2012 United States Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton won the 2012 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on 18 Nov 2012 for McLaren, from 2nd on the grid; Sebastian Vettel was second and Fernando Alonso third. Pole position: Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton took the lead for good on lap 42 of 56, from Sebastian Vettel; the lead changed hands 1 time in all. Hamilton stopped once, on lap 20; 20 of 22 finishers made 1 stop, and the median first stop was lap 21. The fastest lap was Sebastian Vettel's, 1:39.347 on lap 56. 22 of 24 starters were classified; 2 retired or were not classified. After the race Sebastian Vettel led the championship with 273 points, 13 ahead of Fernando Alonso, with 1 round left.

Date

18 Nov 2012

Circuit

Circuit of the Americas, Austin, USA

Round

19 of 20

Winner

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)

Pole position

Sebastian Vettel (1:35.657)

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Race classification

Grid differs from qualifying for 8 drivers: Romain Grosjean qualified 4th, started 8th; Kimi Räikkönen qualified 5th, started 4th; Michael Schumacher qualified 6th, started 5th; Felipe Massa qualified 7th, started 11th; Nico Hülkenberg qualified 8th, started 6th; Fernando Alonso qualified 9th, started 7th; Pastor Maldonado qualified 10th, started 9th; Bruno Senna qualified 11th, started 10th. The data records the positions, not the reason; such gaps come from grid penalties, car or engine changes, or pit-lane starts. The small "q" number in the Grid column is the qualifying position.

Grid "PL" means started from the pit lane. FL marks the fastest lap of the race.

Lap chart

Explained: how to read a lap chart · safety car, virtual safety car and red flags.

Race history: gap to the leader

How the race was won

Winner

Lewis Hamilton: 1 stop (lap 20), stints of 20, 36 laps

2nd

Sebastian Vettel: 1 stop (lap 21), stints of 21, 35 laps

3rd

Fernando Alonso: 1 stop (lap 20), stints of 20, 36 laps

Finishers

1 stop: 20 · 2 stops: 2

First stops

median lap 21 of 56

Pit stops

Explained: tyres, compounds and pit stops · pit stops per race since 1994.

Pit-lane time: pit entry to pit exit. Tyre changes under a red flag are not counted.

Qualifying

Explained: how qualifying works · how often pole position wins.

Gap: the driver's best time in any session (session named), in seconds behind the fastest time of qualifying. That is usually the pole time; when a session gets slower (rain, for example), an earlier session's time can be faster. The bar is full at 3 seconds; larger gaps are cut off.

Standings after this race

Explained: how points and the two championships work.

Full 2012 standings