2012 Italian Grand Prix championship points

2012 Italian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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74 comments on “2012 Italian Grand Prix championship points”

  1. Kimi is doing great for not winning any races. Alonso will most likely win this years championship. Hamilton congrats on a great race.

    1. TV usually shows Kimi when he was being overtaken. I don’t know how he managed to get P5. His consistency is impressive as Alonso, just not dramatic(Win, DNF) as Alonso.

      1. Kimi, and Lotus too, really need a win to keep their respective championships going though. If they can’t get a win in a race, they will be relying on the opposition to continue having unreliability or accidents. It seems unlikely to win either championship from that position of weakness.

      2. Don’t forget Button, Vettel and Webber all were in front of him before things started to go wrong for them.

        1. No, Vettel and Webber was behind Kimi.

    2. I think it’s tempting to say that Alonso will win this year but remember that the 60 odd points that he had built over Hamilton occurred in a period spanning 3 races. Hamilton was leading after Canada then had a series of poor results. Would you be saying the same thing if HAM wins the next race and ALO only scores say 5 points? Things can change so quickly!

      The worrying thing for Alonso is that McLaren is performing well on very different tracks (Hungaroring & Monza) while Ferrari is only doing well on the low downforce tracks. This leads me to think that HAM might be able to put the Red Bull cars and his teammate between him and ALO on some of the higher downforce circuits. This could cut the deficit real quick.
      I think Alonso needs some help if he is to stave of Hamilton in a dominant Mclaren. The following will be helpful to him:
      – Random situations such as rain and safety cars where he manages better than HAM
      – A compliant teammate who will both move over an allow slipstream opportunities (check)
      – HAM in close contact with Maldanado, Grosjean and Massa
      – Issues in HAM’s personal life (Contract dispute, tweetgate, Nicole)
      – HAM losing his head if his teammate’s setup works better
      – McLaren pit/strategy screw ups
      – Ron Dennis making HAM sit out the rest of the season if he signs with Mercedes

      1. The most helpful thing is nothing more than resurgent F2012. Mclaren did it with British, Germany updates, so why not Ferrari or others?

        1. Completely agree and given the variations in form we have seen this year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen. The only thing we can be sure of is that it will continue to be interesting for several races and maybe even to the last.

  2. Jesus. Race might go wrong but championship is always favoring Alonso. I think now it’s almost Hamilton vs Alonso year. Hamilton has better car, Alonso is more consistent. Who will win? It’s so close.

    1. Alonso will keep pushing like he does. P2-P5 will keep switching around for a while yet, there’s only 10 points in there!
      Wouldn’t be surprised to see the Red Bull resurgent in Singapore!

      1. Red Bull resurgence will only help Alonso’s WDC chances though. If Vettel could take 25 points, that’s 7 less points for Hamilton to make up on Alonso.

        Ferrari must be praying that Mclaren aren’t going to dominate the final 8 races of the season.

        1. Red Bull resurgence will help Hamilton if they get between him and Alonso otherwise Alonso will be on the podium too much, Hamilton is bound to have a bad race, team tactics or retirement, just my take on it. I don’t mind who wins the championship so its just good fun watching how it turns out.

        2. I’m thinking Alonso is in the sticky situation where he’s got to cover a challenge from Hamilton, Raikkonen and Vettel. He could afford to let Hamilton win at Monza since he’s extended his lead regardless. He can’t do that anymore! :D
          He’s probably hoping Perez, Button, Massa and Grosjean come good for while!

          1. I think hamilton will haVe a mechanical failure just like alonso(on qualifying) ,button, webber, vettel has had. And yes ithink will win the wdc. Alonso has only lost 3 points to the second driver in te tanding in two race. He previous gap was 40 points. Ow is 37 points even with a dnf.

    2. I don’t think Alonso will win. Difference from 1 to 4 is 39 points. If Alonso will not get points in one race from seven, he will not win. And the contender will be one of Ham, Rai, Vet. They have equal chances between them.

      1. Very scientific. If any of the others do not get points in a race they are worse off, and so far, the others have shown more prone to finish out of the points.

        Apart of that, you might think that Ferrari is a worse car and then you might be right, otherwise chances favour Alonso, although Lewis has momentum, that’s undeniable.

        1. Alonso always does well in singapore..

          1. Were you maybe thinking Singapore 2008?

        2. The probability of DNF of Ham AND Rai AND Vet in one race(not the same) from seven is lower than the probability of DNF of Alonso in one race from seven.

    3. Looking back at the week end … Lots of people were crying because Alonso had back luck on saturday but on the whole week end he had not the worst seat compare to Vettel or Button. They had both quite a nice race and having to end the race on mechanical failure is always a blow. Specially for Button as the McLaren didn’t show much weakness on that point during the WE, as RedBull or Ferrari already had problems earlier…
      Button still has a mathematic chance to get the WDC ? Would he still stick to a win if Hamilton is second ?

  3. Alonso’s been so good that I don’t really want him to lose the championship. I’m looking at McLaren finishing strongly and getting the constructors for my championship excitement.

    1. @hey That’s the ideal situation in my book as well :)

  4. I hope it comes down to ALO, HAM and VET. ALO because he has driven very well, HAM because he has the fastest car, VET because he has been most unlucky

    1. Actually, Vettel’s retirement is hardly bad luck. Their electronic system failed in Valencia and there was bad sign in the practice which they changed alternator again. I believe they just put the replacement based on design(probably they didn’t have an option then.) and hoped it wouldn’t fail again. and it failed.

      1. the replacement based on design

        I meant ‘based on the same design’.

    2. HAM had bad lack more-than his fair share this year than any driver, he got taken out of races buy stupid drivers MAL and ROM. As well as his team failing him badly time and time again with their incompetent antics. I would not be surprise if he left Mac to MERC.

  5. I reckon Button and Webber might be out now, honestly, I think it’s only between Hamilton and Alonso. The only car that can haul in that gap is the McLaren.

    1. @duncanmonza
      It looked like it was Vettel vs Alonso after Spa, but I agree with you now. This is going to be between Alonso and Hamilton. He is the only one who has a car good enough to really pull back the points difference at this point.

    2. Webber has only 10 points less than Hamilton. why would you rule him out so early? Red Bull will be much faster in the next races. Their car is not well suited for Spa and Monza.

  6. You have to feel sorry for Vettel. He wants this championship and he is doing everythig he can to get it. Today he was very aggressive with Alonso (even a little bit too much), his car wasn’t good but he didn’t want to give up. After his drive through he was motivated as ever, he overtook Webber and he was closing in on Raikkonen.

    Very unlucky. Alonso is going away, Hamilton is recovering and he can’t do anything about it.

    1. After he had the fastest car for the past 2.5 years, I dont feel sorry for him at all.

    2. I’m guessing you enjoyed the snorefest that was 2011?

    3. @yobo01 There’s been a lot of comments about that move so I’ve set up a poll:

      Did Vettel deserve penalty for Alonso move at Curva Grande?

      1. After he had the fastest car for the past 2.5 years, I dont feel sorry for him at all.

        This.
        Even if for the next two years Vettel has to drive a complete dog of a car, it’s still hard to feel sorry for him considering how fortunate he was to drive Newey’s rocketship in 2010 and 2011.

  7. Raikkonen is being quite the silent assassin right now and has been all season. Hopefully he can keep it up. Singapore was dreadful for Enstone last year and they did admit that the circuit wasn’t ever going to suit the car, it will be interesting to see how the E20 performs there.

    Mercedes need to sort themselves out. They did alright today, but ‘alright’ isn’t really good enough for a constructor. Sauber are catching them and seem really on form at the moment. Had it not been for their disaster at Spa that gap would surely be even smaller.

    1. @andrewtanner Based on Monaco this year, which might be too old to use but I think still feasible, Mercedes would perform well in Singapore. I don’t expect them to get the pole however, anyway better than recent races.

      I believe Red Bull would bounce back either but I’m not sure they would fast as or faster than Mclaren. I think Mclaren gained momentum in terms of performance and it seems hard to beat him purely. Ferrari would not bad or actually might be quite good. but I don’t think Lotus would be good enough.

      Singapore is Alonso’s best record track. It won’t be easy for his rivals.

    2. Raikkonen is being quite the silent assassin right now and has been all season.

      I have to agree with you there…. Although Hamilton is in second place… I feel a much bigger threat coming from Kimi than from Hamilton…. As soon as Hamilton signs his contract it´ll go south for him as it did for Webber…

  8. Those first 6 spots in the WDC look insane. Even if we rule Webber and Button out, with it being the sensible thing to do, it still looks awfully close between Alonso, being consistent and having a rather solid lead, Hamilton, who is having the fastest car on the grid now, Vettel, whose Red Bull should suit the next couple of tracks quite well and Raikkonen, dangerously close and 2 races away from that big DDRS upgrade, which might just make the difference. What an ending to this season!

    Also, congrats to Sauber breaking the 100 points mark. Did this ever happen in the team’s history so far? Except for the BMW era?

    1. Did this ever happen in the team’s history so far? Except for the BMW era?

      of course not. They did 2 times as BMW-Sauber and it was 2007 and 2008.

      1. points are very different now.

        they had a great season in 01. finished 4th. probably if you did 01 in todays points they would have over 100. i guess.

  9. For all the those who were saying last weekend that Alonso’s accident was good for the Drivers championship i’m glad to tell them that Red Bull’s retirement is good for the Constructors championship

  10. This championship is walking towards a season finale between Alonso and Hamilton. Red Bull has the same level of performance as Ferrari so they won´t catch up 40 points because both of them have Mclaren in front. If Button starts to help Hamilton than his chance of becoming champion will improve considerably, if not and Button steals points to them all this will only benefit the spaniard.
    Raikkonen is the dark horse but his team/car won´t have what it takes to get the big prize.

  11. It would be frankly incredible if Raikkonen won the title this year. He’s been there, or there abouts, all year. Lotus just cant quite join all the dots up, especially at times when it’s needed the most. We’ll know by Japan whether Kimi has a chance or not. Although frankly, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine Alonso not winning this year.

    1. Almost as incredible as the time Raikkonen won his championship?

  12. Also, I’ve just noticed how close Sauber are to Mercedes in the constructors. This wont bode well with the Merc board if Sauber finish ahead of them in the standings (dont rule it out just yet!)

  13. Alonso has a massive advantage of having Massa to help him…Vettel , Hamilton and Kimi not as fortunate at the moment…Between Alonso and Kimi for me.

    1. Well, surely Lotus will now decide that the championship is effectively over for Grosjean. I mean, the only way he’s going to win the championship from where he is at the moment, is if no one ahead of him manages to get on a podium for 4 races and he wins all 4. Mathematically possible perhaps, but practically speaking highly unlikely.

  14. Hamilton despite being let down by his team at the start of the year with dreadful pitstops and school-boy errors has still managed to climb his way back into contention.

    I really hope it comes down to Alonso and Hamilton for the title, for my money they have been the best drivers of the year so far, with Alonso being helped by Massa and a team that didn’t have to learn how to do pitstops…

    1. You onl want to see the good in ferrari to lower alonso’s achivements. But you should also remeber that the mclaren has been the best car since the beginnig of the season. Yet hamilton for some reason is 37 points behind alonso.

  15. www.formula1.com
    9th September 2012, 16:22

    I believe Kimi will win since Lotus already upgrade the car 10x to E30 according to official http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2012/876/1002.html ,or its just stupid reporter lol.

    1. Are you implying the FIA stewards (independent of decisions made from Todt) punished Vettel unfairly?

      Under the 2012 sporting regulations, Vettel broke the rules. On the same move last year, Alonso did not. Vettel will have known the limits of the rules, but tried to push the boundaries anyway.

      1. It was my understanding that the 2012 sporting regulations were merely putting on paper the standards the stewards had been applying all along.

  16. Hamilton to join Maldonado at Williams..Maldonado’s funding PDSVA to pay Hamiltons salary xxD

  17. Just to redress some of the comments, Ferrari had the fastest car this weekend, not McLaren. Ferrari have actually had a very consistent car since Spain, AMD therefore perhaps the best car if not always the fastest. There’s no doubting Alonso’s genius at the start of the season, but let’s not forget that Ferrari have dropped points this weekend on terms of what the car was clearly capable of.

    1. They were good in Monza which is a Low downforce track, but they were nowhere in Spa or Hungary. On the other hand, Mclaren was on pole and winner in all last 3 races with different layouts!

    2. you don t win races or championships with what you are capable of but what you achieve!

    3. Hamilton was walking massa the whole race and comfortably stiff-armed both alonso and checo at the end. If not for buttons issue ferrari finish 4-5. That compares well to alonsos big talk. Looking at spa and Hungary as well I think mclaren have a real advantage now across track types. If Hamilton can keep it on the road its going to get real interesting by Austin.

  18. You spot on there John, Alonso has been saying this the whole weekend.
    Yet everybody fears the Mclaren.

  19. i know webber,vettel and button retiring wasent their fault but kimis consistency is simply stunning people seem to forget the guy left formula 1 for 2 years and we know how hard it is to return to f1 like schumacher showed, alot of the time doesnt feel like he left in the first place. would love to see him win the wdc but seems unlikely

  20. Michael Brown (@)
    9th September 2012, 17:20

    Alonso will win the championship. The opposition keeps taking points off of each other. He went in with a 24 point lead and left with a 27 point lead.

    1. 37 actually. Two races down since the break for summer and the lead is down a mere 3 points.

  21. I’m not an Alonso fan, but he certainly Does it when he needs to.

    It’ll be good for the suspense if he has some bad luck, but it in the end this was a superb year, just like 2006 for both Fernando and Schumi.

  22. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    9th September 2012, 19:07

    @keithcollantine When was the last time a race winnner was under 10th place in the championship after the summer break? Of course I’m talking about Pastor Maldonado. Unbelievable!!! 15th, and no more points after his 15 minutes of fame in Barcelona. I stated a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago Bruno Senna was much better driver than him, and I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the year Bruno is ahead Crashtor in the championship

  23. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    9th September 2012, 19:15

    @keithcollantine Hey hey another one for “your questions answered” :P
    I see HRT, caterham and Marussia (let’s imagine they didn’t change names from the time they appeared)
    How long has ever been the longest period a new team had to wait to score points? I can’t wait to see which one of them will (if ever) score first

    Thanks Keith or any other good experts who can answer these strange questions. Have a niice Sunday!!!!!!

  24. Let’s not forget about the WCC, McLaren are stronger than Red Bull, but Red Bull have a points advantage.

    1. Don’t rule Ferrari and Lotus out either…A couple of wins from either Alonso or Raikkonen, combined with decent performances by their team mates and a DNF here and there for Red Bull and McLaren and they are right back withing striking distance of the WCC. It’s that simple.

      I think between the top 4, in both WCC and WDC it could go either way.
      Four different drivers are battling for the title driving for four different teams who are battling for the (other) title. I just love this season…

  25. So it was Monza, seven races before the end, where first drivers lost even theoretical chances to the title. Last year that cut-off point was Hungarian GP, with eight races to go.

    Doesn’t seem a big difference but Alonso has now four points more than there are points available, while last year Vettel had 234 points with 200 available.

  26. I don’t think Alonso is going to be able to hold on. Hamilton has won 2 of the last 3 races and would have likely scored a podium in Spa were it not for the wreck. RedBull will have a resurgence at Singapore and Suzuka, and Kimi has the longest points scoring streak in the field.

    He needs too much help, he can’t count on Felipe always being there to move out of his way, or for Vettel to keep having car failures. That didn’t win him the championship in 2010 and it won’t this year either.

    He is driving brilliantly no doubt, but he knows better than anyone, and will be the first to tell you that the Championship is far from over.

  27. I hope Lewis can reel Alonso in and claim his second championship. He really deserves it.

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