A glance at McLaren’s performance in 2012 Formula 1 season until now
McLaren have been considered as one of the strongest contender in the 2012 Formula 1 World Champion after their successful pre-season testing programme.
Currently, they are standing at third place in the constructors’ championship with 160 points. Moreover, they are behind Scuderia-Ferrari and are ahead of Lotus-Renault.
Meanwhile, their driver, Lewis Hamilton is at 5th position in the drivers’ rankings with 92 points. Furthermore, he is ahead of Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and is behind Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus.
During the start of the current season, he was the most consistent driver as he secured impressive third podium finish in the first three grands prix and claimed pole position in the first two races.
Later, in the Bahrain GP, he struggled with the poor pit stop strategy due to which he came 8th after losing some crucial time.
Afterwards, in the Spanish GP, although he topped the timesheets in the qualifying, however, he couldn’t meet the condition of keeping minimum fuel in his car before going back to the pits due to which he had to take a start from the end of the grid. Nevertheless,
he performed persuasively and secured 8th place finish.
Later on, in the Monaco GP, he again suffered with the problem in pit stops which caused time lose and he came 5th in the race even after setting off from the third place in the grid.
Nevertheless, he fought back incredibly well in the Canadian GP and claimed his first victory of this year after starting from second grid slot.
Conversely, he could not score even a single point in the European GP as he had a collision with Pastor Maldonado of Williams. Besides, he came 8th in the British GP due to the issues of limited downforce and tyre degradation. Then in the German
GP, he was retired because of facing problems with the rear of his car.
Contrarily, his teammate, Jenson Button is presently at 7th place in the drivers’ standings with 68 points. Additionally, he is behind Rosberg and is ahead of Romain Grosjean of Lotus.
The 2009 world champion took a remarkable victory in the season opener and secured an inspiring second podium finish in the third race. However, he struggled to find his true pace after the race in China and could not achieve competitive results.
Nonetheless, he made a striking comeback in the last race at Hockenheimring in which he secured second podium finish and gave a tough competition to the Spaniard, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who is leading the drivers’ rankings at present.
It will be important to note that the team principal of McLaren, Martin Whitmarsh said that they are pleased to see Button back in action.
“I think the car's a bit quicker, the tyres are working and he is capable of being as quick of anyone,” Whitmarsh said. “In the end his tyres were fairly worn, he'd pushed quite hard, but it was encouraging. For him, he silenced a few of his critics and
I'm sure he'll be focused on the coming races.”
On the other hand, the sporting director of the British team, Sam Michael said that they are ready to provide help to the Briton in each and every aspect of the game so that he can fight for the championship title this year.
“He has been back for a couple of races but because of other circumstances he hasn't shown that. As I've always said through that period of time, we fully support him and he's not a world champion for nothing,” he said.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
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