejoin the track via an escape road cost him a lot of time and ended with him being lapped by the pace setting cars. This had no significance to his finishing position as a tenth place finish continued his streak of consecutive points scoring finishes to seventeen, but it also meant that he failed to complete just a single lap this season. Throughout the duration of the twenty race competition he did 1,191 of 1,192 laps, more than any other driver.
- Pastor Maldonado may have experienced the high of winning a Grand Prix in 2012 but he also became the first driver to receive a penalty for collection too many reprimands. This third summoning to the FIA of the year earned him his tenth penalty of 2012 giving his twice as many penalties as any other driver on the grid. The Colombian finished fifteenth in the Driver’s Championship which is the lowest position ever for any driver who has won a race throughout the season.
- Sergio Perez finished his tenure with Sauber sitting in the pits after a lap one crash, and since signing for McLaren he failed to add any points to his tally – a drought of six races.
- During the season Pirelli provided a total of 31,800 tyres for cars who performed in Formula One throughout practice, qualification and on race days.
- This was the first Formula One season wince 1997 which had only a single one-two finish throughout its duration. Only Red Bull managed this feat at the Korean Grand Prix.
- McLaren’s season has been largely one of inconsistency, and this has seen a pattern that started in the final races of 2011 when Lewis Hamilton won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but was a DNF during the following race in Brazil. Following on through the 2012 season each McLaren driver who finished first was unable to pick up any points in the following race:
Australia: Button 1st – Malaysia: Button 14th (no points)
Canada: Hamilton 1st – Europe: Hamilton DNF
Hungary: Hamilton 1st – Belgium: Hamilton DNF
Belgium: Button 1st – Italy: Button DNF
Italy: Hamilton 1st – Singapore: Hamilton: DNF
USA: Hamilton 1st – Brazil: Hamilton DNF