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pics: coates, Dunbar, etherington, Ferraro/Lat
phenomenon.” One theory was
that doing two-lap runs in qualifying
rather than the more commonplace
single lap may have damaged them
in some way.
So the pace of Schumacher,
in fourth, quickly fell away too,
protecting Hamilton, Massa and
Button further. Jenson got side-byside
with Massa a couple of times
into the Roggia chicane but stayed
behind, while Vettel used his DRS
to scrabble past Schumacher into
Rettifilo on the fourth lap and
was soon upon Button’s tail.
The Red Bull was slow at the end
of the straights but looking after its
tyres well again, and Button was soon
having to get defensive from Vettel’s
attack, all of which played further
“At one point we were
on the phone back to
Maranello to decide
the right time to pit”
Fry on Ferrari IT drama
into the hands of Hamilton who just
paced himself back to Massa, edging
out a couple of tenths here, three or
four there, until the cushion was
out to around 3s by the eighth lap.
By this time Alonso had hit the
DRS to pass Schumacher into the first
chicane, Michael immediately on
the counter-attack for the next few
corners but Fernando soon pulling
away and catching the Button/Vettel
dice. A crucial foundation had been
built, as Alonso explained: “Getting
these places quite early and getting
us with the quick cars opened up the
possibilities of this race for us. It
was more than we were expecting
from 10th on the grid.”
But the emerging sensation was
Perez. One of only four (along with
Jerome d’Ambrosio’s KERS-less
Lotus, Pastor Maldonado’s Williams
and Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India)
DRIVER BY DRIVER by Edd Straw
1
7/10
Event rating
SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Red Bull-Renault RB8-04
Start: 5th. Finish: 22nd
overachieved in qualifying
and did well in the race until
the infamous incident with
alonso. there’s needle there
from last year, but Vettel was
always in the firing line for
a penalty given the rules
clarification issued a few
months ago. Was recovering
well when his alternator went.
30 autosport.com September 13 2012
2
Vergne has a
scary retirement
4/10
Event rating
MARK WEBBER
Red Bull-Renault RB8-03
Start: 11th. Finish: 20th
a pretty underwhelming
weekend. couldn’t quite find
the edge that Vettel did to get
into Q3 and never particularly
convincing in the race. he
would have picked up some
points but, while pushing hard
on shot rear tyres, he spun
exiting ascari and retired with
some evil-looking flatspots.
3
Rosberg fights Senna
to choose to start on the hard tyres,
it was apparent that at this phase of
the race it was the quicker tyre as he
began to surge through the field: past
Rosberg on lap two, Bruno Senna’s
Williams a lap later, di Resta on the
sixth lap and his own team-mate
Kobayashi (on the softer tyre) a lap
after that. The moves were coming
easy, the Sauber faster off the curves,
grippier under braking. With a clear
track ahead of him he was lapping as
fast as Hamilton as he closed upon
8/10
Event rating
JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-27-02
Start: 2nd. DNF
pushed hamilton hard in
qualifying but wheelspin at
the start allowed Massa to
jump him. Was on course to
take second, and probably
had everything needed to
keep perez at bay, when a
failure in the fuel system
forced him out and ended
any vague chance of a title tilt.
Perez scythes
through midfield
the tail of the Schumacher/
Raikkonen train, the Lotus being held
up by the Merc but too slow onto
the straights to find a passing place,
its low wing merely allowing it to
catch up by the end of the straight
what it had lost in the beginning.
Perez sat patiently, knowing that
this stint was going to be long. The
hard tyre had to be run long into the
53-lap race because the pre-race
estimation from Pirelli was that the
medium was good only for 23-24
4
9/10
Event rating
LEWIS HAMILTON
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-27-04
Start: 1st. Finish: 1st
hamilton kept saying that all
the talk about his future
wasn’t a distraction and he
made damned sure that it
wasn’t. Fortunate that alonso
hit trouble in qualifying, but in
the race he was immaculate.
he wasn’t fazed by perez
closing in, banging in a few
quick laps when he needed to.
5
9/10
Event rating
FERNANDO ALONSO
Ferrari F2012-296
Start: 10th. Finish: 3rd
Did alonso let his head drop
when a broken anti-roll bar
cost him the “easiest” pole?
no. incisive early on, and after
that he did what he could,
surviving his alarming grassy
moment at the curva grande,
and the resulting car damage,
to take a vital third place. at
times, he can do no wrong.
laps before the front-right wore its
inner shoulder down to the canvas,
potentially triggering a catastrophic
delamination. The hard was reckoned
good for around 30 laps.
This in fact had been the big
concern for most – but not all – of
the teams going into the race. Last
year the problem wasn’t apparent
because the tyres were blistering
their outer shoulders long before
the wear became a problem. But this
year’s flatter profile, in combination
with the 0.3mm thinner gauge used
for here and Spa (less rubber on
the tyre, to prevent heat build-up
of the outer shoulder that triggers
blistering), revealed that the inner
front being dragged unloaded
across the track through Parabolica
wore a finger-thin strip from
the inner shoulder.
The problem had been discovered
6
8/10
Event rating
FELIPE MASSA
Ferrari F2012-294
Start: 3rd. Finish: 4th
Was bang on the form needed
to justify Ferrari considering
keeping him on. Wouldn’t have
been ahead of alonso on the
grid but for his team-mate’s
problem, but had a good go at
passing hamilton for the lead
at the start and troubled
button before having to
give alonso third place.