The Scuderia’s success in the season’s second quarter continued – or should we say, Alonso’s efforts led to surprisingly good results? For the second time in a row, both drivers found themselves in the Top Ten after the Canadian GP. After a 3rd position for Alonso in Q3 and with Massa on p6 in the grid, it looked like an Alonso-victory for a long time until the tyres went bad very fast on the last laps of the race. Alonso finally achieved a six position; Massa came in 10th after a very early spin-out in lap 6.
295 F2012
8. – 10.6.12 - XLVIII Grand Prix du Canada F. Alonso #5, free Practise First session 4th 1.15.842 +0:00.278 34 Laps 19/22 °C, track 21/23 °C. Covered skies, some drops of rain. Second session 2nd 1.15.313 +0:00.054 36 Laps air 22/21 °C, track 26/24 °C. Covered skies. Third Session 2nd 1:14.448 +0:00.006 17 Laps Sunny 23-24°C track 29-32°C Q1 5th 1:14.916 +0:00.255 8 Laps Q2 2nd 1:14.314 +0:00.127 8 Laps Q3 3rd 1:14.151 +0:00.367 7 Laps Sunny 24°C track 37-40°C
10.6.12 - XLVIII Grand Prix du Canada F. Alonso #5, 5th 70 laps +0:13.411 197,550 km/h Sunny 28°C track 39-45°C
294 F2012
8. – 10.6.12 - XLVIII Grand Prix du Canada F. Massa #6, free Practise First session 12th 1.16.619 +0:01.055 17 Laps 19/22 °C, track 21/23 °C. Covered skies, some drops of rain. Second session 3rd 1.15.410 +0:00.151 39 Laps air 22/21 °C, track 26/24 °C. Covered skies. Third Session 6th 1:14.767 +0:00.325 21 Laps Sunny 23-24°C track 29-32°C Q1 15th 1:15.194 +0:00.533 8 Laps Q2 9th 1:14.641 +0:00.454 10 Laps Q3 6th 1:14.465 +0:00.681 6 Laps Sunny 24°C track 37-40°C
10.6.12 - XLVIII Grand Prix du Canada F. Massa #6, 10th 70 laps +0:25.272 197,130 km/h Sunny 28°C track 39-45°C
Back in Europe, Alonso was the first driver to take a second win within the 2012 season by winning the European GP in is home country. Both drivers did not qualify for the last Qualifying Session! Even a huge 115 laps-test in Friday’s free sessions could not help Massa and Alonso to be competitive. During the race, Alonso drove like having “a knife between his teeth” and he made it from p11 to p7 (after 10 laps) and p7 after twenty laps before a Safety Car-phase gave him the chance to change tires quickly, finding himself on p3 after the pit stop with Vettel and Grosjean ahead. Renault’s Achilles' heel led to failures of the alternators of both of them in lap 33 and lap 40. Massa was involved in an incident with Kobayashi and only came in on p16.
295 F2012
22.-24.6.12 – Grand Prix of Europe, Valencia, F. Alonso #5, free practise session 1 5th 1:41.065 +0:00.175 26 laps. Cloudy, 22°C track 27-32°C session 2 7th 1:39.733 +0:00.399 34 laps. Slightly cloudy, 25°C track 34-39°C session 3 12th 1:39.395 +0:00.833 15 laps Sunny 25°C track 28-38°C Q1 8th 1:39.409 +0:00.584 6 laps Q2 11th 1:38.707 +0:00.218 8 laps Q3 dnq Sunny 25-26°C track 43-45°C
24.6.12 – Grand Prix of Europe, Valencia, F. Alonso #5, 1st 57 laps 1:44:16.649 177,728 km/h sunny 27°C track 44-45°C
294 F2012
22.-24.6.12 – Grand Prix of Europe, Valencia, F. Massa #6, free practise session 1 14th 1:42.109 +0:01.219 20 laps. Cloudy, 22°C track 27-32°C session 2 15th 1:40.244 +0:00.910 35 laps. Slightly cloudy, 25°C track 34-39°C session 3 9th 1:39.318 +0:00.756 15 laps Sunny 25°C track 28-38°C Q1 7th 1:39.388 +0:00.563 6 laps Q2 13th 1:38.780 +0:00.291 8 laps Q3 dnq Sunny 25-26°C track 43-45°C
24.6.12 – Grand Prix of Europe, Valencia, F. Massa #6, 16th 56 laps +1 lap sunny 27°C track 44-45°C
This year’s Silverstone-GP was once again a race for the history books. Sure, people from Britain are used to what we would call heavy rain. The parking lots around the Silverstone track were flooded and Q2 was interrupted for nearly an hour to get comparable conditions on the track. Alonso is obviously following Schumacher’s foot steps as the new “King of Rain”. He coped with the conditions best and was able to take the Scuderia’s first pole since the 2010 Singapore GP. The race with dry conditions was again influenced by the health of the tires and Alonso was overtaken by Webber but managed to keep Vettel behind. Massa had some magic moment –of which he had only a few this season- and came in on p4.
After these three races, Alonso found himself on top of the table of the driver’s championship.
295 F2012
6. – 8.7.12 – British Grand Prix, Silverstone, F. Alonso #5, FP First session 22nd no time set 4 Laps 16 °C, track 17 °C. Rain Second session 10th 1.59.015 14 Laps 17/15 °C, track 18/16 °C. Rain Third session 1st 1:32.167 21 Laps 17-18 °C, track 20-24 °C, dry. Q1 5th 1:46.515 +0:00.236 10 Laps Q2 9th 1:56.921 +0:02.024 9 Laps Q2 suspended for over an hour due to heavy rain Q3 1st 1:51.746 6 Laps 16-17°C, track 19-23°C, heavy rain
8.7.12 – British Grand Prix, Silverstone, F. Alonso #5 2nd 52 laps +0:03.060 Sunny, 19-20 °C track 30-33 °C
294 F2012
6. – 8.7.12 – British Grand Prix, Silverstone, F. Massa #6 FP First session 5th 1.58.119 7 Laps 16 °C, track 17 °C. Rain Second session 15th 2.00.565 7 Laps 17/15 °C, track 18/16 °C. Rain Third session 16th 1:33.674 +0:01.507 21 Laps 17-18 °C, track 20-24 °C, dry. Q1 13th 1:47.401 +0:01.122 10 Laps Q2 6th 1:56.388 +0:01.491 8 Laps Q2 suspended for over an hour due to heavy rain Q3 5th 1:53.065 +0:01.319 6 Laps 16-17°C, track 19-23°C, heavy rain
8.7.12 – British Grand Prix, Silverstone, F. Massa #6 4th 52 Laps +0:09.519 Sunny, 19-20 °C track 30-33 °C