[Race] The GROAT - Round 2 - 1986 Adelaide vs 2012 Valencia

[crmalcolm]

In the next round two match, we have the 1986 Adelaide GP taking on the 2012 Valencia GP


1986 Adelaide
Championship leader Mansell had the advantage after qualifying, grabbing pole ahead of Williams-Honda teammate and rival Piquet. Ayrton Senna was in third ahead of Prost, with the rest of the field headed by René Arnoux in the Ligier-Renault.

Mansell duly led the field away at the start, knowing that a podium finish would be enough for him to take the title, no matter what Prost or Piquet achieved. However, the Brit would wisely leave room for Senna to charge through into the lead at the first corner, a barge that also allowed Piquet and Keke Rosberg to slip ahead.

Piquet would subsequently claim the lead later on the opening lap, knowing that he would only take the title if he won. Senna, meanwhile, was left to slip behind Rosberg, Mansell and Prost during the early stages, and was no-longer a factor in the fight for victory by the end of lap ten.

Piquet's lead would last until the seventh lap, with Rosberg barging past as Prost claimed third from Mansell. Piquet's hopes were then dashed by a spin, dumping him out of the points, while Prost's hopes of taking the crown were dashed by a puncture a few laps later.

Fortunately for Prost he only had to limp around a couple of corners, and hence rejoined in fourth behind Mansell and a charging Piquet. Indeed, on fresh rubber both Piquet and Prost would both manage to catch Mansell, although Piquet, having passed his teammate, would work alongside Mansell to keep the Frenchman behind.

Their tussle subsequently became one for the race win on lap 63, with a catastrophic failure on Rosberg's right rear tyre left the Finn stranded at the side of the circuit. Sensing this Piquet attempted to pull away from his teammate in a late bid for the title, just before Mansell's title charge was ended by a similar issue.

While travelling at over 180mph down the back straight Mansell's left-rear tyre would also fail, with bits of rubber flailing around as the Brit struggled to keep his car pointing in a straight line. Indeed, Mansell's quick reactions ensured that he did not have a spectacular accident, although the high speed failure had wrecked his suspension.

Williams reluctantly called Piquet in a couple of laps later on safety grounds, handing the lead to Prost. Piquet duly recorded a mesmerising set of laps in a desperate bid to catch the Frenchman, but ultimately fell fifteen seconds shy when the chequered flag fluttered.

Prost hence claimed victory and the World Championship, becoming the first man since Jack Brabham in 1960 to successfully defend his crown. Piquet, meanwhile, would end the season in third, a point behind teammate Mansell, as Williams-Honda were officially declared as the Constructors' Champions after their mutual efforts.


2012 Valencia
The top 10 qualifiers all started on the soft 'option' tyres which they used in Q3, as did most of those behind, though they had a choice. Michael Schumacher, Sergio Pérez and Mark Webber were the three who started on the medium tyres.

Just like in the previous race in Canada, polesitter Sebastian Vettel was able to get a powerful launch off the startline in his Red Bull and went into the first corner unchallenged, and Lewis Hamilton who was alongside him on the front row stayed second. Kimi Räikkönen got a good launch from 5th on the grid and was nearly alongside third place starter Pastor Maldonado but had to back off to avoid hitting him and his Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean took advantage to jump into third, and Kamui Kobayashi took 4th, as Maldonado and Räikkönen dropped to 5th and 6th. The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were the chief gainers on the first lap, Alonso moving from 11th on the grid to 8th and Massa from 13th to 10th. Force India were also running strongly at the end of the first lap, with Nico Hülkenberg and Paul di Resta splitting the Ferraris in 7th and 9th. The two men who lost out at the start were Nico Rosberg, who dropped to 11th from 6th on the grid and was just a single place in front of Mercedes teammate Michael Schumacher, and Jenson Button in the second McLaren who lost four places and was down in 13th.

Vettel showed very impressive pace in the early laps, building a 4-second lead within the first two laps and continuing to extend it at a second per lap. Hamilton was unable to keep up with him and was defending from Grosjean, with Kobayashi, Maldonado and Räikkönen all able to keep up. Hülkenberg dropped to 3 seconds behind Räikkönen and was kept busy in the opening laps keeping Alonso behind. The order stayed the same till lap 10 when Grosjean used the DRS to get alongside Hamilton before completing a move around the outside of turns 12 and 13. He was able to immediately pull away from Hamilton though Vettel was already 14 seconds ahead, but on a clear track he was able to run laptimes that were within two to three-tenths of Vettel's. On the next lap, Alonso passed Hülkenberg for seventh with a similar move.

Button, down in 12th place, was the first driver to make his pit stop for new tyres, doing so on lap 11, and he went for the medium compound whereas Massa, who was held up behind and unable to pass di Resta went for the soft tyre when he pitted one lap later. Maldonado was suffering from tyre wear towards the end of this stint, and was passed by Räikkönen and then Alonso, with the latter duo then setting off after Kobayashi. Kobayashi immediately decided to pit, with Räikkönen and Maldonado following him in. A minor pit stop problem for Kobayashi allowed Räikkönen to get ahead of him but Alonso was able to jump the duo of them by staying out a lap longer. Vettel and Grosjean pitted on lap 15, with the defending world champion rejoining still in the lead.

Grosjean and Hamilton rejoined behind di Resta and Rosberg, who did not pit, but neither offered much resistance to them, and soon the duo were back up to second and third, though Grosjean was now 20 seconds behind Vettel. The rest of the early stoppers were stuck behind the trio of Schumacher, Bruno Senna in the other Williams and Mark Webber, all three of whom were yet to stop, and losing pace on their worn tyres, created a massive traffic jam as a number of drivers, led by Alonso with Räikkönen, Kobayashi, Maldonado, Massa, Hülkenberg, Button and Sergio Pérez were all close behind. Alonso was able to clear the trio, passing Webber and Senna in the space of a few corners, and Schumacher on the next lap. Schumacher and Webber both stopped for new tyres at the end of the lap, leaving Senna to hold off the rest of the cars on new tyres. Räikkönen passed Senna almost immediately, and Kobayashi attacked Senna on the long straight before Turn 8. Senna was unaware that Kobayashi was already moving down the inside and tried to defend the inside line, and the duo touched, with Kobayashi's front wing being damaged and Senna suffering a puncture, and both men had to come into the pits.

At the front, Grosjean was able to match Vettel's pace for the first time in the race, though the German was able to hold the gap at 20 seconds. Hamilton was unable to keep up with the leading duo, with Alonso and Räikkönen both making short work of di Resta and started to close in on Hamilton. Di Resta finally pitted on lap 25 and went on the medium compound tyres, promoting Maldonado to sixth, with Massa, Hülkenberg, Button and Pérez completing the top 10, all having made one stop. Massa, Button and Pérez all had to make an early second stop for tyres in the next few laps as they were the earliest to make their first.

The complexion of the race took a big turn when, on lap 27, well down the field, Jean-Éric Vergne tried to make a DRS-assisted pass on Heikki Kovalainen through turn 12. Vergne thought that his car was fully in front of Kovalainen but it actually wasn't and he ended up chopping his car straight onto Kovalainen's, puncturing his right rear tyre and Kovalainen's left front, and debris caused by the shredding tyres was spread all over the track, thus causing the intervention of the safety car. Both Vergne and Kovalainen made it to the pits, with Vergne retiring due to suspension damage whereas Kovalainen was able to continue.

The intervention of the safety car not only just bunched up the field, erasing Vettel's 20 second lead at the front, but also sent most of the drivers, including all the leaders, in for their second tyre stop. There was more pit-stop trouble for Lewis Hamilton, as a problem with the front jack meant that he dropped behind both Alonso and Räikkönen after the stops. The safety car intervention also meant that Massa, Button and Pérez, the trio who made their second stops before it came out, lost a lot of places as most of the drivers were able to stop under the safety car, this left the trio down in 14th, 15th and 16th. The drivers that did not stop in this period were Daniel Ricciardo and those that had made their first stop late – Rosberg, Schumacher, Webber and di Resta. This put Ricciardo into 4th place, behind Vettel, Grosjean and Alonso. Räikkönen was fifth, and Hamilton sixth after his pit stop troubles.

The race restarted on lap 34, and Alonso immediately took the opportunity to get alongside Grosjean and pass him round the outside at turn 1. Rosberg, in seventh and on the older tyres immediately lost five places to teammate Schumacher, Webber, Maldonado, Hülkenberg and di Resta. Further down the pack, there was a collision between Massa and Kobayashi while battling for 13th, leaving Massa with a puncture and Kobayashi with terminal suspension damage. At around the same time, race leader Vettel lost drive coming out of turn 10 and he had to retire, with what was later said to be an alternator failure. Alonso took the lead ahead of Grosjean, and Ricciardo ran third briefly as Hamilton passed Räikkönen for fourth. Ricciardo's tyres did not last long, and soon, after being passed by both Hamilton and Räikkönen, he had to pit for new tyres.

Schumacher was running fifth now ahead of Webber, but the latter was suffering from serious tyre problems and, after being passed by Maldonado and the two Force India cars within the space of a few corners, he went into the pits. Schumacher was also on older tyres and pitted for new ones three laps later, rejoining in 11th place, just ahead of Webber. The race at the front of the field took yet another twist when, on lap 41, Grosjean who was running within a second of Alonso had to retire with an alternator failure suspected to be similar to that of Vettel's. This left Alonso with a 3-second lead over Hamilton, who was now under pressure from Räikkönen, with Maldonado up to 4th now ahead of the Force India duo of Hülkenberg and di Resta, the latter trying a one-stopper. He was soon under attack from Pérez, who along with Button, had recovered back up to seventh and eighth.

Alonso continued to lead comfortably at the front, with Hamilton continuing to hold off Räikkönen for second though the latter rarely allowed the gap to go over a second. Maldonado, Hülkenberg and di Resta began to spread out, and the action behind was from Schumacher and Webber, who on new softer tyres were going around 2 seconds quicker than those in front of them. The duo picked off Senna, before closing in on and passing Button on lap 49. As the tyres started to wear out for the other drivers, they fell into the clutches of Schumacher and Webber, who passed Pérez three laps later, and di Resta after another lap to move up into 6th and 7th respectively. Hülkenberg was next up and he too was dealt with by the duo on the penultimate lap, moving Schumacher into 5th and Webber into 6th, but it was not going to stay that way.

Hamilton in second, in his attempts to hold off Räikkönen had pushed his tyres too much, and they started to wear towards the end of the race. Räikkönen patiently bided his time before passing Hamilton on lap 55 with two laps left, when Hamilton's tyres were worn out. Hamilton was now under attack from Maldonado, whose pace was strong enough for him to stay out of the reach of Schumacher and Webber. Maldonado attacked Hamilton at turn 1 on the penultimate lap, but some strong defensive driving by Hamilton meant that he kept the place for then despite his worn tyres. Maldonado tried again on the run down to turn 13 using DRS, with Hamilton taking the inside line and forcing Maldonado off the track, and as Maldonado tried to rejoin, he clipped the kerb for the next turn and hit Hamilton, forcing him into the wall and out of the race. Maldonado himself lost his front wing, and dropped back down the order. The race was won by Alonso, who became the first driver to win 2 races this year, and coupled with Vettel's and Hamilton's retirement also took the championship lead. Räikkönen took second and Schumacher was promoted to third, his first podium since his return to F1 and the last podium of his career. Webber was 4th ahead of Hülkenberg, with Rosberg charging up to 6th on new tyres by passing di Resta and Button in the last two laps. Pérez suffered more tyre problems than others and crossed the line 9th, with Maldonado who continued on without his front wing was still able to take the final point in 10th. However, he was given a 20-second time penalty for his collision with Hamilton and was thus demoted to 12th, with his teammate Senna thus taking the final point. The race marked the oldest average age of podium finishers in the 21st century with 35 years, 8 months, and 8 days.

[S griffin]

No contest here. Has to be Adelaide 1986. That was an exciting race from the start, with the title still up in the air till the end. A great way to end a great season. "And look at that!" Along with Mexico 64, Fuji 76 and Brazil 08, one of the greatest title deciders of all time

[chunterer]

On the contrary this is possibly the toughest choice yet.

The Adelaide race was iirc fairly processional with the Mansell thing accompanied by the "And look at that!" Murrayism the standout memory robbing Nige of a well deserved title.

Valencia gave us a helluva race throughout topped with that drive from Alonso..

[S griffin]

Maybe you need to watch Adelaide again or re-read a report on it. It was not processional, it was anything but. Let's not forget Keke's charge in the early laps. The positions in the top 5 changed so many times, until it was left to Prost and Piquet to sort it out

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by chunterer

The Adelaide race was iirc fairly processional with the Mansell thing accompanied by the "And look at that!" Murrayism the standout memory robbing Nige of a well deserved title.

And when you think that all went to a bean counter…