2012 Spanish Grand Prix result
2012 Spanish Grand Prix
2012 Spanish Grand Prix
- Maldonado voted Spanish GP Driver of the Weekend
- Spanish Grand Prix gets highest rating for five years
- F1 fans’ videos from the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix
- Force India expect more from Barcelona upgrade
- Top ten pictures from the Spanish Grand Prix
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse) said on 13th May 2012, 17:14
Excellent drive by Hamilton, very mature. He wasn’t too aggressive in his overtaking, but aggressive enough to make good progress.
I thought McLaren’s strategy for Hamilton was pretty poor, though. He was ahead of Vettel when he served his drive-through, yet finished behind him. I think they should have cut up that last stint into two, with 17 laps on hards and 13 on softs, for instance. To be able to do those 30 laps, he had to do a very slow pace compared to what I think he would have been able to. Consider this: he was ahead of Rosberg prior to his final stop, yet he was way behind when Rosberg made his, despite having the benefit of the undercut (and Rosberg was hardly flying at that point). Also, there was serious risk of this strategy not working if his tyres had gone off the cliff with 5 laps to go.
Of course, with an extra stop he may have been put back into traffic, but I don’t think it would have been too much of a problem. After clearing the scrapping Toro Rossos, I think he would have had a nice clear track in front of him to push and make up some good time. And even if he would have been in traffic for his final stint, his team should have had faith in him to pass cars on track. Hamilton was on a charge; they should have let him charge rather than send him on a 30-lap tyre preservation expedition.
I’m looking forward to Keith’s analyses; I think they will show that with proper strategy and some decent pit stops, he could have scored that fifth place that Eddie Jordan had predicted.
Raychris Dyson (@rdyson) said on 13th May 2012, 17:17
The Red Bull wings………I say different spec wings was used. They need to look at that. Not allowed.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 13th May 2012, 19:34
@rdyson What makes you think that? They wouldn’t run an untested wing. Not would they change it to a different established wing. It would jeopardise performance.
uan (@uan) said on 13th May 2012, 21:29
so Webber purposefully lost 3-4 positions in half a lap just to get a new wing spec? RBR, too clever for words :)
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 13th May 2012, 19:38
What a great result for Maldonado! Lotus will be happy with another solid points haul for sure, they have lots to celebrate.
It’s a bit weird how our two new race winners team mates have both been unable to finish the race. There is something bittersweet about that…
Fixy (@fixy) said on 13th May 2012, 20:04
Why didn’t Grosjean get a penalty for overtaking Vettel during the yellow flag period?
Kingshark (@kingshark) said on 14th May 2012, 8:44
Did he overtake him into T1? I don’t remember.