2012 United States Grand Prix: Hamilton Wins at the Circuit of the Americas

The 2012 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 18 November 2012 at the Circuit of the Americas, near Austin, Texas. It was the inaugural race at the circuit and the penultimate round of the season. Lewis Hamilton won in what was his last race for McLaren, with Sebastian Vettel second and Fernando Alonso third.

Why was the new circuit almost not ready?

Construction at the circuit ran into serious trouble. A stop-work order was issued in November 2011, and at one point the race was threatened with removal from the Formula One calendar altogether. The final layer of tarmac went down on 21 September 2012, and the circuit passed its final pre-race inspection on 25 September.

That timetable was tight even by Formula One standards. The most recent additions to the calendar, the Korea International Circuit and the Buddh International Circuit in India, had also been completed only in the days before their inaugural races. The event was not the first Grand Prix in Texas, since a one-off Dallas Grand Prix had been held in July 1984 in the heat of a Texas summer.

Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural race at the Circuit of the Americas in his last race for McLaren.

How did the tyres shape the race?

Pirelli supplied the medium and hard compounds, with the hard tyre designated the prime and the medium the option. Pirelli's Paul Hembery predicted that most of the field would run one-stop strategies as a result. Teams and drivers criticised the choice as too conservative and bad for racing, and Pirelli argued that the tarmac chemistry at Grand Prix circuits was the cause.

After analysing the data from Friday's practice, Pirelli admitted that the soft and super-soft compounds would have suited the characteristics of the circuit better. That admission came too late to change the allocation for the weekend.

What was the DRS zone like?

The race used a single Drag Reduction System zone, laid along the back straight to help overtaking into Turn 12. The detection point sat 1,220 feet (372 m) before the apex of the Turn 11 hairpin, and the activation point lay 1,050 feet (320 m) after the apex. The total zone was about 2,130 feet (649 m) long.

The zone became important in the race itself, because Hamilton used it to pass Webber on the fourth lap and later passed Vettel in the same area.

How did free practice go?

Vettel was fastest in both opening practice sessions on Friday. He was a second and a half faster than Hamilton in the morning and two seconds faster than Alonso, who was his title rival. Drivers reported that there was very little grip around the new circuit.

Ma Qinghua took part as the only reserve driver, replacing Narain Karthikeyan at HRT. He finished last, ten seconds behind Vettel. In the afternoon Vettel was again quickest, seven tenths ahead of his teammate Webber and Alonso, but a water leak forced him to spend half the session in the pits.

Saturday morning brought another fastest time for Vettel, two and a half tenths ahead of Hamilton. The hour-long session was marked by a collision between Sergio Perez and Charles Pic, which damaged the floor of Pic's car. Perez escaped without a penalty, which angered Marussia. Jean-Eric Vergne also broke his front suspension after hitting a kerb.

How did qualifying work?

Qualifying lasted one hour and was split into three periods of twenty, fifteen and ten minutes. The slowest seven cars were eliminated after the first period and started from the last seven places. The slowest seven of the remaining cars were eliminated after the second period and started from eleventh to seventeenth. The ten fastest cars then fought over pole in the final ten minutes.

The surface offered very little grip, so every team sent its drivers out for long runs in the first period. Their aim was to lay enough rubber down to improve lap times and time their final flying runs carefully. HRT had feared missing the 107 per cent cut-off, but both Pedro de la Rosa and Karthikeyan ran on the softer option tyres and qualified for the race, filling the final row of the grid.

Caterham's Vitaly Petrov was twenty-first, one place ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. Caterham later argued that Karthikeyan's stoppage at Turn 2 had robbed them of time, because it forced yellow flags in the first sector. Daniel Ricciardo was the seventh and final driver eliminated in the first period, after a fight with Nico Rosberg that he lost when yellow flags spoiled his final lap.

Who went out in the middle period of qualifying?

Vettel beat his earlier best time by eight tenths in the second period, and the faster laps made the softer option tyre essential. Teams predicted that the harder prime tyre would not be enough to reach the final period, and that prediction proved correct.

Rosberg was seventeenth overall, running an older specification of the Mercedes W03 that his team felt suited his driving style. Perez and Kamui Kobayashi filled the eighth row. Vergne was fourteenth, while Paul di Resta was eliminated in the second period after teammate Nico Hulkenberg progressed to the final period. Jenson Button lost all power in his McLaren late on and qualified twelfth, and Bruno Senna was the last driver eliminated in the second period, in eleventh.

How was pole position decided?

Vettel took pole with a time of 1:35.657, the fastest lap of the weekend to that point. Hamilton had been closer to Vettel than at any other point in the weekend, but he missed pole by one tenth of a second. Webber qualified third, ahead of Grosjean, who was later demoted to ninth by a five-place penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified fifth and said he was surprised by such a strong performance, because his team had struggled with the lack of grip in practice. Michael Schumacher was sixth, in what was his penultimate race before his second retirement from the sport. He had won the United States Grand Prix five times. Massa was seventh, Hulkenberg eighth, and Alonso ninth after a difficult session. Ferrari later had to defend sending Alonso out on used tyres for his final timed run, and Maldonado completed the top ten.

Did the stewards punish anyone after qualifying?

Schumacher and Webber were both called to the stewards' office after qualifying. Schumacher had been cited for blocking Alonso during the second period, when he impeded him at Turn 15. He escaped punishment, since he was on a lap of his own when the incident happened, and the block did not stop him reaching the final period.

Webber faced a charge of missing the mandatory weight check at the end of qualifying. The stewards accepted Red Bull Racing's error and noted that the car went to scrutineering as soon as the mistake was spotted. Webber received a reprimand and kept his grid position.

Ferrari also had a penalty of its own to answer for. The team broke the FIA seal on Massa's gearbox so that Alonso could gain grid position, and Massa received a five-place penalty for that change.

How did the race unfold?

Vettel led from pole at the start, but Webber got ahead of Hamilton before the first corner. Alonso made a good start and gained three places. Vettel opened a gap over Webber before Hamilton passed the Australian in the DRS zone on the fourth lap, along the long straight from Turn 11 to Turn 12.

Webber's race ended on the seventeenth lap, when the KERS system shut down and the alternator failed on his Red Bull. Vettel pitted on the twenty-second lap but kept the lead over Raikkonen, Hamilton, Massa and Alonso. Hamilton then caught and passed Vettel on the forty-second lap, again in the DRS zone, and kept the lead into Turn 12.

Hamilton went on to win, his last race for McLaren before his move to Mercedes. Vettel finished second and Alonso third, and Bruno Senna scored the final Formula One point of his career.

What did the result mean for the title race?

Vettel extended his lead over Alonso to thirteen points. That meant Vettel needed no more than fourth in the final race to take a third straight Drivers' Championship. His second place also gave Red Bull Racing enough points to secure its third consecutive Constructors' Championship.

For Hamilton, the win was the last of his time at McLaren. The circuit's debut gave the sport a new American venue, and a capacity crowd of 117,429 watched on race day.