2012 Singapore GP tyre strategies and pit stops

2012 Singapore Grand Prix

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Red Bull were the quickest team in the pits at Singapore – just. Here’s the pit strategies and pit stop times from the race.

Singapore Grand Prix tyre strategies

The appearance of the safety car midway through the race – and its reappearance shortly afterwards – led several drivers to change their strategies.

Three-stoppers were switched to two, and at a stroke much of the intrigue over the closing laps disappeared.

It was particularly disadvantageous for drivers who had recently changed to the super-soft tyre, such as Mark Webber and Pastor Maldonado – though of course the latter was doomed to retire anyway.

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4Stint 5
Lewis HamiltonSuper soft (12)Soft (10)
Pastor MaldonadoSuper soft (13)Soft (16)Super soft (4)Soft (3)
Sebastian VettelSuper soft (10)Soft (23)Soft (26)
Jenson ButtonSuper soft (14)Soft (19)Soft (26)
Fernando AlonsoSuper soft (11)Soft (18)Soft (30)
Paul di RestaSuper soft (12)Soft (21)Soft (26)
Mark WebberSuper soft (8)Soft (20)Super soft (12)Soft (19)
Romain GrosjeanSuper soft (14)Soft (19)Soft (26)
Michael SchumacherSuper soft (11)Soft (22)Soft (5)
Nico RosbergSuper soft (12)Soft (21)Soft (26)
Nico HulkenbergSoft (18)Soft (22)Super soft (10)Super soft (9)
Kimi RaikkonenSuper soft (13)Soft (19)Soft (27)
Felipe MassaSuper soft (1)Soft (18)Soft (14)Super soft (26)
Sergio PerezSoft (18)Soft (22)Super soft (19)
Daniel RicciardoSuper soft (11)Soft (20)Soft (28)
Jean-Eric VergneSoft (12)Soft (12)Super soft (14)
Kamui KobayashiSoft (14)Soft (16)Super soft (20)Super soft (9)
Vitaly PetrovSuper soft (1)Soft (17)Super soft (12)Super soft (10)Soft (17)
Heikki KovalainenSuper soft (12)Soft (14)Super soft (19)Super soft (14)
Timo GlockSoft (13)Super soft (12)Soft (34)
Charles PicSoft (16)Soft (16)Super soft (27)
Bruno SennaSuper soft (10)Soft (15)Super soft (8)Soft (24)
Narain KarthikeyanSuper soft (19)Soft (11)
Pedro de la RosaSoft (18)Super soft (12)Soft (10)Super soft (18)

Singapore Grand Prix pit stop times

Red Bull turned around the fastest pit stop of the race for Sebastian Vettel when he made his first visit.

But McLaren – the form team of late when it comes to pit stops – very nearly matched them. Lewis Hamilton’s sole pit stop was just fractionally slower.

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull29.11710
2Lewis HamiltonMcLaren29.1240.00712
3Fernando AlonsoFerrari29.1900.07329
4Mark WebberRed Bull29.3040.18728
5Mark WebberRed Bull29.3330.2168
6Mark WebberRed Bull29.3480.23140
7Kimi RaikkonenLotus29.3700.25332
8Felipe MassaFerrari29.4030.28619
9Felipe MassaFerrari29.4550.33833
10Nico RosbergMercedes29.5460.42912
11Fernando AlonsoFerrari29.5570.44011
12Jenson ButtonMcLaren29.6620.54533
13Kimi RaikkonenLotus29.6690.55213
14Nico RosbergMercedes29.6870.57033
15Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso29.7890.67231
16Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso29.8980.78124
17Jenson ButtonMcLaren30.0190.90214
18Paul di RestaForce India30.0290.91233
19Sergio PerezSauber30.0430.92618
20Heikki KovalainenCaterham30.0990.98226
21Sergio PerezSauber30.2171.10040
22Heikki KovalainenCaterham30.2321.11545
23Pastor MaldonadoWilliams30.2341.11713
24Bruno SennaWilliams30.3171.20010
25Michael SchumacherMercedes30.3381.22133
26Vitaly PetrovCaterham30.3411.22418
27Nico HulkenbergForce India30.3631.24618
28Vitaly PetrovCaterham30.4051.28830
29Heikki KovalainenCaterham30.4401.32312
30Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso30.4991.38212
31Pastor MaldonadoWilliams30.5401.42329
32Nico HulkenbergForce India30.6131.49640
33Charles PicMarussia30.6471.53016
34Bruno SennaWilliams30.6841.56733
35Kamui KobayashiSauber30.6931.57614
36Bruno SennaWilliams30.8281.71125
37Charles PicMarussia30.8341.71732
38Kamui KobayashiSauber30.8421.72530
39Michael SchumacherMercedes30.8791.76211
40Timo GlockMarussia30.9771.86013
41Pastor MaldonadoWilliams30.9811.86433
42Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso30.9921.87511
43Paul di RestaForce India31.0261.90912
44Sebastian VettelRed Bull31.1372.02033
45Romain GrosjeanLotus31.7532.63633
46Felipe MassaFerrari31.9582.8411
47Timo GlockMarussia32.0152.89825
48Romain GrosjeanLotus32.0802.96314
49Narain KarthikeyanHRT32.4363.31919
50Pedro de la RosaHRT32.6253.50830
51Pedro de la RosaHRT33.0423.92518
52Nico HulkenbergForce India34.6015.48450
53Kamui KobayashiSauber36.1467.02950
54Vitaly PetrovCaterham36.1487.0311
55Vitaly PetrovCaterham41.15412.03740
56Pedro de la RosaHRT44.10114.98440

2012 Singapore 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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8 comments on “2012 Singapore GP tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. I think it is only natural that McLaren doesn’t stay as the fastest team in the pits for long. Today this is such a big part of the sport, so much effort is going into finding these tenths of a second. The big teams must always practice their movements and improve their tools, so it doesn’t surprise me if Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes take over as the team to beat in the pits. And to be honest, I love this competition! I’m eagerly awaiting for a sub two-second pitstop!

  2. Hamilton was stationary for less time, so it appears Vettel’s shortcut into the pit lane he was practising in practise worked well

    1. @jleigh Wasn’t he penalised for something like that 3 years ago?

      1. @enigma Yes, in 09 while he was chasing Hamilton down for victory. I suspect they’ve come up with a slghtly different one that doesn’t get penalised.

    2. @jleigh If that was the case you would expect a much bigger time difference than 0.007s surely?

      1. @andrewtanner If I remember Hamilton’s stop was 2 10ths quicker, so Vettel gained around 2 10ths on his shortcut.

  3. Comparing stints on tyres is impossible because of the cursed Safety Car…so I won’t try and bother!

  4. I know a lot of them were behind the safety car, but it’s still impressive on this circuit known for being tough on tyres that Glock managed 34 laps on a single set of softs. I guess the Marussia not having KERS must lessen the rate at which “traction events” wear out the tyres.

Comments are closed.