Fernando Alonso now leads the 2012 F1 Championship by 3 points
Last week, F1 news was all about "six races and six different winners" as Mark Webber celebrated his first 2012 win at the Monaco Grand Prix. Oh, yes! We are falling in love with this F1 season. Last time we review the standings Sebastian Vettel was on top:
| Driver | Team | Total Points* |
|---|---|---|
| Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing | 53 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 49 |
| Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing | 48 |
| Fernando Alonso | Scuderia Ferrari | 43 |
| Jenson Button | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 43 |
| *After 4 rounds: Australia, Malaysia, China, Bahrain. | ||
Now 2 races after (Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix), it is Fernando Alonso that has accumulated the most points and taken the championship lead, but he is followed very closely by Vettel and Webber (just 3 points difference). We find interesting trends if we expand our review to the top 7 drivers in the last 2 races:
| Driver | Balance first 4 rounds | Spain | Monaco | Total Points** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fernando Alonso | 43 | 18 (2nd) | 15 (3rd) | 76 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 53 | 8 (6th) | 12 (4th) | 73 |
| Mark Webber | 48 | - (11th) | 25 (1st) | 73 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 49 | 4 (8th) | 10 (5th) | 63 |
| Nico Rosberg | 35 | 6 (7th) | 18 (2nd) | 59 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 34 | 15 (3rd) | 2 (9th) | 51 |
| Jenson Button | 43 | 2 (9th) | - (DNF) | 45 |
| **After 6 rounds: Australia, Malaysia, China, Bahrain, Spain, Monaco. | For the full standings, you can visit F1 World Championship Standings | |||
The table above displays the points balance after the first 4 rounds followed by Spain, Monaco and the total score, Who has won the most in the last 2 races?
- Alonso is the clear winner with podium finishes in both races and accumulating 33 points!
- Surprisingly Webber comes second. Even though he did not score points in Spain, he won the Monaco Grand Prix = 25 points... with the current scoring system a win is a win!
- Mercedes Nico Rosberg comes third accumulating 24 points in both races. This just confirms: Mercedes could be a title contender this year (if the trend continues).
- Vettel comes fourth with 20 points; he did not have success in qualifying at the front in Spain or Monaco. Still, 20 points not bad considering that he started 7th in Spain and 9th in Monaco.
- Raikkonen comes fifth with 17 points accumulated in both races; the former champion is taking it one race at a time. Kimi has already jumped Button at the standings!
Now the question: who has lost the most? McLaren drivers are asking themselves many questions about the last 2 races, Hamilton only accumulated 14 points (he is now 13 points from leader Alonso) while Button only 2 points!
And where is Pastor Maldonado that won the Spanish Grand Prix? Yes, Maldonado was also a big winner but he sits 9th in the overall standings, he needs more points to make it into the top 7. When Maldonado DNF in Monaco, many news outlets made headlines such as "from hero to zero"... the reality is that F1 is a very competitive sport, you need all the stars and planets to align themselves and create the perfect harmony: the perfect lap, the perfect start, the perfect pitstop, etc. We think that Maldonado just needs more time in F1 to master his own destiny.
As for the Grand Prix Rankings, Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel made it to the top 15. But because of the current competitive nature of F1 (neither of them has more than 1 win), motogp and moto2 riders occupy the top positions. We have already received some of your comments to display separate rankings for riders and drivers. Thanks for the observations!
Okay... now we go to the Belle province for this weekend Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Stay tuned as we update the results and rankings after the race! Merci!
Posted on June 05, 2012
Now that Ferrari is back on track, I am hoping for a win at Canada. Cross my fingers. See you in Montreal!
In my humble opinion one thing that I would like to see taken out is the DRS system, it is too artificial and because of the current tires I dont think we need it anymore.