China – Course: Summary of Strategies

Nico Rosberg completed a perfect weekend for Mercedes by perfectly managing the P Zero White medium tires and the P Zero Yellow soft tires with his Silver Arrow. After securing a pole position with a half-second lead, Rosberg claimed his first F1 victory and gave Mercedes its first win since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, thanks to a two-stop strategy. Rosberg’s early race pace was enough to ensure a first pit stop without losing the lead, before controlling his advantage by finishing the race on medium tires.

The choice of tires and pit strategy offered an exciting duel at the end of the race with Jenson Button’s McLaren, equipped with a new set of P Zero White medium tires, chasing the leader, who was on an older set of medium tires. Although Button stopped three times and lost time during his last stop, his charge on the final stint in Shanghai was impressive, as was the case for many other drivers towards the end of the race. Four laps before the finish, Button managed to overtake Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull to claim second place.

Vettel opted for a two-stop strategy but was forced to defend against Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, which secured the third step of the podium in the penultimate lap despite making one more stop than the reigning World Champion. Hamilton now leads the World Championship, largely thanks to McLaren’s different strategy compared to most of the competition. The Englishman was one of the few drivers to stay on soft tires during his second stint, while most drivers switched to the hardest compounds during their first stop.

A wide variety of strategies was observed in the pitlane, with many teams pushing performance to the limit. Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen completed a final stint of 28 laps on the P Zero White medium tires, allowing him to temporarily hold second position before the tires lost efficiency and he dropped back. The battle was also tight between Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber, finishing 9th and 10th respectively, and setting identical lap times at the end despite completely different strategies.

The other Sauber of Sergio Perez, whose tire strategy was of great help in fighting for victory in Malaysia, completed the longest stint on soft tires at the start of the race before switching to the hardest compounds on the sixteenth lap. The longest initial stint overall lasted 18 laps and was recorded by the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, who was one of four drivers (along with the Toro Rossos and Bruno Senna’s Williams) to start the race on medium tires.

Paul Hembery, Director of Pirelli Motorsport:

Sincere congratulations to Nico Rosberg and Mercedes for this truly deserved victory and the demonstration of a perfect understanding of the optimal exploitation of both compounds under demanding conditions, and for keeping the tires in their optimal exploitation window. As expected, we saw a significant level of degradation in China, with the front-left tire in particular undergoing a lot of forces. This offered the teams the opportunity to try a wide variety of strategies, resulting in a wheel-to-wheel and spectacular race, while being clean and surpassing last year’s Chinese Grand Prix. I also wish to congratulate our former test driver Romain Grosjean, who achieved his best career result with his sixth place for Lotus.

[From the official statement released by Pirelli]

Summary of Pit Stops during the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix:

In order to have a better understanding of this graph, you can use the FIA’s lap-by-lap summary by clicking here.