2012 British Grand Prix fastest laps

2012 British Grand Prix

8th July 2012, 23:209th July 2012, 12:37 | Written by Keith Collantine

Romain Grosjean took an impressive sixth – only seven seconds behind his team mate – despite pitting on lap two.

But did Lotus punch beneath their weight again?

British Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded):

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2012drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52
Fernando Alonso	103.773	100.924	100.256	99.941	99.398	99.255	99.82	99.49	99.243	99.217	98.518	98.765	99.099	98.866	96.875	115.402	97.689	98.467	99.065	98.149	98.103	98.092	97.7	97.732	97.042	97.342	97.719	97.551	97.319	97.364	96.842	96.885	96.762	96.584	96.703	96.509	94.739	113.345	95.966	96.459	96.357	96.186	96.807	96.791	96.585	96.723	96.221	96.323	95.385	96.086	95.609	96.305
Mark Webber	104.377	100.978	100.451	99.913	99.932	99.706	99.913	100.249	99.64	99.307	99.384	99.17	99.752	97.855	115.784	97.498	98.18	98.314	98.416	98.504	98.169	97.979	97.54	97.665	97.684	97.505	98.175	97.313	97.072	96.971	97.089	96.938	94.629	113.928	96.132	95.954	96.279	96.137	96.469	95.977	95.949	95.986	95.682	95.87	95.836	96.569	96.292	94.953	94.934	95.23	95.281	95.778
Michael Schumacher	104.97	101.114	100.89	100.492	99.898	100.467	100.902	100.279	100.181	100.088	100.557	97.353	117.72	99.368	99.036	99.133	98.943	98.752	98.75	98.602	98.761	98.437	98.339	100.175	98.219	98.286	98.898	98.241	98.354	98.566	97.984	98.221	98.722	96.484	114.041	95.985	96.2	96.875	96.677	96.435	95.749	95.903	95.586	95.644	96.121	95.975	95.934	95.728	95.784	95.685	95.746	95.191
Sebastian Vettel	106.371	100.82	101.514	99.955	100.197	100.009	100.906	100.419	100.332	97.773	116.197	98.273	99.215	99.084	99.326	98.23	98.011	98.196	98.043	98.037	98.114	97.794	97.64	97.905	97.485	97.712	97.675	97.668	97.635	97.249	95.176	114.252	96.357	96.869	96.577	96.538	96.798	95.944	96.075	96.039	96.303	95.834	95.959	95.906	95.75	95.982	95.667	95.458	95.208	95.105	95.645	94.897
Felipe Massa	105.524	100.872	101.894	99.749	99.865	100.287	100.992	100.182	100.241	100.036	99.526	99.106	97.673	116.728	98.677	98.931	98.219	98.135	98.104	98.382	98.156	98.053	97.739	97.783	97.974	97.765	97.536	97.367	97.356	97.483	97.435	97.502	97.588	97.485	95.133	113.446	95.97	95.725	95.836	96.138	95.623	95.692	96.372	95.604	95.74	96.123	95.458	95.552	95.111	95.041	96.415	95.483
Kimi Raikkonen	107.501	101.134	100.77	100.63	99.926	99.656	100.736	100.432	100.269	100.006	99.439	99.906	97.729	117.452	99.561	98.669	98.303	98.756	98.671	98.783	98.809	98.424	97.957	97.386	97.51	97.717	97.259	96.907	96.726	97.885	97.602	97.248	96.883	95.064	114.869	95.894	96.613	96.1	96.143	95.745	95.558	95.42	95.349	95.447	95.36	95.408	95.402	95.317	94.728	94.661	96.138	95.744
Pastor Maldonado	106.954	101.066	101.073	101.582	100.245	99.816	100.229	100.372	100.309	100.322	97.406	157.158	124.214	98.28	98.417	98.426	98.754	98.751	98.938	99.413	98.742	98.458	98.559	99.798	99.573	98.346	98.383	97.839	98	98.405	97.561	98.009	98.004	97.515	97.632	100.62	97.931	98.042	98.278	98.114	98.15	98.718	102.395	98.751	101.037	100.431	99.929	98.811	99.318	100.9	101.195
Lewis Hamilton	108.413	101.476	100.519	100.77	100.444	100.082	100.412	100.076	100.04	100.253	99.649	99.2	99.905	99.063	98.504	98.472	98.338	99.18	100.518	99.204	96.945	114.493	98.043	98.204	97.884	97.9	98.252	95.49	115.083	97.612	98.117	97.852	97.283	97.403	97.792	96.998	97.172	96.883	96.803	96.716	96.449	96.642	96.464	96.173	96.445	96.235	97.783	96.595	96.791	96.593	96.674	97.464
Romain Grosjean	111.178	100.974	125.197	99.216	99.537	100.691	100.553	98.945	100.099	98.78	99.626	98.857	99.022	98.482	98.377	98.638	98.321	98.408	98.56	98.551	98.551	98.419	98.053	98.268	98.015	95.962	114.492	96.492	97.255	97.573	98.092	97.979	97.121	97.366	96.133	95.895	95.937	95.692	95.645	95.657	95.328	95.696	95.613	95.536	95.829	95.724	95.643	95.838	95.255	94.884	95.127	97.307
Paul di Resta	156.909
Nico Rosberg	112.208	103.684	101.472	100.768	101.079	100.572	100.737	100.599	100.54	100.154	99.836	99.759	100.198	100.593	97.969	116.252	99.094	99.539	98.9	99.022	98.594	98.336	98.242	98.037	97.904	97.955	98.038	98.104	98.041	99.492	98.793	97.74	97.505	97.336	97.699	97.403	95.646	122.919	96.007	96.727	96.056	96.56	96.345	96.452	96.534	96.466	96.445	95.972	95.75	95.907	96.42	96.282
Daniel Ricciardo	112.943	104.07	101.482	101.113	100.975	101	101.611	101.125	100.091	99.893	99.454	100.616	100.191	100.769	100.87	97.565	116.739	98.374	98.373	98.808	98.66	98.604	98.807	98.638	98.468	98.259	98.757	98.169	96.14	116.499	97.711	97.682	97.431	97.309	97.149	98.512	97.303	98.554	96.937	96.734	96.257	96.242	96.257	96.002	95.746	95.904	95.693	95.764	95.448	95.603	95.723	95.505
Bruno Senna	109.373	101.4	101.18	100.717	100.789	100.29	100.599	99.769	99.749	100.209	99.759	99.235	105.64	100.443	116.57	98.072	99.331	98.406	98.692	98.546	98.682	98.493	98.064	98.61	97.963	98.037	98.24	97.915	97.954	96.505	115.612	96.883	96.452	96.821	97.53	97.602	96.102	96.432	96.622	96.836	96.602	96.981	96.918	96.946	96.605	96.571	96.294	95.863	96.363	96.678	96.727	95.963
Nico Hulkenberg	110.583	102.016	100.997	100.909	100.723	100.492	100.492	100.632	100.167	100.113	99.698	101.026	100.574	100.1	99.605	97.166	116.94	98.323	98.609	98.762	98.707	98.488	97.999	98.151	98.073	97.903	97.911	97.735	97.482	97.891	97.903	97.774	97.909	97.805	95.898	113.645	95.981	96.525	96.938	96.746	96.638	97.135	96.835	96.845	96.677	96.434	96.266	96.11	96.354	96.646	100.56	97.253
Sergio Perez	110.228	100.884	99.781	100.689	100.524	100.133	100.472	100.001	99.903	100.734	97.594
Jenson Button	111.468	103.672	101.263	100.757	100.958	100.476	100.64	100.624	100.175	100.039	99.732	99.835	100.364	100.418	100.48	98.932	116.049	97.879	98.044	98.416	98.334	98.687	98.545	98.44	98.069	97.932	98.279	98.212	98.542	98.892	97.887	113.271	96.329	96.296	96.677	96.464	96.481	96.64	96.519	96.375	96.133	96.968	96.931	96.891	96.828	96.378	96.276	96.121	96.311	96.725	96.992	96.086
Kamui Kobayashi	111.857	102.66	100.994	100.335	100.456	100.253	100.451	100.409	100.388	99.969	99.57	99.622	100.293	99.548	98.875	97.364	117.191	98.082	98.001	98.37	98.099	98.215	98.121	97.794	97.665	98.024	98.15	97.513	99.213	97.809	97.595	97.735	98.241	99.127	96.612	96.555	94.608	127.087	95.677	96.32	96.103	96.232	95.655	95.834	95.839	96.094	95.896	95.478	95.555	95.903	96.856	96.365
Vitaly Petrov
Heikki Kovalainen	114.97	103.766	101.959	102.25	101.843	102.46	101.96	101.799	101.483	101.135	101.716	100.86	119.165	99.901	99.881	99.874	99.945	100.371	100.358	100.302	99.598	100.186	100.066	100.13	99.297	99.457	99.767	99.096	97.252	118.249	98.757	99.373	100.791	99.787	98.991	98.222	98.05	98.358	100.13	100.272	100.292	99.75	99.989	100.316	98.436	98.457	98.287	101.344	98.669	99.124	102.011
Timo Glock	113.739	104.309	104.223	102.671	102.644	102.406	102.244	102.394	102.837	102.268	101.313	103.481	102.259	101.648	101.222	101.419	101.733	99.213	119.151	100.479	100.795	101.337	102.37	100.848	101.326	100.638	100.178	100.078	101.469	101.134	100.095	99.816	101.016	100.762	99.545	100.364	100.863	97.824	118.247	98.261	99.664	98.246	99.386	100.547	98.281	97.945	98.002	97.549	97.884	97.422	99.219
Pedro de la Rosa	114.364	105.375	103.893	103.45	103.462	103.075	102.765	103.065	102.635	102.49	101.989	103.892	102.613	104.193	102.164	101.938	101.896	101.542	102.243	102.069	102.166	102	102.486	103.56	102.612	103.858	101.045	122.053	101.583	100.456	102.822	100.438	100.184	101.992	100.592	100.798	102.288	101.632	100.423	100.23	100.067	99.724	99.871	99.618	99.715	100.141	99.894	101.952	101.907	101.493
Narain Karthikeyan	114.675	106.807	104.152	103.738	103.113	104.061	104.061	102.872	102.768	102.419	102.437	102.95	103.449	102.945	102.749	100.169	124.504	102.441	105.588	101.374	102.068	101.101	103.15	102.094	101.75	104.047	100.972	106.083	101.222	102.173	102.82	101.221	100.416	102.606	98.373	120.302	99.272	99.516	99.061	98.48	99.046	98.462	98.912	101.075	99.711	100.872	100.144	98.823	99.884	98.339
Jean-Eric Vergne	112.621	103.903	101.319	101.036	101.202	100.971	101.697	102.439	100.759	100.41	100.301	100.409	100.751	99.246	117.524	98.37	98.857	99.078	99.264	99.498	98.978	98.847	98.525	98.381	98.228	98.212	98.228	97.874	97.822	97.738	98.421	95.812	115.399	96.349	96.597	96.467	96.723	96.88	97.765	96.593	96.146	96.402	96.643	96.454	96.279	96.058	95.989	95.738	95.514	97.603	96.19	96.091
Charles Pic	115.469	106.537	104.352	103.416	103.349	104.406	103.699	102.956	102.752	102.516	102.168	103.25	101.102	119.498	100.892	101.127	101.543	101.253	101.38	102.052	101.172	100.882	100.704	100.563	100.552	101.678	101.48	101.527	101.372	101.293	100.049	99.052	117.802	101.689	101.284	99.364	100.231	100.748	101.547	99.485	99.9	99.496	99.212	98.789	98.699	98.533	98.453	98.439	98.477	98.008	98.992

One of the more remarkable drives in the race was that of Romain Grosjean, who recovered to sixth place despite having pitted for a new front wing on the second lap.

Fortunately for Grosjean he had started the race on the soft tyres, which proved to be the less competitive compound, so he was able to run his remaining stint on the hard tyres.

Even so he did a remarkable job both in nursing his tyres over stints of 24 and 26 laps and in cutting through the slower cars without losing much time. He finished the race less than seven seconds behind his team mate.

He said: “The team did a fantastic job in giving me a great race strategy and we believed in ourselves to go for long stints with both sets of hard tyres.

“I was still battling hard with the cars around me, but trying to save the tyres at the same time. It became harder towards the end of the race but I hung on to my sixth place. Kimi [Raikkonen] was too far in front of me to catch him at the end of the race.”

All the same it does rather point to yet another instance of Lotus having a competitive car and failing to achieve the result they were capable of. Particularly when we take into consideration Grosjean’s compromised qualifying effort and the presence of both cars at the top of the fastest lap table.

British Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

Rank	Driver	Car	Fastest lap	Gap	On lap
1	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	1’34.661		50
2	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’34.884	0.223	50
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’34.897	0.236	52
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’34.934	0.273	49
5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’35.041	0.380	50
6	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’35.191	0.530	52
7	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’35.385	0.724	49
8	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’35.448	0.787	49
9	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’35.478	0.817	48
10	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’35.514	0.853	49
11	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’35.750	1.089	49
12	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1’35.863	1.202	48
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’35.981	1.320	37
14	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’36.086	1.425	52
15	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’36.173	1.512	44
16	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1’37.422	2.761	50
17	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1’37.515	2.854	34
18	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1’38.008	3.347	50
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1’38.050	3.389	37
20	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1’38.339	3.678	50
21	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1’39.618	4.957	44
22	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’39.781	5.120	3
23	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes
24	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault

Caterham’s much-vaunted major upgrade seemingly failed to bear fruit. But poor weather during and before the race kept them from realising its full potential.

Technical director Mark Smith said: “On Friday we are running the aero test we had to postpone earlier this week because of the weather and that will help us make sure we can optimise the whole package we brought to Silverstone.

“We know we have progressed but we just were not able to show it today so we will focus on doing so at the last two races before the summer break in Germany and Hungary.”

Team principal Tony Fernandes said contact with a Toro Rosso cost Heikki Kovalainen “20 to 30 points of downforce” which “can mean up to a second”, though this figure is best taken with a pinch of salt.

2012 British Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine

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21 comments on “2012 British Grand Prix fastest laps”

Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th July 2012, 23:55
Another miss by Lotus, then… it’s time they get it all together and win a race. They are not that far off in the championship, and they have a competitive car. But if they wait too long, then it’s gonna get harder. Specially with Alonso now picking up the pace and constantly challenging for wins.
Kimi4WC
9th July 2012, 0:01
Lotus seriously need to sort out qualifying and start from first two rows consistently. They got arguably fastest race car and two fast drivers. (I know it’s close up there, but that’s what it takes if they want to convert this performance into win)
They really missing out on points at the moment, hopefully they can keep this up for second part of the season. So far most of the races were the matter of getting past slower cars through the race and not having enough laps to get the leaders. Better qualifying and we shall have very interesting battle in the end!!!!
Cornflakes (@cornflakes)
9th July 2012, 0:05
If you compare the top teams on that graph, I reckon Lotus have the fastest car in race trim!
1. AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
  9th July 2012, 19:32
  @cornflakes Yep. You could see them catching other cars quite easily, similar to how they did in Bahrain. Thing is, it always comes too late!
rolandgrant (@rolandgrant)
9th July 2012, 0:30
think it had much to do with the qualifying session. the lotuses were hamstrung from their grid positions. grosjean dropped the ball at the end of q2 but raikkonen did a great job to get sixth without kers and only one lap’s worth experience on the inters. the start was key as if kimi could have got ahead of vettel it might have paved the way for a podium – red bull’s clever strategy vaulted seb in front of massa. as was the case many cars were bottled up behind schumacher and lost 5 or 6 seconds during the first stint, which hampered raikkonen and put him about 6 seconds behind massa by the time he found a way past. lotus could have pitted kimi a bit earlier as well to leapfrog schumacher as he was extremely quick on the hards. but that’s from hindsight and easy to say now.
grosjean drove a very good race, but he was not held up as much as the cars he was battling were considerably slower and easy to pass, allowing him to set fast laptimes with little hindrance. he was also fortunate that perez and maldonado tangled, as they probably would have been ahead of him after their second stops.
baldgye (@baldgye)
9th July 2012, 0:31
McLaren over a second off the pace… shocking
1. Wooolfy
  9th July 2012, 8:47
  I always believed that Lewis was qualifying his car exceptionally high due to his skills but during the race he always lost positions due to the car’s poor race pace and the team’s screw-ups.
2. Kim K
  9th July 2012, 16:13
  They were hoping/gambling for a fully wet race.
@HoHum (@hohum)
9th July 2012, 2:37
I think the main thing this graph shows is just how even the performance of the top 3-5 teams are this year, even without the tyre factor it would be difficult to predict which car was going to be fastest at the next race.
1. bosyber (@bosyber)
  9th July 2012, 10:54
  yes, I was also thinking that @hohum, it’s quite nice to see and a big difference from last two years.
2. BasCB (@bascb)
  9th July 2012, 18:53
  Exactly that @hohum, apart from the few odd ones out like Maldonado, HRT, Marussia, it shows a really close pack.
Fred Schechter (@freds4hb)
9th July 2012, 3:15
Pretty neat how drivers out of the top 7 lap speeds, only 3 have not been official Ferrari drivers (publicly).
Also,, wow, Lotus race pace!!
davidwhite (@davidwhite)
9th July 2012, 4:38
Very revealing stats – shows just how slow the McLarens were. Massively off the pace. I fear for the rest of their season.
Himmat
9th July 2012, 6:42
Tony Fernandes commented that Heikki had a first lap clash with both Torro Rossos. We didn’t see this on TV. Heikki’s car suffered damage which cost him easily 1 second a lap. That explains why his fastest lap is below that of both Marussias.
Salcrich
9th July 2012, 8:34
Now I understand Eddie J’s comment that JB had a reasonable race. His fastest lap was quicker than LH but both their races were clearly not about the drivers. As LH commented the car is a long way behind the fastest cars at preent.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
9th July 2012, 9:06
What a tremendous drive by Grosjean, in my opinion the fastest man of the race. I probably won’t vote for him as DotW, though, because it was his own fault he got shuffled back that far. First of course spinning in Q2 (when he had already done a time that was good enough to go through), and then the contact with DiResta, although it’s difficult for me to judge how easy or difficult it would have been to avoid the Force India. Still, I hope he breaks his duck soon.
With regards to McLaren, Hamilton’s laps 14-17 gave me hope that he would continue to charge forward in the race, but in the second and third stints it was that all too familiar tale of not getting the tyres to work (not especially for Hamilton, but of F1 2012 in general). Of the drivers I was watching, only he and Alonso were struggling with the softs, so it was perhaps understandable that the team pulled him in after only 7 laps in his second stint, thinking he could do 24 laps on the hards with a lighter car, having done 21 in the first stint. As a spectactor, it’s a little frustrating to not be able to understand why he didn’t go well on his second set of hards. Did he battle too hard in the first laps out of the pits (with his team mate, no less), overusing the tyres; or was he too cautious with the tyres – thinking of all the laps he still had to do on them – thereby not switching them on properly? In either case, I think Hamilton’s tyre struggles (and the fact that Button started so far back and was in traffic all the time) made McLaren’s pace look a little worse than the car was capable of (and note that in similar conditions, they were even further off the Lotuses’ pace in Barcelona).
Still, if McLaren have any hope of playing a role in the championships, they better qualify right at the front and try to hang on to good positions, or make the best of any changeable conditions that come their way. On pure race pace, it doesn’t look likely they will be able to challenge the current top three.
ciprian (@ciprian)
9th July 2012, 9:41
It’s a mistake – I think – at Fernando best time. On the graphic appear to be at lap 37 and is 1:34:74 and below is just 1:35:385. How is it?
1. AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
  9th July 2012, 10:34
  @ciprian, because the entry of the pit lane bypasses the final corner, the in-laps are faster than the regular laps.
ciprian (@ciprian)
9th July 2012, 10:43
Yes indeed. Thank you. Did you receive our email regarding F1 Manager? Tks.
Pandaslap (@pandaslap)
9th July 2012, 21:11
I’m new to the sport – Would someone please explain why the lap time before a pit stop seems much faster than those that proceeded it? Are drivers trying to compensate for the time they will lose? Are they using what’s left in their tyres?
Kimi4WDC
10th July 2012, 23:50
Btw…impressive times from Marussia. Caterham did alright too.