2012 Formula 1 Season Round-Up: Alonso Surprises

The Hungarian Grand Prix was technically just over the half way point in the 2012 Formula 1 season, but it marks the beginning of the month-long break in the season. The cars will not be back on track until the Belgian Grand Prix on September 2nd. Expect a month of speculation and announcements about who will be driving for whom next season. There are still question marks looming over Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa about where the two men will be driving next year. 

Alonso has a 40 point lead in the championship, which is no where close to guaranteeing his the championship. You can expect teams to be working feverishly on upgrades during the month off that should make the already close competition even tighter. 

"We have a lead of forty points, courtesy of a car that has not been the best in this first half of the season. Now we must try and make a good leap forward in terms of performance to allow us to keep the lead in the Championship, because in the long term, what we have now will not be enough. If we are where we are, it’s because we have always made the most of what we had and because of an excellent reliability record: it’s not by chance that you get 23 consecutive points finishes," said Alonso.

"We still lack performance and we must push even harder on developing the F2012 if we want to fight all the way to the end to reach our goals. We still have a week of work before taking a breather, but the fact we can pack Fernando off on holiday with a forty point lead is no reason to relax, quite the opposite in fact. There’s a lot of very strong competition who are just waiting for us to drop the ball and it’s down to us to disappoint them," said team technical director Pat Fry.

Further down the order, the championship is incredibly tight. There are eight points separating Kimi Raikkonen in fifth and Mark Webber in second. There is just a point separating Romain Grosjean in eighth place with 76 points and Nico Rosberg in sixth place with 77 points. 

Red BullRed Bull RB8Austria, 2012 > 201210 photos
has a healthy 53-point lead in the constructors' championship. Again, behind it the competition is quite tight. There is four points separating FerrariFerrari F2012Italy, 2012 > 201214 photos
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in fourth with 189 points and McLarenMcLaren MP4-27United Kingdom, 2012 > 20125 photos
in second with 193 points. CaterhamCaterham CT01United Kingdom, 2012 > 20125 photos
, MarussiaMaRussia MR01Russian Federation, 2012 > 20121 photo
and HRTHispania Racing TeamSpain, 2009 > present1 model
29 photos
have yet to score any points this season. 

The season started at the Australian Grand Prix with Jenson Button winning. He has yet to win again this season. Ferrari claimed that its cars were not competitive. Alonso took fifth, and Massa retired. 

Ferrari began showing its strength at the Malaysian Grand Prix where Alonso won, and Sergio Perez took a surprising second. Massa struggled again by finishing in 15th place. At this point, McLaren was leading the constructors' championship. 

The Chinese Grand Prix had more surprises. Nico Rosberg won, and Alonso finished ninth. Massa was down in 13th. McLaren held its lead in the constructors' championship because Button and Hamilton were in second and third. 

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Pastor Maldonado took his first ever win. Alonso and Raikkonen were second and third, respectively. It was the first race that Williams had won since 2004. 

For the Monaco Grand Prix, we got a sixth different winner in six races. Mark Webber won. Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso were second and third. Alonso had the lead in the drivers' championship, but Vettel and Webber were tied for second. Red Bull led the constructors' championship by 38 points. 

Hamilton became the seventh different winner in seven races at the Canadian Grand Prix. Grosjean was second, and Perez was third. That launched Hamilton into the lead of the drivers' championship with 88 points, and Alonso was in second in the championship with 86 points. Red Bull expanded its constructors' lead to 31 points. 

At the European Grand Prix, Hamilton lost his lead in the drivers' championship because he finished 19th in the race. Alonso won to make him the first two-time winner of the season. Raikkonen was second, and Schumacher was third. Alonso took the lead in the drivers' championship with 111 points, and Webber had a 20-point deficit in second place. 

Webber took his second win at the British Grand Prix. Behind him were Alonso and Vettel. Alonso increased his lead to 23 points. 

Alonso took his third win at the German Grand Prix. Vettel finished second, but was investigated by the stewards for an illegal pass on Button. That pushed Button into second and Raikkonen into third. Hamilton was the only retirement from the race.

Last weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton took his second win of the season. Raikkonen and Grosjean were second and third respectively. 

We have compiled a list of this season's winners and links to all over our coverage this season that you can view by following the link below.