With McLaren holding a seemingly unassailable 197-point lead at the top of the F1 World Constructors’ Championship in 2025, they will come into Montreal hoping to claim their first victory at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix since 2012 when Lewis Hamilton delivered a superb drive.
The 2012 Canadian GP played host to round seven of that particular F1 season, a season which had seen six different winners in the opening six races.
Going into the weekend, it was Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who led both Red Bulls by three points in the F1 World Drivers’ Championship, with Sebastian Vettel ahead of Mark Webber on second places.
However, Red Bull-Renault were the Constructors’ Championship leaders, 38 points clear of second placed McLaren-Mercedes.
Technical notices
The FIA installed two Drag Reduction System zones with a single activation point in 2011, but in 2012 removed the second zone on the start-finish straight, arguing that overtaking had become too easy.
Webber’s F1 Monaco Grand Prix victory at the previous round led to some teams questioning the legality of Red Bull’s floor. After investigating, the FIA forced Red Bull to alter their axles and floor design.
Mixed fortunes for McLaren in practice
Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren topped both of Friday’s Free Practice sessions whilst his teammate Jenson Button suffered with an oil leak and missed most of FP1’s running.
In FP2, Bruno Senna’s Williams had a big moment as he crashed into the Wall of Champions which brought out the red flag.
On Saturday morning, it was Vettel who started to find some pace as he led Alonso and Hamilton to lead the charge heading into qualifying.
Qualifying was building up to be an all-time classic as just four tenths separated the top seven in FP3 with three different drivers from three different teams all showing blistering pace.
Vettel shows why he’s world champion
Vettel was fastest in Q1, a session which saw Jean-Eric Vergne knocked out in P20 as he was out-qualified by the Caterhams of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov.
The German once again went fastest in Q2, but the fight for Q3 was so tight with drivers separated by mere hundredths of a second. Button’s McLaren narrowly avoided elimination as he went 0.008 seconds quicker than Kamui Kobayashi in 11th. Roman Grosjean and Paul di Resta both out-qualified their teammates Kimi Räikkönen and Nico Hülkenberg who were eliminated in 12th and 13th respectively.
In Q3, Vettel’s searing pace didn’t disappear as he claimed pole position by an impressive three tenths of a second over Hamilton. Alonso, Webber and Nico Rosberg completed the top five. Button was a lowly tenth, around 1.1 seconds down on his teammate’s time as he opted for the softs rather than the super-softs adopted by everyone else.
As you were
From pole position, Vettel held his lead off the start as the race began cleanly with no major incidents to threaten a safety car.
While the top four held their starting positions, with Hamilton and Alonso staying closest to the leading German, Rosberg slipped back as both Massa and di Resta overtook him for fifth and sixth respectively.
The Brazilian clearly had some pace in his Ferrari as he gained on fourth placed Webber, but he later had a spin which caused him to drop down to 12th.
Vettel loses the lead
On lap 13, Massa was the first driver to pit followed by di Resta and Michael Schumacher a lap later.
The leader was the first of the top three to come into the pit lane on lap 16, but when Hamilton pitted a lap later, he rejoined ahead of the world champion.
Meanwhile, Alonso decided to stay out until lap 19 and, thanks to a quick pitstop by Ferrari, he was able to jump both Hamilton and Vettel to take second behind the temporary leader Grosjean who was yet to pit.
However, Hamilton’s McLaren showed off some of its Friday pace to pass Alonso with DRS and take what would be the lead of the race once the Frenchman pitted.
Early retirements
Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT was the first retirement from the Canadian Grand Prix when he spun at turn one on lap 24 and pulled over with brake issues.
His teammate Pedro de la Rosa later joined him in retirement, forced to pit and withdraw from the race due to worn-out brakes.
Michael Schumacher retired on lap 43 due to a malfunction with his DRS flap, which remained open and could not be fixed by the team.
Opposing strategies
In the battle behind the top three, Räikkönen and Pérez ran in fourth and fifth as they had yet to pit having started on the soft tyres.
Having already pitted, Webber found himself stuck behind the pair, allowing Grosjean and Rosberg to close in on the back of his Red Bull.
On lap 40, the Mercedes driver made his second stop and Ferrari responded a lap later by bringing Räikkönen in for his only stop.
Although Räikkönen rejoined the track ahead of Rosberg, the German immediately responded, using DRS to overtake him on the same lap.
Pérez made his singular pitstop on lap 42 and emerged in eighth, between Rosberg and Räikkönen.
What about the leading trio?
As the top three approached their final pitstop phases, Hamilton held a four-second lead over Alonso’s Ferrari who was seemingly holding up the faster Vettel behind him.
But the longer the stint went on, the faster the Ferrari seemed to get as Alonso pulled away from the Red Bull and closed Hamilton’s lead down to around two seconds.
McLaren acted first and pitted the Briton on lap 50 whilst Alonso and Vettel stayed out, attempting to claim victory via the one-stop strategy.
The state of play
Hamilton was showing blistering pace in third as he set repetitive fastest laps and was rapidly gaining on the leading pair.
Behind him, Webber made a late pitstop from fourth which dropped him down to eighth and promoted Grosjean into the top four.
Massa on the one-stopper had worked his way back into fifth but was passed by Pérez when Rosberg attempted a move on the Ferrari but went off the track and had to give the place back which allowed Pérez to sneak past the German, and he subsequently passed the Brazilian on the very same lap.
After Rosberg eventually got past him, Ferrari brought Massa into the pits, and he rejoined in tenth, a position he held to the chequered flag.
Timo Glock’s afternoon came to an abrupt end on lap 60, as brake issues forced him to retire from the race.
The final ten laps
As Hamilton gained by over a second a lap, it was clear that the tyre differential would be too much for Alonso and Vettel to hold off and on lap 62 Hamilton passed the Red Bull with DRS.
Two laps later, Hamilton repeated the move as he overtook Alonso to take the lead of the Canadian Grand Prix for McLaren.
Vettel conceded the one-stop strategy and headed for the pits for new tyres on lap 64 and rejoined in fifth behind Grosjean and Pérez.
Despite his extremely worn tyres, Alonso stayed out until the end, but Grosjean, Pérez, and finally Vettel all easily passed him by lap 69
Seven out of seven
At the end of lap 70, the chequered flag waved for Hamilton who took victory at the Canadian Grand Prix, becoming the seventh different winner in the opening seven races in the 2012 F1 season.
Grosjean and Pérez earned unlikely podiums for Lotus and Sauber respectively as they came home in second and third.
After starting on pole position and leading at the start, Vettel had to settle for fourth ahead of Alonso’s Ferrari in fifth.
Rosberg, Webber, Raikkonen, Kobayashi, and Massa completed the top ten as Hamilton’s teammate Button finished a lowly 16th and a lap down on his winning compatriot.
Hamilton propels to the championship lead
The victory around Montreal moved Hamilton onto 88 points and from fourth to the top of the championship standings, two points ahead of Alonso and three ahead of Vettel.
Red Bull-Renault remained the leaders in the Constructors’ Championship but McLaren-Merecedes cut their lead down by seven points to 31.
Despite Alonso’s outstanding performances in the opening seven races in 2012, Ferrari dropped to fourth in the standings as Lotus moved up into the fourth with the Scuderia still yet to reach 100 points.
What did the top three have to say?
In the post-race podium interview, Hamilton said: “Firstly, I want to say congratulations to these two guys [Grosjean and Pérez], who have done an incredible job, but also just to the team, who never seem to give up.
“Also, the race, I want to dedicate this one to all the fans out there, who are constantly sending letters and messages and always being so positive and supportive throughout the year.
“What a great feeling this is where I won my first grand prix. I knew today would be a tough, tough race but I loved every single minute of it and I’m really grateful.”
Grosjean said: “It was a crazy end to the race because I was thinking P5 or P4 but the pace stayed there and the team did a fantastic job with the car, which was good on tyres.
“We knew with the heat we would be better today, so the sun came and it was good for us and it is fantastic to be on my second podium this season.”
Pérez said: “To be honest, until I passed Fernando, because starting 15th the last thing you would think about is ending up on the podium.
“We went quite aggressive, the first stint was quite good. Then the stop was very good. The second stint was really, really good.
“I managed to overtake some cars in difficult manouevres. I saw that degradation was not so high for me. I could manage my pace well. Then I managed to get some other drivers.
“It’s a great result for the team after such a bad day we had yesterday. We had a lot of trouble with the brakes. Today, it’s just great to finish here on the podium. It’s a great boost for the team.”
