Hello friends, let’s take a trip down memory lane way back to Valencia in the year 2012 for a race weekend that perfectly sums up the 2012 season.
Background History:
Entering race 8 of the 2012 season each of the prior 7 races had been won by a different driver and no driver seemed to have a proven edge over the rest of the competition. The hometown hero would be Fernando Alonso following a P2 in Barcelona a few short weeks prior, looking to be the first driver of the season to win multiple races. It would be a weekend full of drama and memories.
Qualifying:
Qualifying went underway and at the end of Q1 the 8 drivers eliminated were as followed: VER, WEB, PET, DLR, KAR, PIC. The most shocking exit in Q1 being Mark Webber who won in Monaco just 2 races earlier. The end of Q2 saw the shocking exit of Alonso as well as exits from MSC, MAS, SEN, PER, KOV, and RIC. This shocking quali result for Alonso meant an uphill battle if he wanted to bring home triumph to the incredibly loyal Spanish fans. Q3 saw Sebastian Vettel take a 33rd career pole followed by HAM, MAL, GRO, RAI, ROS, KOB, HUL, BUT, and DIR. This would set the grid for what was sure to be an excellent race given how shaken up the grid was. Pole Time: 1:38.086
Race:
If I had to describe this race in 1 word I’d say chaotic. lights went out and immediately Vettel pulled off into a significant lead. Alonso made up places and was a man on a mission. Grosjean even overtook Hamilton to get into a podium place. Lap 33 saw a shocking turn in the tide of the race as we saw race leader Sebastian Vettel slowing at an alarming rate until he was eventually forced to retire, a brutal end to an incredible weekend. Further heartbreak struck on lap 40 when a podium certain Grosjean suffered the same fate as Seb when his car came to a slow stop. In what seemed to be an incredible battle between 2 race winners between Maldonado and Hamilton we saw Maldonado live up to the memes when he punted Lewis into a wall ending Lewis’ race and ruining his own race in that light, the bitter Spanish Alonso fans cheered as Lewis hit the wall as now it was a sure race win for the Spaniard. Amidst all of the chaos the legend Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes had made it all the way up to 3rd with Kimi in 2nd a beautiful sight for Ferrari fans in terms of nostalgia. At the checkered flag we saw Alonso take his second win of the season with the Ice-Man in P2 with the great Schumacher rounding out the podium. The rest of the top 10 went as follows: WEB, HUL, ROS, PDR, BUT, PER, and SEN, a beautiful recovery drive for Webber to muster solid points for Red Bull. An emotional view seeing Schumacher taking the podium for the last time in F1.
Written by: Andrew Monson
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